Media

HKU Faculty of Arts holds exhibition opening and memorial gathering for Professor Leung Ping-kwan (Yesi)

30 Jan 2013

The Faculty of Arts held the Opening Ceremony for the exhibition "Good Company: Leung Ping-kwan's Hong Kong" today (January 30). The exhibition commemorates the work of our city's foremost literary voice, Yesi, who sadly passed away on January 5, 2013. The exhibition is inspired by Leung Ping-kwan's collaboration with 9 artist friends and communicates their shared vision of Hong Kong. Five of the exhibits have not been shown before.

Speaking during the Opening, Dean of Arts, Professor Kam Louie, thanked Yesi’s wife and family for allowing the exhibition to go ahead. “Yesi is truly Hong Kong's poet and he will be very much missed, as a writer, a critic, and a teacher, by all those who have had the opportunity and joy to meet him and know him through his writings. We hope that this exhibition, by bringing together two of the aspects that were most central to his life: poetry and friendship, is a fitting tribute to his tireless efforts to have Hong Kong literature take its rightful place on the world stage.”

University Librarian, Mr Peter Sidorko, who also spoke during the Opening, said, “Of course, on January 5, 2013, the nature and significance of this exhibition changed. It is no longer simply an exhibition of a small yet significant piece of work from Leung Ping Kwan but it is now also a celebration of his rich and generous life.”

Professor Elaine Ho of the School of English explained where the idea for the exhibition and the title "Good company" came from. “Poetry and literary creation were central to Yesi's life; so was friendship. The exhibition shows how friendship and poetry can nourish each other, displaying the author's poems alongside his friends' photographs.”

“Good Company: Leung Ping-kwan's Hong Kong” also offers a bibliographical survey of Leung Ping-kwan's work in three genres - poetry, prose, fiction – from earlier to more recent times. The exhibition, held as part of the Faculty of Arts Centenary and co-organized by The University of Hong Kong Libraries, will run from 30 January to 1 March 2013.

The Opening Ceremony was followed by a Memorial Gathering, led by Dr Esther Cheung, staff, students and alumni of the Department of Comparative Literature.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Georgina Challen, Public Affairs Manager, Faculty of Arts (tel: 3917 4250 email: gchallen@hku.hk) or Ms Melanie Wan (Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office) tel: 2859 2600 email: melwkwan@hku.hk.

Cityscape
(photo and poem (Chinese) by Yesi)

The city is always the colour of neon
Secret messages hidden there
The pity is only, you’re wearing a mask
No way to know if it’s you that’s speaking

Fruit from many different places
Each with its own tale to tell
In newly dressed shop windows
Che rhymes with the latest in shoes

In your little cafes I bump into
Friends I haven’t seen in years
Between pickles and green tea porridge
A cup of tea has drunk away a lifetime

Have you any spare change then?
There are plenty of gods on sale in the market
She cherishes the memory of her last life’s rouge
He likes the celadon green of city dust

So sing me a song then
On the winding midnight street
Yesterday and us, we’ve come face to face
But however we try, we can never recall today

2004
Translated by Brian Holton

Cityscape

Photo by Yesi

Faculty of Arts Holds Exhibition Opening and Memorial Gathering for Professor Leung Ping-kwan (Yesi)

Professor Elaine Ho explains that poetry and friendship inspired the title of the exhibition

Mrs Betty Leung and Ms Anwen Leung view the exhibition with Dean of Arts, Professor Kam Louie, and University Librarian, Mr Peter Sidorko

Dr Esther Cheung of the Department of Comparative Literature speaks at the Memorial Gathering for Yesi

Students Chan Chor See and Rebecca Ng read Yesi’s poem Images of Hong Kong