【Video】Ghost and John | Exploring the Hongkonger identity through physical creativity
The modern art duo Ghost and John are from Hong Kong. As graduates of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), they travelled to London to study contemporary dance after working for a few years. Their production fuses elements of physical motion, multimedia, and technology to create thought-provoking interaction. Through art, they explore themes of freedom and society as well as the Hongkonger identity.
“Hongkongers have always been confused and uneasy about our identity. We always ask ourselves: “To where do we belong?” However, perhaps this anxiety is indeed the core of our identity.”
Journalist: Mehporpor
Translator: GDFTs
Photos: Silver Wolf
Videographer: Silver Wolf, Crazy Man
Video Editor: Silver Wolf
Ghost: Both of us have science backgrounds. After graduating from HKUST, I started my mundane nine to six working life. Over time, I started to feel like a working cog as I had lost my zest for life. That was around the time I met John through learning how to dance. We started to join competitions and make dance videos together. I realised that only through dance and performance could I feel like my life had direction.
At the time, we thought that if we stayed in Hong Kong, we’d only be able to work and live within certain parameters and within a certain mindset. We hoped to change up our environment and think outside of the box while we were young so we gave up everything to begin our Masters of Arts in the UK and start our journey of creation.
Seeking identity through distance
Ghost: As artists who use a lot of our bodies, we are heavily affected by the environment around us. When the Hong Kong protests began last June, we could only watch video footage of what was happening on the streets. As Hongkongers, we felt both agitated and moved by the scenes, but once we thought about what we could do while thousands of miles away, we felt a strong sense of distance and disconnection. As we were not there physically on the streets, we would never be able to understand the sense of urgency.
John: At first, we felt helpless during the movement. We took part in marches in solidarity with Hong Kong in London, but few cared. Some even considered us as some sort of joke. This sense of distance and dissonance gave us room to think about what kind of message we could send to people on this side of the planet. What response should we expect? These questions narrowed down the focus of our production.
Ghost: As artists, our job is not to educate our audience nor to provide information but to open up room for thinking and questions about Hong Kong. Our mission is not to put the black and white into our production to discuss the right or wrong. Instead, we have added relevant elements like Telegram where the emphasis is not on the content coming through, but rather the sense of receiving information through this medium.
John: With the movement in mind, we collaborated with 24 artists from around the world and created ‘Meniscus’ in order to explore the effects of psychological trauma experienced by expat Hongkongers watching the news from afar. We also joined multiple artists from Hong Kong and East Asia to participate in ‘Freedom Hi’ (‘Hi’ sounds very similar to the word ‘c*nt’ in Cantonese. Protestors were called ‘Freedom c*nts’ by the police during a clash on June 12, 2019), which was in London’s Vault Festival. This production discusses the freedom of expression while using the Hong Kong movement as a starting point.
Our productions are often quite abstract and rarely make explicit explanations. To us, production is a process to understand ourselves, to explore our feelings and motivations, and to think about our roles as expat Hongkongers. We performed ‘I’m not sure’ at ‘Freedom Hi’ once again this March. Despite its being months after our premiere, I still don’t understand what it truly means to be a ‘Hongkonger’. In fact, the world is always changing, and so will my understanding of things. We will never find the ultimate answer, but the sense of the unknown and curiosity is what fuels our creation.
Being in the UK, we cannot feel the temperature and humidity, hear the bustling roadways, or taste delicious food in Hong Kong the way we used to. However, this sense of distance is what stimulates the imagination and brings memories flooding back. I try to recall the humid summers with the annoying mosquitos. Then, I imagine what it would be like to protest in such an environment. We’ve never actually been tear gassed. No matter how many videos we watch or how many recounts we hear, we will never truly understand. As physically creative artists, this difference is an interesting direction of thinking. Is it that if we didn’t pour our blood and sweat out on the streets, or didn’t drink sugar cane and imperatae this summer then we aren’t Hongkongers? Which part of me is making me self-identify as a Hongkonger?
Understanding identity through talking to the world
John: When we collaborate with artists from other countries, we tell each other about the protests in each of our homelands. We realised that the most similar thing between all these places are images of brutality. Looking at a photo of a person attacked by another person, it’s hard to tell whether it’s France, Catalonia, or Hong Kong at first glance. Violence is universal and many share the same feelings about it. A deeper empathic resonance lies behind the images. Hong Kong’s postcolonial history is a lot shorter than other former colonies. We can learn and be inspired from their past experiences.
Ghost: A lot of the performers come from postcolonial areas. They think about their identity as well. Which country do they come from? What was their country formerly known as? What culture should they create in the face of their struggle with identity? All of this resonates with us. Hongkongers have always been confused and uneasy about our identity. Hong Kong is where different cultures fuse together like how teaching materials of yesteryear used to describe Hong Kong as a city where east meets west. We often ask: “What defines a ‘Hongkonger’?” “Where are we people of?” However, perhaps this anxiety is indeed the core of our identity. We should ask ourselves: “Can we accept continued exploration of who we are under this anxiety?”
Exploring identity through art
John: Hongkongers have a really quick rhythm of life. Not much extra time can be squeezed out after work, family responsibilities and frequent travels for one to slow down and ponder about life in order to extract elements giving us long-term strength. When our daily thoughts are as shallow as such, so is the art created. Many art productions only aim to look nice or to trigger a laugh, but they fail to dig deep into societal problems. Perhaps as a generation of new artists, what we should ask is ‘Why are we scared to search for our identity? Is it really because of our busy lifestyle?’
Ghost: This movement has awoken a lot of people, inspiring them to think and look for answers proactively. I hope Hongkongers can apply this mentality to all things they deal with including art. We can think about the ideas behind each piece of art, and from which we may learn new knowledge and different viewpoints. For example, if the piece is related to capitalism, we can actively learn about the core of capitalism, or to search for more related works, etc. What I hope is that we can proactively seek out knowledge and apply this to our lives.
“We are Ghost and John. We are HKers.”
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