TSE Ming Chong

TSE Ming Chong is an artist working in photography, image-making media, time media and theatre art. Born in Hong Kong in 1960, for over 30 years Tse has documented and responded to the unfolding history of Hong Kong, from its change of sovereignty, its evolution as a metropolitan city in China and the effects of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ on its inhabitants. Tse received an MA in Image and Communication from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2004 after graduating from Hong Kong Baptist University in the Department of Journalism in 2003. In 2018 he completed the International Leadership Program in Visual Arts Management, NYU Steinhardt and Deusto Business School. He is Chairman and Co-founder of Lumenvisum, a photography workshop/art gallery dedicated to promoting photography education, and a senior lecturer at Hong Kong Design Institute. Tse’s photographic essay, The Road, was a finalist for the Hong Kong Human Rights Prize (2015). Tse’s works are held in the collections of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and the Hong Kong Film Archive.

Tse Ming Chong Artist’s Statement:
On 30 September 2014, I woke up at 4 a.m. and couldn’t fall back to sleep, so I took a car to Central district. In the early morning, I walked on the empty, quiet streets in Central towards Causeway Bay. Sleeping on the roadside were teenagers who were fighting for their dreams; their tired faces radiated a charm with no regret. I couldn’t believe it had been 25 years, from Civic Square to Tiananmen Square; images of me walking from the  Beijing Hotel to Tiananmen Square every morning at the end of May 1989 suddenly popped into my mind. A quarter of a century has passed; yet we are still fighting for democracy and freedom. It is my hope that our pursuit won’t be in vain and the light will come.