KURT TONG

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THE QUEEN, THE CHAIRMAN AND I

The Queen, The Chairman and I is a saga of love, hope, and tragedy: a storybook that both uncovers family secrets and reveals the impact of political and economic forces on individuals. It deals with themes of multiculturalism and migration, heritage and empire.

Kurt Tong’s paternal grandfather was a deckhand who arrived in Hong Kong from Shanghai after the fall of the last imperial Chinese dynasty in 1911. His mother’s family were landlords in Southern China. By coming to Hong Kong, they almost certainly escaped death at the hands of Mao’s advancing Communist armies. Kurt Tong himself grew up in Hong Kong, singing the British National Anthem throughout his school years. At the age of 13, he moved to the UK to continue his education, before finally returning to Hong Kong in 2012. Tong has traced the history of his family in a bid to find out how two of the most influential people in history, Queen Victoria and Chairman Mao, had affected them. Giving equal importance to new photographs, found photographs and writing, the work reconnects him with the Hong Kong of the past, through the recollections of his extended family, humanising the political and social upheaval that took his family to Hong Kong and eventually to the United Kingdom.

The exhibition of this project utilises my maternal grandfather albums as a centre piece with an interactive element. The exhibition also consist of a working Chinese tea house, allowing visitors to read the book and often they go on to discuss their own family stories. 

© Kurt Tong, The Queen, The Chairman and I. All pictures courtesy of the artist.

Kurt Tong (Hong Kong, 1977), lives and works in Hong Kong and United Kingdom.

Kurt Tong graduated with a Master’s degree in documentary photography at the London College of Communication in 2006. Having grown up in the UK, his work revolves around  exploring his Chinese roots, his upbringing and understanding of his motherland. Using multilayered narratives, his recent work has dealt with the Asian Diaspora, funeral practices and early Chinese feminists. Much of Kurt’s work, whilst still deeply rooted in photography, has incorporated other mediums, performative elements and audience participations. Pushing the possibility of photography as a narrative tool.