Tsang Tsou Choi (King of Kowloon)

Private Collection, Asia

This gigantic work represents the best of King of Kowloon. "Untitled" is 2.3m high and was exhibited in his first and only solo exhibition in 1997 in Goethe-Institut and Hong Kong Arts Centre. The show only features 6 monumental size canvases and the present work is one of them.

Born in Guangdong, China in 1921, Tsang Tsou Choi, best known by his epithet “King of Kowloon,” only received two years of formal education. At the age of 16, he moved to Hong Kong and worked as a labourer for a building materials company and garbage collection.
Around 1956, Tsang began writing calligraphy in public places as a means of peaceful protest against the British colonial government in respect of the loss of land in Kowloon that belonged to his family before the Treaty of Nanking with China in 1842. Tsang was repeatedly fined and arrested by police for his art, but he persevered to pursue his passion in spite of all obstacles.
His first solo show organised in 1997 sparked a public debate about his status as an artist. The nature of Tsang’s art makes it inseparable from its background context and his culture. His graffiti executed by Chinese calligraphy differentiates itself from the style of Western street art. In 1999, Tsang’s works were included in the exhibition in Taiwan titled Power of the Word, curated by Johnson Chang, which travelled to four cities in the U.S. In 2003, Hou Hanru held the exhibition Z.O.U – Zone of Urgency as part of the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, showcasing works by Tsang. Over the years, Tsang Tsou Choi has become a legendary figure in Hong Kong and has been widely praised by other artists and designers in the international art arena.
King of Kowloon died at the age of 85 in 2007.