Pen-named as Yasi, Leung Ping Kwan contributed immensely in shaping Hong Kong culture. He was among the city’s most influential contemporary cultural figures, an avant-garde artist who traversed comfortably across different media as well as geographic and cultural borders. Throughout his life, Yasi was very attached to his hometown, Hong Kong, while ceaselessly travelling and exploring, making minute observations on people, objects, tastes and experiences. For many years, he used poetry as a medium to engage in creative dialogues with artists in different art forms, including photographers, visual artists, designers, musicians and dancers. Indeed, Yasi was quite unique among his contemporaries in terms of the sheer range of artistic forms and styles he worked with, a testament to his openness to ideas and generosity of spirit.

The many events of Journeys of a Hong Kong Poet, Leung Ping Kwan (1949–2013), recording the creative journey of such an important Hong Kong poet, writer, academic and intellectual, celebrate Yasi’s life and continue the voices in Hong Kong literature and culture.

The exhibition displays over a hundred poems and artistic works across different media platforms by Yasi and his artist-collaborators under eight themes: Images of Hong Kong, Journeys, Residence on Earth, Lotus Leaves, Foodscape, Art Poems, Greetings and Odes. Also featured are works of emerging Taiwanese artists including Zepulj Kaluvung, Li Yen-zhi, Jam Wu, Chang Shih-fei and Tsai Wan-shuen, who have all been inspired by Yasi and responded to his art with their own art forms.

Leung’s life and work illustrated the immense possibilities of cross-disciplinary art forms and thinking beyond the traditional boundaries of literature. His creative career, which spanned over half a century, was a journey exploring the power of words, as well as a reflection of wider trends in Hong Kong culture and literature.