Hong Kong
[01.12.16 – 31.01.17]
SPRMRKT
Hong Kong is one of the most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities in Asia but also infamous for a culture of materialism. By observing this covetousness, it was a reminder for ABC that nothing is ours forever and if we can embrace the fact that some things do not belong to us, life would be simpler. Even cities, at times, do not get to choose their own destiny and such is the ironic fate of Hong Kong—a former British colony that tried to find her own feet outside of China’s grip, only to have her fate decided for her.
As fate would have it, as ABC was on his way back to Singapore from his second and last scheduled trip to Hong Kong, his hard drive, which would have contained at least half the images in his travel zine, was stolen from him on the plane and never retrieved, epitomising his main takeaway: “What you choose to keep may not be what life chooses to keep for you.”
Hong Kong (香港) is a highlight reel of the photos ABC took both alone and with the help of friends, each with a story to tell.
Aik Beng Chia
AikBeng Chia (b.1968) is an Illustrator and a designer. His photographic work is driven by a musing based on the bonds of human social behavior in public spaces, linked together by multicentric municipalities. Author of Tonight the Streets are Ours (2013), a monograph on Singapore’s Little India district after dusk, SingKarPor (2015) and self published zines (2010 - ongoing). Aik Beng’s vivid and gritty images of moments and people, in Singapore and various cities across the world, have garnered him a huge following on instagram. A contributor to Everyday Asia in 2014 on Instagram. In 2015, he helmed the UK Guardian newspaper’s Travel Instagram account for a three-day special feature on Singapore. His works have been exhibited and published internationally.
