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Hong Kong LGBTQ community gathers for pre-internet-era art show despite storm warning

Black rain couldn’t dampen the mood at ‘Offline Memories’ at Eaton HK, where art and printed images evoke human connections in a bygone era

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A visitor browses exhibits at “Offline Memories: Hong Kong LGBTQ+ Archive of Printed Matter from the Pre-Internet Era” at Eaton HK’s Tomorrow Maybe art space.
Enid Tsui

Even as a black rainstorm warning kept much of Hong Kong indoors on the evening of June 18, an enthusiastic crowd packed into Tomorrow Maybe, the art space at the Eaton HK hotel, to celebrate the opening of “Offline Memories: Hong Kong LGBTQ+ Archive of Printed Matter from the Pre-Internet Era”.

Part of the hotel’s Pride Month programming, the exhibition arrives at a divisive moment in Hong Kong regarding LGBTQ rights. In recent years, LGBTQ visibility and advocacy have faced significant setbacks, most notably with the effective banning of the annual Pink Dot carnival following sudden venue withdrawals, and the Legislative Council’s overwhelming rejection of a same-sex partnership bill despite a mandate from the city’s top court.

The exhibition is also an invitation to consider the tangible human connections lost in the digital era. It reminds visitors of the physical spaces and printed materials that once anchored the tongzhi circle, tongzhi being a term appropriated from the Mandarin word for “comrade” to refer to members of the LGBTQ community.

At the heart of the exhibition is a monumental, multi-year exercise in preserving Hong Kong’s LGBTQ history. A comprehensive digital archive, spearheaded by artist and scholar Anson Mak, is accessible online for free and to visitors through a dedicated computer terminal in the gallery space.
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