The Unfinished Return of Yu Man-hon 《未完成的歸途》
2019
Video (16mm transfer to digital)  
Courtesy of Empty Gallery and the artist  

Screening 7:00pm
Extend Reading 7:20pm
Close 8:00pm
 

About the Screening

The Unfinished Return of Yu Man-hon focuses on Cici Wu’s cultural imaginary and extensive research into the unaccountable disappearance of Yu Man-hon, a mentally disabled and an autistic boy who crossed the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border into the mainland and disappeared on August 24, 2000. His case remains unsolved to this day.

Filmed in both Minneapolis and Hong Kong, the work follows an abstract narrative where Man-hon returns to the material world, retrieving lost memories of his disappearance in the process. The artist’s camera floats through the city’s myriad pedestrian spaces, lingering at certain familiar places to which Man-hon felt particular attachment –a swing set or favorite restaurant, a local supermarket or bus-depot, a ferry or market. The short film highlights the emotional fragility of our memory, attempts to challenge the familiar interpretation of Man-Hon as an embodiment of loss, and to perceive his image as an enlightened being rather than a ghost.

To know more about the work, you may visit our exhibition website.

About the Extend Reading

Following the screening, Wu interview Professor Carol A.G. Jones on her study on Yu’s case for her book ‘Lost in China? Law, Culture and Identity in post-1997 Hong Kong.’ (2015). The interview allow us to understand Yu’s case from a legislation perspective.

Professor Carol A.G. Jones gained her undergraduate and Masters’ qualifications from the University of Cambridge, and earned her PhD at the Center of Soci-Legal Studies, Oxford. While Professor Jones was teaching at the University of Hong Kong, she developed a Master’s in Public Order, and chaired a Committee on the Reform of Legal Education in Hong Kong and presented evidence on the issue to the Hong Kong Legislative Council.

Currently, she is teaching at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham.

Cici Wu lives and works in New York. Having received her bachelor degree from School of Creative Media, the City University of Hong Kong, and completed her MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art, She has had solo exhibitions at Empty Gallery, Hong Kong (2019), 47 Canal, New York (2018), Bonnevalle, Noisy-le-Sec, France (2018), and has participated in group exhibitions at 47 Canal, New York (2019), Para Site, Hong Kong (2018), and Triangle Arts Association, New York (2017). She has co-curated group exhibition Scraggly Beard Grandpa at Capsule Shanghai (2017), and co-founded PRACTICE, a studio and residency based in New York (2015). She was an artist-in-residence at Queens Museum, New York (2018-2020), Seawitch, Hong Kong (2018), and Taipei Artists Village, Taiwan (2017).