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Reading Tsang Tsou Choi: Margin, Madness, and a Hong Kong Avant-Garde

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Preservation, Radicalism, and the Avant-Garde Canon

Part of the book series: Avant-Gardes in Performance ((AGP))

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Abstract

“I am poor. I have been a king for over 80 years” (Lee 2003, p. C5). As a pretender to a throne, Tsang Tsou Choi, more commonly known as the King of Kowloon, was well aware of his penurious circumstances. He took to whatever platform was made available to him, in search of any means necessary to gain the exposure he was seeking. Tsang’s persistence as a street calligrapher rested on a claim of injury to his dignity.1 These complaints took the form of Chinese calligraphy, written with ink over postboxes, concrete pillars under flyovers or at ferry terminals, electric cable boxes, pavements, and public walls all across Hong Kong.

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Authors
  1. Simon Soon
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Editor information

Rebecca Ferreboeuf Fiona Noble Tara Plunkett

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© 2016 Rebecca Ferreboeuf, Fiona Noble, Tara Plunkett

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Soon, S. (2016). Reading Tsang Tsou Choi: Margin, Madness, and a Hong Kong Avant-Garde. In: Ferreboeuf, R., Noble, F., Plunkett, T. (eds) Preservation, Radicalism, and the Avant-Garde Canon. Avant-Gardes in Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137474377_11

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