Co-organised by the Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Library and Garden Streams, the exhibition “Nàng Tự Do – The archive of Art In the Camps (Garden Streams) and the traces of Vietnamese boatpeople in Hong Kong” features the life of Vietnamese boatpeople in the detention camps in Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s and will be held at the CUHK Main Library from 21 October 2020 to 16 April 2021. The collections include a number of detailed photographs taken in the camps, which have never been displayed. The exhibition aims to discuss the relationship between “refugees” and contemporary society by reviewing this unique piece of almost forgotten history. It will be open to the public free-of-charge.
“Nàng Tự Do” means “Miss Freedom” in English. The title of the exhibition is drawn from Tự Do (Freedom Magazine), a magazine that was published by the boatpeople in the camps for their community at that time. As the magazine is written in Vietnamese, it has never been heard of by people outside the camps. From the 1980s, Hong Kong society became gradually more annoyed by the refugee waves, renaming the Vietnamese as “boatpeople” instead of “refugees”, suggesting that they were poor and lacking education. In fact, the definition of refugees is wide. As well as wars, natural disasters and economics may also be reasons for people to become refugees. This exhibition displays the archive of Art In the Camps (Garden Streams) from a contemporary point of view, instead of presenting the works as stereotypical views of the Vietnamese boatpeople’s identity, and reveals the life they led in Hong Kong.
To give the audience a deeper understanding of Vietnamese boatpeople’s life in Hong Kong, a series of public programmes including online talks, workshops and a field trip will be organized throughout the exhibition period. In all this, former artists from Art In the Camps will be telling of their working experience in detention camps and showing their art works. Corina Hoang, a former boat person who has become a scholar today, will show her research on the history of refugees from Vietnam. Also, Les Bird will lead a guided tour to Tai Ah Chau, where he first met the boatpeople and will retrace his memories.
27 OCT 2020 – 16 APR 2021
08:20 AM – 10:00 PM (MON – FRI)
08:20 AM – 07:00 PM (SAT)
01:00 PM – 07:00 PM (SUN)