CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/18/2014

The King of Kowloon: The Art of Tsang Tsou Choi

"Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong" (1996-97), photographed by Lau Kin-wai, is reproduced from The King of Kowloon, the first monograph ever published on Hong Kong street artist Tsang Tsou Choi (1921–2007). In the April/May Bookforum, Christopher Lyon writes, "Over some 40 years, Tsang, who supported himself as a garbage collector, was a familiar figure in Hong Kong, but it was only during his final decade that he gained attention from the art and fashion worlds, and became a kind of mascot of the city, with his face and calligraphy seen on T-shirts and stenciled street art. This beautifully designed book—with boards, an exposed paper spine, and trimmed text-block edges all printed with reproductions of Tsang's lively calligraphy—aptly represents his monomania. Often taking the form of Chinese ancestral records, Tsang's calligraphy typically presented him as an emperor—of Hong Kong, perhaps, or all of China—or even occasionally as the Queen of England. A cleverly designed guide to key terms in his street works allows readers without Chinese to gain a sense of how Tsang's work may be decoded."