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A controlling father, an introverted son, a shared love – artist’s relationship with his late parent suffuses solo exhibition
- Art was an escape from the rules Jeremy Fung’s father imposed on his life. Now it is the medium through which he recalls the unspoken love they shared
- The paintings and drawings of Hong Kong scenes in his new solo exhibition were inspired by walks the pair used to take before his father’s untimely death
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As a young boy, Jeremy Fung Mang-chung feared his father.
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The Hong Kong artist describes him as a traditional man who wanted full control over his son’s lifestyle and that of his three younger sisters. Any deviation from his father’s idea of the proper way of living was considered wrong and drew his ire.
Art was an escape from this. Fung would hide in a small wardrobe in his room, away from his father’s gaze, where he would doodle on a notepad. It was the only way he, a self-described introvert, knew how to express and calm himself.
“But he loved us very much,” Fung says. “He’s like me, he wouldn’t express it with words.” Instead, his father would take Fung on walks through the city’s streets, and he would wake up early to make congee because he knew his children did not like bread for breakfast.
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Fung was in high school when he had his father’s breakfast congee for the last time. Soon after, he died of a stroke.
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