[EXCLUSIVE] “Mild Trypophobia” (Saturday 8 August 2020) by Chris Song, translated by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho

Mild Trypophobia
by Chris Song, translated from the Chinese by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho

{{{ Hong Kong—Saturday 8 August 2020 }}}

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases today: 69. This afternoon in Central, walking past H Queen’s, the eye-catching tower dedicated to art and lifestyle, I wondered: how are Hong Kong’s international art galleries doing during the pandemic? I once organised a talk on Dadaism and poetry at the Hauser & Wirth gallery, but it’s not open today. Before the outbreak, all the galleries in the tower were open to the public on Saturdays. But the security guard on the ground floor said only two galleries were open today, due to the coronavirus outbreak. We decided to have a look at those two. The receptionist’s mind was elsewhere; she was listless, her head lowered. We were the only visitors…

We saw works by the famed Japanese modern artist Kusama Yayoi. However, because I have mild trypophobia, I felt nervous looking at her pieces that feature intensive patterns. I turned to Andy Warhol’s portrait of Jane Fonda instead. Also on exhibition was some contemporary Chinese art. Many of the items seemed overly mystical, and they didn’t speak to me much, so we didn’t stay long. On the street again, Queen’s Road Central, near empty on a Saturday, was a desolate sight; those avant garde dot art pieces of Kusama Yayoi’s, with their concentrated patterns, seemed to be the only place where things were in close proximity to one another…

On the Central and Western District Promenade, a middle-aged woman put her palms together and bowed in the direction of Victoria Harbour. I couldn’t see the expression on her masked face. There’s only seawater in the harbour, and, on the other side, the Tsim Sha Tsui ferry pier and lanky high-rises. True, the harbour view was spectacular, but why bow to it, as though praying? Ting said that maybe a relative of the woman’s was buried in the harbour. Hearing this, I felt a sudden sadness, but at the same time, I felt the warmth of this world…

今天香港69宗新冠肺炎確診病例。禮拜六下午走過中環皇后大道中，剛好經過H Queen’s，不知疫情時期開設在香港的國際畫廊情況如何？我曾在Hauser&Wirth做過關於達達主義與詩歌的講座，但是它今天沒有開。以往禮拜六這座大廈的畫廊全部都開放，但是樓下保安說，由於疫情關係，今天只有兩家畫廊開放。我們上去參觀，坐在接待處的職員都無精打采地低著頭，我們是這兩家畫廊僅有的觀者⋯⋯

其中一家在展日本著名藝術家草間彌生的作品，由於我有點密集恐懼症，無法面對她的密集圓點太久，於是去看安迪華荷的畫作《簡方達》。另一家在展當代中國藝術作品，我總覺得大部分展品有點故弄玄虛，便沒有逗留太久。下樓面對連禮拜六下午都人車疏落的皇后大道中，我想，疫情時見過最密集的圖像應該就是草間彌生的這幾幅圓點藝術作品了，可是我覺得它們有些冷漠⋯⋯

走過中環海濱長廊，有個中年人對著維港合掌拜了三下，隔著口罩，看不到她的表情。維港只有海水，對岸只有尖沙咀的碼頭和高樓，海景固然無敵，但是有什麼好拜的呢？婷說，也許她有親友海葬在維港吧。不知怎的，聽到這句話，我感到有點傷心，同時又覺得人間有情⋯⋯

Mild Trypophobia

How to cite: Song, Chris. “Mild Trypophobia.” Translated by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho. Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 8 Aug. 2020, chajournal.blog/2020/08/08/trypophobia/.

Chris Song (author) is a poet, translator and editor based in Hong Kong. He has published four collections of poetry and many volumes of poetry in translation. Chris received an “Extraordinary Mention” at Italy’s UNESCO-recognized Nosside World Poetry Prize 2013 and the Young Artist Award at the 2017 Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. In 2018 he obtained a PhD in Translation Studies from Lingnan University. More recently he won Haizi Poetry Award in 2019. Chris is currently Editor-in-Chief of Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine and Executive Director of the International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong.

Tammy Lai-Ming Ho (translator) is the founding co-editor of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, an editor of the academic journals Victorian Network and Hong Kong Studies, and the first English-language Editor of Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine. She is an Associate Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, where she teaches poetics, fiction, and modern drama. She is also the President of PEN Hong Kong, a Junior Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities, an advisor to the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing, and an Associate Director of One City One Book Hong Kong. Tammy’s first collection of poetry is Hula Hooping (Chameleon 2015), for which she won the Young Artist Award in Literary Arts from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Her first short story collection Her Name Upon The Strand (Delere Press), her second poetry collection Too Too Too Too (Math Paper Press) and chapbook An Extraterrestrial in Hong Kong (Musical Stone) were published in 2018. Her first academic book is Neo-Victorian Cannibalism (Palgrave, 2019). Tammy edited or co-edited a number of literary volumes having a strong focus on Hong Kong, the most recent one being Twin Cities: An Anthology of Twin Cinema from Singapore and Hong Kong (Landmark Books, 2017). She guest-edited a Hong Kong Feature for World Literature Today (Spring 2019), the Hong Kong special issue of Svenska PEN’s PEN/Opp, and an e-chapbook of Hong Kong poetry published by Cordite Publishing. Tammy is also a translator and her literary translations can be found in World Literature Today, Chinese Literature Today, Pathlight: New Chinese Writing, among other places, and International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong volumes (2015, 2017 and 2019). Her own poems have been translated into Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Latvian, and Vietnamese. She is currently co-editing several academic volumes in addition to 2020: A Bilingual Anthology of Hong Kong Poetry.