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Introduction

"Vitality of Hong Kong" is an overall topic. It encompasses objective aspects including the origin, geology, soil, landscape, age, climate, feng shui, history, humanities, biology, and colours of the entire Hong Kong. It is an overall structure. It could be "wishful thinking" and a challenging "task" and "mission" to represent the above using a paint brush. Since expression needs to be representational, this is a concrete task. Unrealistic subjective approaches like "assumptions", "allegories" or "fantasies" cannot be used in description. One needs to be true to the reality, be committed to the reality, or even dissect the reality.

I started painting for this album of "Vitality of Hong Kong" in 2011. The initial upper limit was 200 paintings, but I turned out to draw more and more, and imposed on myself stricter requirements on completeness. For each region, apart from panorama, I would try to include also the medium shot, or even zoom in for a close up. It has been five years and I still cannot put a stop to this project that has turned "big", with paintings covering "the sea, the land, and the air". As a first-generation self-taught painter born and raised in Hong Kong, I have deep feelings inseparable from the city. As I would wander around the countryside to draw when I was young, I am highly familiar with natural scenery or local customs. Since I have always been much interested in geography, geology and humanities, apart from painting, I have also published about this city. Works include Anecdotes of Hong Kong, Revisiting Historical Accounts of Hong Kong, The Past and Present of Hong Kong (Best Book Award of Hong Kong Golden Book Awards 2015). I have also published stories on travelling within the country and abroad.

When I teach, I emphasise at the outset that the highest level of arts is "spirituality". Only by entering the realm of spirituality can one be a true artist. It means surpassing the professional boundaries and the materialistic world, the spiritual realm and the universe combining into one. A spiritual artist should put fame aside and pursue the "infinite", "unlimited", "inactive", "uncertain" and "contented" boundless universe. Paintings are only media that can be seen by human eyes. The true visual arts mean entering boundless space from limited space, and putting limited life into the eternal void of the universe. It also means that what the eyes can see is not constant or eternal. Therefore, a true artist not only needs to depict an object's appearance with his eyes, but also requires his heart and spirituality in order to understand the spiritual void. When we appreciate a real piece of art, we need to feel with our heart beyond the naked eyes, in order to find the spiritual solace. During my later years, I can feel the invisible wavelengths running in an orderly manner in the universe. They even go beyond our existing spatial knowledge, although it is unclear the roles they play towards the mankind and material world. Some are already known to mankind, such as the circulation of qi and blood in our body, the ups and downs in fate, and the orbits of satellites and stars. My works in recent years thus still contain this unknown electric wave, which I name as "the spiritual particle". This may be similar to Hawking's "the God particle". I hope that scientists could find relevant proofs in the future.

This album of works (the selected pieces) also represents my take on arts in later years. The material world is the overlap of numbers. I have also said that the material world is the world of colours, which is indeed a series of numbers. This has been recognised and reorganised for use by scientists and the medical industry, benefitting mankind. I may be the first to apply this to artistic theories. This collection of watercolour paintings titled "Vitality of Hong Kong" is an interpretation through numbers. Different from science and medicine, which must be accurate, any application on arts cannot be too precise. Otherwise, photography or computer arts would suffice. Arts done by computers are formulaic and absolute, but rigid. Therefore, arts do not only demonstrate professional skills, but are also flexible, spiritual, and vigorous.

Recently I was asked to draw Lion Rock with squatters, but I refuse to do so because squatters have become part of the city's history. That was a difficult period of Hong Kong people, and now the city is filled with skyscrapers. The Lion Rock Spirit represents a tough, hardworking, sacrificial (enduring) and tolerant can-do spirit. Hong Kong people had subjectively transformed Lion Rock into a man-made spiritual power for the younger generation to pass on. However, the younger generation of today simply considers it a political slogan, causing the Lion Rock Spirit to lose its significance. I refuse to draw squatters as they are not related to Lion Rock itself. Instead, I include plants that symbolise Hong Kong, such as bauhinia, azaleas, kapok trees and conifers, preserving the vitality of nature.

I hope that as you browse through this painting collection of "Hong Kong's nature", the first thing you can observe or feel is not the professional skill of the painter, but a symphonic poem gifted to Hong Kong people by God. The music from heaven and the undulations of spirituality are nectar to cleanse your soul. I am just a messenger playing my role. I hope all the Hong Kong would cherish, be grateful, and praise for the blessings!

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Prof Chack Fan Lee and Prof Hong Ci Huang for writing the foreword, and Mr Chia Lun King for inscribing the book title.

Kai Ming Kong