Adrian Wong’s installations, videos, and sculptures draw upon his extensive research into Hong Kong's history and popular culture to create fantastical, humorous, and semi-fictional recreations of lost moments in Hong Kong. These often intertwine with Wong’s own personal history, particularly his familial roots in the region and his background as a Chinese American. The works engage with broad themes from the Wenchuan earthquake to colonoscopies, from the origins of Hong Kong filmmaking to public sentiment towards hygiene in the time of SARS.

Sang Yat Fai Lok (2008) is a carefully-researched installation, structured around the recreation of three popular children’s television programs in Hong Kong: “Calvin’s Corner” (circa 1960), “Children’s Corner” (circa 1965), and “Happy Birthday” (circa 1975). While at first glance Wong’s episodes appear to be faithful reproductions of the sugar-coated originals, the stories they tell soon depart from child-oriented fare, introducing mysterious tales of violence, death, and personal tragedy. One of these episodes incorporates a shadow play about a deathbed competition, during which his grandfather offered candy for tears shed after his passing. Another, a puppet show about a pet monkey trained to masturbate on cue. The work travels through the artist’s familial ties to Hong Kong, presented through Wong’s  dark sense of humor. Having studied child psychology himself, Wong appears in the work as master of ceremonies.

Adrian Wong was born in 1980 and grew up in a suburb of Chicago in the United States. He received an M.A. in developmental psychology at Stanford University and an MFA in sculpture at Yale before beginning his artistic work in Hong Kong in 2005. He currently splits his time between Hong Kong and the United States, teaching half the year at the University of California Los Angeles.