Towards a History of Early Experimental Video Practices in Hong Kong

When, where, and how did video cohere as an artistic and political medium in Hong Kong? This essay traces a genealogical, intermedial, and infrastructural history of early experimental video practice in Hong Kong to illuminate locally specific origins of the medium that complicate the conventional historiography of video centered around the Sony Portapak. Using the work of artist Ellen Pau and Videotage’s organizational development as anchors for video’s dispersive history in the region, the essay situates experimental video in lineage with 1950s-70s cinephilia culture and 1980s avant-garde performance. Through formal analysis of three video works by Pau, read alongside collaborative organizational, curatorial, and cultural advocacy efforts, the article demonstrates how the speculative discourse of video as media public and infrastructural practice emergent in the 1990s shaped Hong Kong artists’ early experiments with the new medium.