Sung Wong Toi

Sung Wong Toi was destroyed during Japanese occupation; the landscape around the area was also ruined. In the 1950s, the area around Sung Wong Toi was levelled to make way for expansion of the Kai Tak Airport. A block was cut out from the boulder and was relocated in a new Sung Wong Toi Park. A year later in 1957, Wong Po-yeh painted the old Sung Wong Toi from memory. In this painting, the paifang and the village of the two emperors are nowhere to be seen; only the boulder stands against a background of the sea. The artist, highly skilled in traditional ink painting, was dedicated to developing a new language of ink and brush. He rendered the texture of the boulder with layers of ink and colour to express his sentiments over the ephemeral world. In the face of changing times, Sung Wong Toi in Wong’s painting is no longer the site for poetry gathering of the old-time literati, but is a memorial of a fallen dynasty, that laments one’s home country, classical learning, and old acquaintances.