From: john@jho.com (John Ho)
Subject: HK News Clippings - 03 JAN 93
Summary: HK News Clippings - 03 JAN 93
Keywords: HK News Clippings - 03 JAN 93
Organization: JHO Company, Dallas, Texas USA
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 93 14:27:19 GMT

I am posting this news clipping for Samson Luk, he is the one who OCR
the text in.  I am only the messanger. :)


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Subject: HK News Clippings - 03 JAN 93
From: gu_jc3@stu.ust.hk

HongKong Standard, 3rd January, 1993

Crowd is stunned by poster

More deaths feared as depicted in eerie picture

SUPERSTITION swept through Lan Kwai Fong as crowds gath- ered beneath an
eerie poster which hung directly above the spot where 20 people were
crushed to death on New Year's Day.

  Part of a photographic exhibition, the poster simply entitled Stun de-
picted crushed and tortured faces superimposed on a giant human brain.

  As a crowd of about 200 gathered beneath the swaying piece of art one
observed that 11 faces were clearly visible on either side - a total of
22.

  "It's very strange, at the moment there are 20 dead, but three are in
critical condition which means there's a possibility the death toll
could rise to at least 22. That's just too much of a coincidence for me
to pass off lightly," said Ronnie Ng, a 20-year-old student.

  Photographer Osbert Lam had created the effect by superimposing an
image of Buddhist monks, manipu- lated so their faces and shoulders
appeared crushed together, over a photograph of a human brain.

  One of the victims, a 17-year-old boy, is in critical condition in
Queen Mary Hospital and despite three bouts of emergency surgery on his
brain doctors hold little hope that he will survive.

  Two other young men are in critical condition.

  Sometime during the afternoon a member of the Lan Kwai Fong Tenants
Association pulled down the Stun poster but as it lay on the street the
rumblings continued to flow.

  "I saw it before when it was still hanging up. It's a bit strange. The
figures are very frightening. It's bad luck," said Elvis Wong, a
businessman on his way back to his office after lunch .

  An elderly woman who was burning incense opposite the commotion said
she believed the photograph to be evil. Her grandson had died beneath
it.

  Other observers expressed disgust that police had not been removed
Stun at the first opportunity after the disas- ter .

  "It was hanging over the exact spot where all those people died - I
can't believe they waited until now to take it down. It's like some kind
of sick joke," said Marian Rhodes, a newcomer to Hongkong.

Tony Souza, an executive committee member of the tenants association,
said the commotion surrounding the picture had only come to his
attention shortly after midday yesterday.

  "As a matter of sensitivity, we took it down," he said.

  The poster - part of a display for the 1992 Agfa photography
exhibition - was one of 20 suspended in D'Aguilar Street at the bottom
of Wing Wah Lane above the trendy nightclub area.

  Nobody could tear their eyes away from it, one observer said. "It is a
ghastly example of art imitating life. "

  A fung shui expert said he did not believe the tragedy at Lan Kwai
Fong was an inauspicious start to the year as in the Asian calendar the
Lunar New Year does not begin until later this month.

STORY: MARNIE O'NEILL
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-- 
John Ho from Dallas, Texas USA. (john@jho.com)   
Newsgroups: soc.culture.hongkong