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FRAME OF REFERENCE

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A LIFE-SIZED, anime-style cartoon girl jumps out of a hologram of Beijing's Tiananmen Gate and threatens to kick me in the head. She is the creation of Taiwanese artist Hung Tung-li, who cleverly layered laser prints in a light box to make an image that moves to stalk me, no matter where I'm standing. This is also the first piece of art you encounter when you walk into Hanart TZ, Hong Kong's oldest contemporary Chinese art gallery.

Owner Johnson Chang Tsong-zung, 53, is scurrying, dressed in a loose grey Chinese pyjama suit and black leather kung fu shoes, with a shock of salt-and-pepper hair.

If one had to find a person to encapsulate Hong Kong's unique old-meets-new, east-meets-west character, Chang would be it. On the one hand he has great respect for ancient Chinese scholarship and insists his two young sons learn traditional Chinese calligraphy. 'Modern simplified Chinese characters are barbaric,' he says. On the other, he's a savvy jet-setting businessman who peddles some of the most controversial Chinese art on the market.

Chang is a walking contradiction. In one pocket is a black notebook filled with perfect vertical columns of handwritten Chinese characters - this traditionalist's answer to the Palm Pilot. In his other pocket is a mobile that never stops ringing, with calls from China, Europe and the Guggenheim in New York, where Chang acts as Asian art consultant.

The calls are even more intense than usual today because Chang is trying to organise the city's largest gathering of contemporary Chinese artists, in celebration of his gallery's 20th anniversary. 'So far I have up to 70 Chinese artists showing, with 50 flying in from New York, Paris, Hamburg, San Francisco, London, Taipei and all over China,' he says excitedly. 'I was originally going to invite only three or four curators, but now there are 10. These artists and curators have probably never been in the same place at once, so it will be like an experiment.'

The experiment will take place at the Hong Kong Arts Centre next Friday night, when 70 major art pieces will be unveiled. 'I think we're getting a DJ and an erhu player. I'm not sure how they'll jam, but it will be interesting,' Chang says. Afterwards they will move to the China Club, where 'David [Tang] will throw a party till the small hours of the morning. After that will be a brunch at the Asia Art Archive.'

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