Profile | Influential Hong Kong art historian who overcame sexism and sickness to make ‘a powerful difference’ in the city – meet Yeewan Koon
- Yeewan Koon revived Chinese art history courses at the University of Hong Kong, advises top art institutions, and wrote a book on Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara
- She talks about her journey from Hong Kong to London to New York and back, and how she overcame adversity to become a major figure in Hong Kong’s art scene
Yeewan Koon, associate professor and chair of the art history department at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), is not only super smart but sassy as well. It’s a punchy combo in academia.
She ruffled a few feathers when she first landed in the department almost 20 years ago, but her success speaks for itself: her class numbers have soared and she has won multiple awards for her teaching, all while being a prolific writer, curator and valued adviser to some of the city’s top art institutions.
In 2005, she filled a temporary one-year post before being offered a position as a full-time professor the following year, with a brief to revitalise the Chinese and Japanese courses.
“I had to look at why the students didn’t want to do Chinese art,” Koon says. “They thought of it as old-fashioned. They didn’t see the value because their history classes when they were younger were their least favourite. There was a lot of rote learning.”
Back then she had just 15 students in her senior classes. Today they are at full capacity of 40. The first-year courses which then had 20 students are now at 180.
That increase follows the trajectory of art in Hong Kong – now the third largest art market in the world – but it’s also in large part down to Koon’s engaging personality.