How Mr Mahjong is telling Hong Kong stories through his one-of-a-kind outdoor exhibition
Daniel Wu, a self-professed terrible mahjong player, takes pieces from the traditional tile-based game and carves ‘almost anything’ on them
In Hong Kong’s bustling Central district, the pedestrian-only Shin Hing Street is a popular haven known for its wide staircase and its many great bars and restaurants. Now, one of the neighbourhood’s most beloved streets is getting its own visual identity over three days in May, courtesy of 33-year-old Daniel Wu, also known as Mr Mahjong.
Starting from May 29, the 15 shops that hug the steps will each display a one-of-a-kind mahjong tile-inspired artwork on their facades.
Wu is a civil engineering graduate from the University of Hong Kong who unexpectedly ended up following an artistic path. While at university, having any “creative output” felt like a distant world, he says, but he started “messing around” to test how far a mahjong tile design could be bent before it was no longer seen as a proper mahjong piece.
That idle curiosity became an obsession when he realised that the blank faces and simple iconography of the tiles could be repurposed into almost anything, from Cantonese wordplay to personal names and miniature street scenes.
