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Kan Tai Keung
Kan Tai Keung
Internationally Renowned Designer
Sex: Male Birthyear: 1942 Age at Interview: 67 Education: Lower Secondary Occupation: Designer Theme: Art and Culture, Social Life Stamp design was world-class in Festival of Hong Kong 1973 because it absorbed element of Chinese...When Kan designed the second collection of stamps and the first day cover for the Festival of Hong Kong, he boldly used Chinese characters to express the theme to instill more Chinese elements. The three stamps in the collection respectively bore the Chinese characters “Hong”, “Kong” and “Festival” in echo of the street decorations that had the words “ Hong Kong Festival”. Kan employed new fonts and four colors for each word, so that citizens might collect stamps of a combination of colours. Besides, Kan added one extra colour on the festival logo for the design of the first day cover. The design was in modern style and was published in an authoritative overseas postal magazine.
Title Stamp design was world-class in Festival of Hong Kong 1973 because it absorbed element of Chinese character Date 16/09/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 2m39s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Kan Tai Keung Accession No. TW-KTK-HLT-001 At the World Expo 1970 Osaka, to serve the need of the organzier Hong Kong Pavilion launched a large-scale sculpture competition. Although Kan was the champion in the sculpture competition, his work was not displayed in the Expo. It was too bulky which made transportation difficult; the construction cost was too high; and he was a young artist without much reputation. Eventually, the work of the famous sculptor Van Lau, the first runner-up, was displayed. Fortunately, as Kan was a double champion, his uniform design was accepted to be made into clothes and assigned as the uniform for the Hong Kong staff.
Title Won two champions in a design contest for Hong Kong Pavilion in Osaka Expo 1970 Date 16/09/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 1m20s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Kan Tai Keung Accession No. TW-KTK-HLT-002 Criticized the British of not having long-term policy for Hong Kong before 1997 became a issue of...Before the Sino-British negotiations, the British government had not yet carried out reforms on constitutional development. They only maintained stability in Hong Kong in order to secure their national interests. When the Festival of Hong Kong was held, the campaign of legitimation of Chinese Language was also a hot issue. It shown local Chinese were eager to fight for their dignity. Kan analyzed that the ruling policies of the colonial government were solely drafted in the interest of Britain rather than the long-term benefits of Hong Kong citizens. The Festival of Hong Kong lacked long-term planning and could not draw the “Hong Kong” spirit together. Citizens hardly recognized the festival and it was doomed to fail.
Title Criticized the British of not having long-term policy for Hong Kong before 1997 became a issue of concern Date 16/09/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 1m4s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Kan Tai Keung Accession No. TW-KTK-HLT-003 Kan love for arts. He also listened to classical music for leisure and learned musical theories and the art of appreciation for music by reading books himself. He also enjoyed movies and literary magazine such as the “Chinese Student Weekly”. Upon his pen pal’s introduction, he became interested in reading some avant-garde literary magazines of that time, such as New Ideology and The Cape of Good Hope published by the Modern Literature and Fine Arts Association. Through these readings, he gained much knowledge about stream-of-consciousness novels, existentialism and so on, which inspired him of thinking deeply about the value of life. Because of health problem, he saw the importance of life. In contrast, Kan’s brother worked well at school, and graduated from university a few years later. Kan’s brother was recommended by his school to learn fine arts under the supervision of some master painters and calligraphers during the university years, and so he was able to build a solid foundation on fine arts. Later, Kan’s brother entered an open competition in arts held by Nga Yuen Gallery, and won the championship of watercolour painting. Kan envied his brother’s success in fine arts, and reckoned that he should be able to make similar achievement as what his brother did, as they had similar upbringing when they were young. In pursuit of a meaningful life, he felt he should not give up the dream that he had made since childhood, so he was determined to become an artist.
Title Kan had strong passion and determination to become an artist Date 16/09/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 2m28s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Kan Tai Keung Accession No. TW-KTK-HLT-004