A Postcard Sent to Holly from Xinjiang
(POSTCARD, 4x6 inch, 1987)
Between the 1980s and 1990s, we had published over a hundred postcards. Some featured original photographs, while others were produced in collaboration with professional photo labs as mutual promotions, widely distributed to advertising and design firms. During that time, Holly and I occasionally traveled separately, and we often communicated through postcards. These physical remnants have since become tangible references, helping us piece together specific dates and details when working on archival writings.
In November 1987, the Hong Kong Institute for Promotion of Chinese Culture organized a cultural expedition, inviting a group of artists and writers, including Koo Tin-nung, Koo Siu-shen, Bat Tsz-yung, Ha Pak-chuen, Wong Bik-wan, Danny Yung, Donna Lok, Poon Kwong-pui, and myself. The participants spanned various creative disciplines, from visual arts and literature to music and performing arts. Over the ten-day journey, I wrote nine postcards to Holly. Most were store-bought along the way, except for this one—it was handmade.
To me, anything with the dimensions of a postcard—4×6 inches—becomes a postcard once a stamp is affixed. This particular one was cut from the cardboard packaging of a carbon copy paper box. It could even be considered a piece of creative work, made on the road.
Dated August 27, 1987, the postcard was written in the Nanshan pasture of the Tianshan Mountains. That night, we stayed in a yurt high in the mountains, under a sky teeming with stars. I wrote to Holly that the moment suddenly reminded me of my childhood in Guangzhou—how, on summer nights, my neighbors and I would gather on the rooftop to cool off beneath a sky just as full of stars. There, in the heights of Tianshan, I found myself retrieving a poetic memory from decades past.
在新疆寄給楚喬的明信片
在八十至九十年代間，我們印行過百多張明信片，此外又有不少是以原件照片製作，甚至有些與專業冲洗店合作，作為我們影室的宣傳品，廣泛寄去廣告公司或設計公司。在那個年代，我與楚喬分別作了不少較長時間的旅行，大家都喜歡以明信片互相通訊，這些保存下來的具體紙本，今天我們不時用作推敲當年當事的具體時間，甚至種種細節。1987年11月，香港中華文化促進中心辦了一個文化採風團往新疆，邀請了一眾文化人包括: 古天農，古兆申，畢子融，夏碧泉，黃碧雲，榮念曾，駱笑平，潘光沛及我。涵蓋了視覺藝術，寫作，音樂及表演藝術等範疇。 在十天的旅程中，我寫了九張明信片給楚喬。 其中大部份明信片都是在途中所購，唯獨是這張是為手造。 在我的觀念中，任何具體物只要是與明信片的的面積一樣， 4×6吋，貼上郵票那就是一張明信片了。這張明信片，是從一個複寫紙包裝盒的硬紙板所裁製。 也可以被形容為是一項旅途中的創作物。明信片寫於1987年8月27日，天山的南山牧場。我們被安排在山中高處，在蒙古包渡了一夜。仰望上空，滿是星星。我告訴楚喬，當時頓時憶起兒時在廣州，每天晚上在天台與一眾鄰居乘涼渡夜，當時便是滿天星星如豆。在這天山高處，忽然俯拾，數十年前一個詩樣的記憶。