8-16-87

In the summer of 1987, while working in Hong Kong at an office in the old Bank of Guangdong Building (next to the new Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank Building), I was also painting at a studio about 10 minutes walk from my office. The studio was at the roof top of The Fringe Club (an arts organization) at Ice House Street. The building where Fringe Club located was once the ice house belonged to the local dairy company Dairy Farm.

During World War 2, this building was also being used as a mortuary by the Japanese Army.

It was because of certain incidences occurred in this period that I had stopped painting figurative works for over ten years.

After I arrived Hong Kong this summer, I started doing some kind of rather tame paintings, a series of small acrylic works of the boats in Hong Kong. It was not until I started painting in the studio at the Fringe Club that I decided to start a series of works about the then most sensitive issue of Hong Kong, i.e. the returning of Hong Kong to the Chinese Government, which I entitled: Hong Kong 1997.

However, in between the 2 series of paintings I mentioned, I also did an acrylic painting (48"X32"). This was inspired after I visited the futuristic looking building of the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank Building one afternoon. This afternoon, while I was waiting for my girlfriend who was visiting from Canada, I looked down the impressive 30 some floors open spaced atrium from the 8th or 9th floor, and it dawns on me that, this would be a very 'glamorous' place for someone who wanted to commit suicide. Jumping off the atrium of the most prominent building of Hong Kong to end ones life.

I did a painting entitled "Life Saver" after that afternoon. The painting was done expressionistic and cartoon like with a construction crane lifting up the Hong Kong Bank Building, and a gigantic hockey pug was being shot right underneath the building, catching whoever jumps off the building. At that time, the new Hong Kong Bank Building had been opened for about 2 years, no suicides were committed up until that point.

Few days later, around lunch hours, there were some commotions outside my office and I heard the girls at the reception area were discussing loudly. It turned out that, moments earlier, an Italian fashion designer had leaped off one of the floors into the atrium at the Hong Kong Bank Building and committed suicide.

After completed a few paintings and designs for the series of Hong Kong 1997, I started a painting with an expressionistic image of a bag lady well known in the Central (the banking district) of Hong Kong, whom we nick named her the "Queen of Central". The concept of this painting was, while the wealthy or the upper middle class of Hong Kong residents were all concerned and worried about Hong Kong's future after it is given back to the Communist China, for the poor, this may be an occasion which calls for celebration.

This was a 6ft x 4.5ft vertical painting with the Queen of Central prominently displayed in the middle of the canvas, standing at the forefront of the painting. Backing to her, was the evening scene of the skyline of Hong Kong. For composition and aesthetic purposes, a highway was drawn almost in the middle of the canvas diagonally, cutting across the painting.

In the painting, Queen of Central was holding a shopping bag with the name of a popular supper market chain in Chinese, in English, the name was 'Welcome'. Below the name was the inscription of 97.

Behind the skyline, in order to suggest a mood of celebration, there was a rough drawing of a firework ceremony on display. However, uncertain about the real outcome for the transfer of Hong Kong, besides the left foot of the Queen, I also painted a cartoon looking time bomb with a clock set at 8:37 (pm). 8:37pm is 19:97.

When the painting was about completed and I was working on the buildings of the skyline, I noticed a box shape building next to the Connaught Center ( I think it was a government building) became darker and darker while I worked on it. In fact eventually, it had become jet black. Then the words 'black box' appeared in my head. First I related it to death because of the color black, then I remembered that 'black box' was the flight recording box in airplanes (although they are red in color ).

From then on, the premonition of a plane accident had appeared. The "firework" became the explosion of a plane. "97" became the day 16th, and the accident would happen at 8:37 pm. (I also worked out the month of August, but forgot how I had arrived at that).

I had a premonition that a plane would crash on August 16th, 1987 at 19:97 hours.

I think I finished this painting in July, shortly after that, I had decide to go back to Canada. Until today, I still do not understand that why I wanted to choose the week of August 16th to travel. What I did was I called my friend Johnny who owned a travel agency to book me on a Canadian Airline Flight (it might had been called CP Air at that time) during that week. I remember that the airline had four flights from Hong Kong to Canada each week. One flight will fall on the 16th of August. Without specific instruction from me , Johnny booked me on a flight to Canada on the 13th August, it will arrive San Francisco on the same date (13th) in the evening, and I would fly to and arriving Toronto on the 14th. That means I would arrive Toronto before the 16th August, 1987.

The days prior to my departure for Canada, still very nervous about the trip, so I trashed the whole series of Hong Kong 1997 and the Hong Kong Bank painting (about 4 or 5 paintings). I also burnt all the photographs of the paintings. However wanting to have something to show my artist friends in Toronto about the paintings I did in Hong Kong, I kept the negatives of the film. My reasoning was that on the negatives, the "black box" would appear as white.

During the whole trip to San Francisco, I remember praying to Buddha from time to time, cursing at any small turbulences, and I would never let the hour and minute hands of my watch cross over 8:37.

I arrived San Francisco safely and I stayed at Alan's, my University roommate's house at San Jose for the night. The next day while Alan was driving me to the airport to catch my flight to Toronto, when we passed-by the entrance of Northwest Airline. I remember telling Alan that I always thought Northwest only flies International but not domestic (because I had flown it from Hong Kong to the US).

I finally arrived Toronto on the evening of August 14th. My girlfriend picked me up and I told her my premonitions, and I thought I would not make it back.

Because of jet lag and exhaustion, I spent that evening and the next day sleeping. On the 16th, I called my artist friend John to arrange meeting on the afternoon of the 17th.

On the morning of 17th August, I got up in the morning and decided to print the negatives with images of my paintings at a one hour photo shop not far away from our apartment.

While I was walking down the street, I noticed the headline of the Globe & Mail Newspaper in a newspaper box. It was the report of a plane accident happened the day before (the 16th). A Northwest airline plane had crashed onto a highway near the airport shortly after take off. ( flight 255 from Detroit , with 156 casualties.)

I started reading the small prints of the report, I remember saying in my mind that, "I'll be damn that it happened at 8:37 pm". In the article it reported that the plane crashed "shortly after 8:30 pm".

Two months later, Alan called me from San Jose. We chatted for about 15 minutes and I remembered the plane accident and I told Alan about my premonition. Alan was completely silence for about 30 seconds. Finally, he started talking again and he said: "David, you know, tragedy like this had never happened to me before. But on this flight, a good friend of mine was on a fishing trip with his dad. They both were killed".

9-28-2001

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