展覽 Exhibition:
2025年11-12月，〈浮線日誌〉，坪洲戲院，香港 | Nov-Dec 2025, ‘How to draw a line across the sea?’, Peng Chau Cinema, Hong Kong
2025年9月，〈Think Outside the Box: Science x Art Exhibition〉，嶺南大學科學教研組，香港 | Aug-Oct 2025, ‘Think Outside the Box: Science x Art Exhibition’, The Science Unit, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
中華白海豚與牠的珠江口
Chinese White Dolphin and its Pearl River Estuary
(與崔驛選博士合作 In collaboration with Dr Scott Chui)
Left – A Dolphin’s Point of Life: a map of the world from a Chinese White Dolphin;
Centre – Pearl River Estuary East (Hong Kong): a map of the sea seen from the surface to the sea bed;
Right – Living Landscape: a map of the PRE interweaved by paths of animals and man-made objects.
起源及考察 Background and research
Chinese White Dolphin (Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin; sousa chinensis) is a species local to Hong Kong and widely known and loved in the city, whose appearance has decreased in Hong Kong’s waters over the decades. I collaborate with behavioural ecologist Dr Scott Chui who studies the impact of Hong Kong’s major infrastructure i.e. the airport and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge on the habitat of Chinese White Dolphins. I hope to understand Chinese White Dolphin’s current situation and the scientific research on the Dolphins.
Decades of rapid development and increasing human activities in Hong Kong waters have upset the marine environment and ecosystem, and hence the decrease of Chinese White Dolphins. The Dolphins’ habitat, the Pearl River Estuary (PRE), is shared by three territories — Hong Kong, China (Guangdong) and Macau, where data sharing is nonetheless limited. Also, no devices can be installed on the Dolphins.
In order to gauge the Dolphin’s population, scientists need to first scout for Dolphins in the sea and take pictures. The photos are then uploaded to a database, where individual Dolphins are identified by manual, laborious comparison. Scientific research are nonetheless limited by technological, legal and socio-political factors have posed considerable challenge to the understanding of the Dolphins.
In the numerous exchange with Dr Chui, I come to learn not just about the Chinese White Dolphins, but also the PRE they inhabit and the scientific perspective on the Dolphins. Our conversation slowly reaches to the idea of understanding the sea through the Dolphin’s perspective.
展覽 Exhibition
The exhibit includes two maps on panels, one of which with flippables attached. On the table are three maps, as well as two more flippables and a book. The set up resonates with the working environment and the presentation format of the scientist.
The two maps on the panels are Hong Kong’s western waters and the Pearl River Estuary — the waters scientists in Hong Kong can investigate and the total habitat of the Chinese White Dolphins respectively. They are the discrepancy of research and reality.
Flippables are attached on the map of Hong Kong’s Western waters with my discoveries of the scientist’s research in the whole project. The act of flipping is an act of going beyond the surface of the waters. The discoveries include the trick (and failure) of scouting Chinese White Dolphins, the almost primitive process of identifying individual dolphins, and the imagination of Dolphins’ perception of the major infrastructure. They are also data, knowledge and reflections on the circumstances of the species.
The three maps on the table applies the speculative models of mapping in the book Terra Forma by Frédérique Aït-Touati, Alexandra Arènes and Axelle Grégoire. They depict the Dolphin’s habitat and the PRE from different angles — the sea itself, the world from the Dolphin’s perspective, and the PRE through the paths of all beings and man-made objects. The book is put alongside for audiences to learn more about the original concept of the models.
The two other flippables on the table are (i) the life cycle of the Chinese White Dolphins, from grey, pink to uncertain disappearance; (ii) the Dolphins as graffiti, statue and mascot in different corners of the city.
Together, the work unveils the complexity of scientific research on Chinese White Dolphins and the Pearl River Estuary as a system.
於嶺南大學展出時的版本｜The first version exhibited at Lingnan University
鳴謝 Acknowledgement:
嶺南大學科學教研組 Science Unit, Lingnan University
青花工作室 Seika Studio