The King of Kowloon

The King of Kowloon is dead.

Tsang Tsou-choi, 86, was famous for his calligraphy vandalism graffiti, which claimed his family owned most of Kowloon and that the government had taken it without proper renumeration.

He spent decades scrawling this belief on sites all over Hong Kong, proclaiming himself the King of Kowloon.

His work typically consisted of a list of his ancestors, beginning with the first generation of the Tsang family, whom he said arrived in what is now Sau Mau Ping 1,700 years ago. Also included were places which his forebears owned. The lists often ended with "Emperor of The Kingdom of New China, Canton and Kowloon Tsang Tsou-choi".

His rants and his style were noticed by the art world about 10 years ago; one critic praised his calligraphy as "excelling in its plainness, simplicity and absence of contrivance".

Long live the King.

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