Tommy Fung surrealhk first drew attention online by posting surreal, photoshopped scenes that splice everyday Hong Kong streets with absurd, dreamlike elements.
Under the Instagram handle surrealhk, Fung stages visual jokes: Hong Kong taxis turned into sleek Lamborghini-style sports cars, rows of double-decker vans on city streets, a superhero doctor battling a crowd on a viaduct, and even the doll from Squid Game placed in the middle of busy Causeway Bay.
Fung was born in Hong Kong and moved with his family to Venezuela while he was in primary school, he said. After studying graphic design and working as a commercial photographer, he returned to Hong Kong more than five years ago and found it difficult to restart a photography career. He created the surrealhk account in 2017, he said, and used it to document what he calls his surreal life in the city.
He shoots cityscapes, then uses Photoshop to add exaggerated, fantastical elements. Unrelated objects merge, buildings warp, and virtual characters roam the streets. The result is a gallery of playful, uncanny images that reframe familiar scenes as something unexpected.
How Tommy Fung surrealhk makes Hong Kong feel impossible
Fung credits his sense of black humor to his years in South America. “That kind of dark humor is 100 percent South American, because you can make a joke out of anything,” he said. He added that Hong Kong audiences did not always immediately get his ironic take, because tastes in satire and humor vary across cultures.
Living in Venezuela taught him an optimistic attitude, he said, even as that country suffered economic collapse and hyperinflation. “You could not survive there in the end, so I decided to come back to Hong Kong and start again,” Fung said. He said those experiences shaped the tone of his work, which often mixes satire with sympathy.
Many of his images respond to local issues. To comment on long public housing waiting lists, he created a picture of giraffes crowding a public-housing basketball court, a visual pun on the Cantonese expression for waiting so long your neck grows. During the pandemic, he placed guardian-angel figures in city scenes as a whimsical reaction to lockdowns and quarantine policies.
“I still keep a re-discovering attitude toward this city.”
Fung said that returning to Hong Kong as a resident, rather than a tourist, changed how he saw the city. “Once I learned more about the roots of poverty and land problems, I began to use what I learned and share my perspective through my work,” he said.
He described Hong Kong as compact and constantly changing. “I still feel everything here is new to me,” Fung said. He added that the city’s mix of disappearing and emerging features gives him endless material, and that the project “My Surreal Life in Hong Kong” continues to supply ideas for photographs and collages.
“Hong Kong is a surreal city to me.”
Fung said everyday Hong Kong sights, like double-decker buses and trams known locally as ding dings, feel novel because he did not grow up with them. He prefers to sit in the front row on the top deck of a bus, he said, because that vantage point reveals small, surprising street moments that later become material for his images.
Neon signage ranks high among the visual elements that attract him. “I used to think neon was everywhere and would never disappear, but now there are fewer signs, so I want to record that brightness in my work,” Fung said. He often reconstructs the look of the 1970s and 1980s in digital collages to make scenes feel dreamier and more surreal.
Local news and childhood memories also inspire his pieces. Fung has responded to stories that captured Hong Kong’s attention, from viral incidents on the subway to online controversies. But at root, he said, he wants people to relax when they see his images and to laugh.
Fung said he often notices how rushed daily life in Hong Kong can feel. “People here are always in a hurry, even while eating. I cannot accept that; I need to eat slowly to feel relaxed,” he said. He called that hurried pace another kind of surreal detail to photograph and exaggerate.
“Some people say Photoshop is not art.”
Fung is aware that some people dismiss digitally altered images as less authentic than traditional media. He said most of his source material is photographed by himself, and that he has exacting standards for light and angle. “If someone says the shadow work is poor, I will accept that and improve next time,” he said. “But if someone says my work is not art at all, that has no meaning for me.”
He described the production process as time-consuming: concepting, sourcing suitable elements, and then composing the final image can take more than 30 hours for a single piece. Fung said that long effort, plus the technical skill required, counters the idea that the work is merely a quick trick.
Fung said he responds to criticism by focusing on the next piece. “When people do not like your work, the best thing is to make the next one better,” he said. Sharing by fans, he added, is the strongest sign that a piece resonates.
He recalled that many viewers told him they had once imagined playful scenarios, like a double-decker bus with a slide from the top deck to the street, but considered them fantasies. Seeing those ideas realized in his images encourages people to accept creative play as a shared impulse, he said, and that recognition sustains his practice.
From Instagram to galleries, and why Tommy Fung surrealhk stays Hong Kong-focused
Over the past year, Fung said he worked on commercial collaborations and took part in shows including the Affordable Art Fair and the Digital Art Fair, and he has experimented with NFT works. He has animated some of his images and moved parts of the surrealhk project from online to physical exhibitions, he said, so more people can experience the work in person.
Despite the impulse to travel, he said he prefers to transplant imagined scenes into Hong Kong. “If I could place a volcano in Hong Kong, the result would be interesting,” Fung said. During pandemic travel restrictions, he said he found ideas by watching films and imagining how their characters would look on Hong Kong streets.
For Fung, the value of his images lies in the emotional connection they produce. “If my images make people feel something, that is satisfaction enough,” he said. His digital works, though fantastical, are grounded in his care for the city and its visual culture, he added.
Following Fung through different corners of the city reveals how imagination can recast familiar streets. His work invites viewers to slow down, look again, and find humor in the improbable. “You do not need to be crazy,” he said. “Sometimes the world is.”
Executive Producer: Angus Mok
Producer: Vicky Wai
Editor: Ruby Yiu
Videography: Andy Lee, Man Tam
Photography: Man Tam
Video Editor: Andy Lee
Designer: Edwina Chan
Location: Emperor Cinemas Times Square, ENVY Restaurant & Bar
Special Thanks: Surrealhk by Tommy Fung
