Anson Hoi Shan Mak
麥海珊

ansonhsmak@gmail.com

Instagram

Anson is a queer researcher-artist from Hong Kong. She works with lens-based media and sound art, including experimental ethnography, essay films, documentary, web-based archives, and phonography sound art. In her early career, she focused on gender and queer issues in her practice; as an activist, she championed the rights of queer women and wrote columns and essays, including Bisexual Desire, the first Chinese book on bisexuality.

Her later works examine cityscapes, gentrification and urban redevelopment, notions of time and history, and personal and collective memories. In recent years, her interests have turned to the spiritual and emotional dimensions of traumatic experiences, and also diasporic experience.

Her works have been selected for festivals including Hong Kong International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, and Queer East. They are also widely showcased in M+ Hong Kong, Videotage Hong Kong, MOCA Taipei, Times Art Center Berlin, Whitechapel Gallery London, RockBund Art Museum Shanghai, and Crossing Art, New York.

Her works are in the collection of M+, Hong Kong.

She taught at universities in Hong Kong (undergraduate and graduate programmes of cultural studies, cinema, and visual arts) for over 20 years and is currently a freelance artist and sound designer.

Since 2025, she has received a Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Life (MBCT-L) Trained Teacher Certificate from Oxford Mindfulness Foundation UK. She has started her new triple role as artist, researcher, and mindfulness teacher.

Education

Doctor Of Fine Art, School of Art, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University Australia 2011

M.Phil., Dept. of Comparative Literature, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 2000

B.Soc.Sc., Film Department, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 1991

Selected Festivals

Hong Kong Film Festival UK, London, UK, Sept 2025

Queer East, London, UK, May 2022

Women Make Waves Film Festival, Taiwan, Oct 2021

Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan, Oct 2021

SPARK Festival, presented by British Council, Hong Kong, Oct 2021

15th Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Indonesia, Nov 2020

Hong Kong Asian International Film Festival, Hong Kong, Nov 2020

25th Busan International Film Festival, South Korea, Oct 2020

AFIAS Spain Moving Images Festival, Madrid, Spain, Jun 2019

The South Taiwan Film Festival, Taiwan, 2012

36th Hong Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong, April 2012

Cambridge International Super 8 Film Festival, Cambridge, UK, 2009

14th Barcelona Independent Film Festival, Spain, Nov 2007

26th Vancouver International Film Festival, Canada, Sept 2007

Digital Cinema Seoul, Korea, July 2007

9th Taipei Film Festival, Taiwan, June 2007

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 23rd Edition, US, May 2007

20th Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore, April 2007

31st Hong Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong, April 2007

The 4th Hong Kong Lesbian & Gay Film/Video Festival, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, 1994

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Los Angeles, US, 1993

Los Angeles Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Los Angeles, US, 1993

San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, San Francisco, US, 1993

Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore, 1993

Third Wave International Women's Film & Video Festival, US, 1993

Solo Exhibitions

No Such Person, WMA Space, Hong Kong, Jan–Mar 2025

Home-coming, Trilogy of Anson Mak’s Experimental Documentary, co-presented with Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, Feb 2021

Camera Stylo As Such, Videotage, Hong Kong, May–Jun 2019

Selected Group Exhibitions

International Taiwan Video Art Festival, Honggah Museum, Taiwan, Nov 2023 – Jan 2024

Present Tense 2023: Perilous Playground, Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, US, Aug 2023 – Aug 2024

Homeland in Transit, E-WERK Freiburg, Galerie für Gegenwartskunst, Germany, Sept 2023

LOVE+: Awakenings, Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Nov 2022

Arsenal's Archive Biennale, Times Art Center Berlin, Arsenal 3, UK and Germany, Nov 2020

Fabrica Gallery, Brighton, UK, Apr 2019

Videodrome2, Marseille, France, Jun 2019

Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre, Leicester, UK, Jun 2019

CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China, Jul – Aug 2016

MOCA Taipei, Taiwan, Sept 2015

Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK, Jul 2014

Duke’s at Komedia, Brighton, UK, Jul 2014

FACT Liverpool, UK, Jun 2014

RockBund Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2012

White Box, New York, US, 2010

Crossing Art, New York, US, 2010

Ehwa Media Art Festival (EMAF), Seoul, Korea, May 2004

Asian Video Art Conference, VIDEOART CENTER Tokyo, Japan, Dec 2003

Museum Collection

M+, Hong Kong

On the Edge of The Floating City, We Sing (2012)

Who’s Afraid of Ghost!? (2009)

Tra(i)nsient (2001)

Selected
Press / Interview

Anson Mak: The Beauty of Days Past
by M+, Hong Kong, 2022 (view video)

Publication

Mak, Hoi Shan Anson, (ed.), From The Factories, Hong Kong:kaitak, Centre for Research and Development, Academy ofVisual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, 2014
ISBN:978-988-19665-2-0

Mak, Hoi Shan Anson, “One-Way Street On A Turntable”, and “On The Edge Of A Floating City, We Sing”, in Lai, Chiu-han Linda, Choi, Wing-yee Kimburley (eds.), World Film Locations Hong Kong, Bristol: Intellect Books, 2013, p. 09-91, 104-105.
ISBN: 978-1-78320-021-4

Mak, Hoi Shan Anson, “Love: 1989”, in Kam, Liz, and King, Pui Wai (eds.), Yue Liang De Shao Dong 《月亮的騷動 ﹣﹣她她的初戀故事：我們的自述》, Hong Kong: Cultural Act Up, 2001.

Mak, Hoi Shan Anson, et al, King, Pui Wai (ed.), Bisexuality 《雙性情慾》, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Women Christian Council, 2000.

Mak, Hoi Shan Anson, Kwong,Danial, Chow, Wah Shan, (eds.), Coming Out of Hong Kong Tongzhi 《香港同志站出來》, Hong Kong: Tongzhi Studies, 1995.

Last Updated 12 Feb 2026