Mandarin and her Route 41

Mandarin and Her Route 41 is a collaborative artist’s book by image-based artist Michelle Chan and writer Clementine Hei-man Cheung, bringing photography and fiction into dialogue through the motif of Hong Kong’s former bus Route 41.

Serving as both subject and metaphor, the route frames Michelle’s documentation of landscapes, portraits, and found objects along the now-defunct line. She recorded her walks on expired film and transformed found materials into studio-like still lifes made on site. In response to 41 objects, Clementine developed a 41-chapter fictional narrative set in Wah Fu Estate, by the sea, from the 1960s to the 1990s, with Route 41 as a vessel bearing witness to Hong Kong and its people.

The Special Edition is limited to 41 copies. Each includes selected English translations of the original Traditional Chinese text and a unique darkroom-developed relic print designed to fade over time.

Mandarin and her Route 41
Cheung Hei-Man, Clementine & Michelle Chan, 2025

10.5 x 23.5 cm