Cover for Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk
Cyborgs, electro rock, romantic reunions and dystopia—an exploration of Kongkee’s multimedia narrative vision of Asian Futurism.
Edited with text and interview by Abby Chen. Foreword by Jay Xu. Text by Evelyn Char, Ari Heinrich, Mario Teló, Winnie Wong
Designed by Benny Au, Amazing Angle Design
Published 2026 | ISBN: 9781636812021

This volume explores the immersive world of Warring States Cyberpunk, a retro-futurist narrative exhibition conceived by London-based Chinese artist and animation director Kong Khong-chang (born 1977), known as Kongkee. Through multiscreen videos, wall projections, neon installations, vibrant graphic works, narrative texts and ancient Chinese objects, Kongkee unfurls his speculative odyssey centered on the legendary Chinese poet Qu Yuan, who lived during the Warring States Period (c. 481–221 BCE). His multimedia narrative traces the journey of Yuan’s soul from the ancient Chu Kingdom to a retro-futuristic Asia where he is reborn as an android in an imagined psychedelic cyberpunk landscape—replete with cyborgs, electro rock and surprising romantic reunions. Warring States Cyberpunk elaborates upon the artist’s worldmaking feat, probing the exhibition’s thematic subject matter through four scholarly essays and an interview with Kongkee.