The First Glance
Book covers for serialized novels and mass-market fiction in Hong Kong
Long before the first line of a story is read, the cover sets the encounter. For decades of Hong Kong’s print culture, Tung Pui-Sun gave readers that point of entry. Working primarily with 環球出版社 (Global Publishing), he produced more than 10,000 covers for serialized novels and mass-market fiction, each created under the time pressure and rapid circulation of the local book trade. His work did not explain a narrative; it suggested its conditions—a raised blade, a turned shoulder, a fragment of landscape—enough to draw the reader toward the first page.
一見鐘情
流行小說封面
翻開故事的第一行字之前，封面已先與讀者相遇。數十年來，董培新為香港及海外華語讀者開啟了這道門。他長期與環球出版社合作，為連載小說及流行讀物繪製逾萬幅封面，在出版業快速運轉、交稿時間緊迫的環境下，一幅接一幅地完成。他的畫不解釋故事，卻塑造了故事的氣氛：半舉的刀刃、轉身的背影、一角山水——已足夠讓讀者想要翻開第一頁。
These covers were designed for movement: displayed at street kiosks, rented through lending libraries, and passed from hand to hand as stories progressed from volume to volume. Their visual language is built on clarity of silhouette and the moment before action, using restraint rather than decoration. Seen individually, each cover announces a single title. Viewed together across years of publication, they record how Hong Kong readers chose their worlds at the threshold of the book, by the image that invited them inside.
封面——萬千世界的入口
這些封面本來就是為了吸引讀者：陳列於街頭書報攤，借閱於租書店，隨著故事一冊接一冊地在讀者之間輾轉傳遞。畫面語言講求輪廓清晰、捕捉動作發生前的一瞬，以簡馭繁，不事雕飾。單看每一幅，是一個故事的宣告；縱觀多年出版，卻是一部香港及海外華語讀者如何在書的門檻前，憑著一幅畫選擇進入哪個世界的入口。