Kou Voravong
Kou Voravong grew up in Savannakhet and pursued a primary education there. He obtained the « certificat d'études primaires complémentaire indochinois » - Certificate of Indochinese Additional Primary Studies - (CEPCI) in 1930, went afterward to Vientiane and began his first-secondary-school year at the Collège Auguste Pavie. But because of a conflict which opposed him to French Colonial administration, his adopted father was sentenced to prison that same year. As reaction to this situation, Kou Voravong left school and returned to Savannakhet. As an out-of-school teenager, he practiced sports, especially soccer.
Kwok Mang Ho
Kwok Mang-Ho (aka Frog King) was born in 1947 in Guangdong, China and grew up in Hong Kong. He began his artistic practice as a traditional ink painter under the guidance of Lui Shou-Kwan, who was known as the “Hong Kong New Ink Painting master” at the time. Thus he was enrolled to the Fine Art programmes at the Grantham College of Education in Hong Kong (now renamed the Institute of Education) from 1967 to 1970. Concurrently, during 1968 to 1973, he further studied in extramural courses at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as the University of Hong Kong. After his completion of the programmes, Kwok went to the Art Students League of New York for further education(1980-1984). He spent 15 years in New York City experiencing new art scenes, and eventually returned and settled down in Hong Kong in 1995.