In Hong Kong’s bustling Central district, the pedestrian-only Shin Hing Street is a popular haven known for its wide staircase and its many great bars and restaurants. Now, one of the neighbourhood’s most beloved streets is getting its own visual identity over three days in May, courtesy of 33-year-old Daniel Wu, also known as Mr Mahjong.

Starting from May 29, the 15 shops that hug the steps will each display a one-of-a-kind mahjong tile-inspired artwork on their facades.

The project is the first outdoor “exhibition” by Wu – @mmj_HK on Instagram – after spending the past few years turning the traditional 144-tile game into a unique canvas for Hong Kong stories.

Wu is a civil engineering graduate from the University of Hong Kong who unexpectedly ended up following an artistic path. While at university, having any “creative output” felt like a distant world, he says, but he started “messing around” to test how far a mahjong tile design could be bent before it was no longer seen as a proper mahjong piece.

That idle curiosity became an obsession when he realised that the blank faces and simple iconography of the tiles could be repurposed into almost anything, from Cantonese wordplay to personal names and miniature street scenes.

“I’m actually a terrible mahjong player,” Wu confesses with a grin. The spark was purely visual. “I was just drawn to the design of each one. I looked at them and thought, ‘I really want to make something out of those.’ You can do almost anything with a tile.”