Last week we found ourselves navigating the rainy streets of Hong Kong’s Mid-levels on a Wednesday night en route to Emergency Party hosted by ArtReviewAsia, FlashArt and Leap. We were in town for Hong Kong Art Basel and the promise of a boychild performance was enough to send us into the humid night without direction. We were given a simple address on Robinson Road and told to look for the Castle Steps which led us to the front porch of House of Siren secretly tucked between residential apartments. As we would later learn, everything extra cool in Hong Kong seemed to be tucked away behind something else. This was no different.

A crowd of street-style babes smoked out front while the doorman let us in, cautioning that the free alcohol had already diminished. Praying that was a joke, we entered a steamy front room not unlike a college house party (empty Absolute bottles and all) and were greeted by a cast of Basel characters including artists Mei Le, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Cao Fei, Adrian Wong, Shane Aspegren, Lee Kit and Poklong Anading. We squeezed our way to the back room which opened up into a dark theater filled wall-to-wall with glass cases filled wall-to-wall with couture costumes. The room was packed and hot. Rightly so as boychild had just taken the stage dominating complete attention both by person and by eagerly recording iPhones. Boychild’s performances, above all, are about connecting with humans and we were all undeniably connected. When she broke out into Rihanna’s “Higher,” cheers and chills crept through our bodies. Her gold-covered energy was present, leaving us in a trance.

Post-performance, item idem continued to DJ as the last of the night’s hipsters mingled and danced like no one was watching. The party ended an hour early—mostly due to the empty Absolute—but the room remained spirited, slowly emptying out into the pouring rain, waiting for cabs and returning to Hong Kong’s center for a chance at more magic.