"Rocco's architecture relates with context, tradition and the communities of men in a way that produces, so to say, 'poetically reactive objects' linked with world culture (not only the Chinese one)."—Michele Calzavara, professor, architect, and critic

No one has built more public buildings in Hong Kong than the architect Rocco Yim. A sequel to Being Chinese in Architecture published in 2004, Presence highlights Yim's fourteen architectural projects across southern China, including museums, educational institutions, a public library, government houses, and district redevelopments. The main proposition raised is of "architecture shaping the city" and "the city shaping architecture."