I paid two visits to Hong Kong in February and March, primarily to see Chanel’s "Mobile Art" exhibition. I'll be writing about it in the upcoming April issue of ART iT magazine, please check the magazine or the website. These were only short stays, but in addition to my research for ART iT I had some time to check out the Hong Kong event of the "HongKong & Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture", visit Lee Tung Street in Hong Kong Island’s Wan Chai district for the first time in three years, and take a walk down Graham Street in the Central district. What I witnessed were exhibitions and concrete examples of preservation of cityscapes with the involvement of artists and architects, that raised general contemporary issues concerning major cities in advanced nations around the world.
In Lee Tung Street, known to locals as "Wedding Card Street", 20 to 30 small printers and other shops were rubbing shoulders in medium-rise buildings with the characteristic balconies of pre-war constructions. Nakanishi Taka, the author of the "Hong Kong Art & Culture Guide" showed me around this area in January 2005. The tiny shops in the area were crammed with beautiful arrays of cards, costumes and calendars dominated by the typically Chinese colors red and gold. Whenever people were in need of invitation, greeting or name cards, they used to come to this street and place their orders.
I say "were" and "used to" because when visiting the street this time, both sides of the street had turned into raw land. In 2001, Hong Kong’s Urban Renewal Authority explained that, "At present, there are about 9,300 private buildings in the Metro Area which are 30 years old and above. In ten years time, the number of buildings over 30 years old will increase by 50%." Based on these recognitions of the current situation, the Authority came up with a 20-year redevelopment plan. Wan Chai is one of the districts concerned, and the project is underway here already. There has been much debate about the destiny of Lee Tung Street because of its historical background, but last year the authorities finally decided to tear the neighborhood down. According to plan, the area will transform from "Wedding Card Street" to "Wedding City" with photo studios and shops selling wedding dresses, flowers and cakes. Among those applying to move in, however, the Urban Renewal Authority is giving the former residents and shop owners priority.
About three blocks east of Queen’s Road East, on a corner of Wan Chai Road is the Wan Chai Market. Completed in 1937, the 3-story building is said to be "one of the two Bauhaus style markets that exist in the world today" (I wonder if that’s true…) There are still shops offering fruits and vegetables, meat and fish in the market, but they occupy only two floors, while the building’s top floor is completely empty. According to plans, the market was supposed to be demolished and turned into a residential/industrial complex as well, but last year the Urban Renewal Authority and the Development Bureau decided to leave at least the "historical" façade untouched.
On paper this might look quite simple, but in reality there are twists and turns that still continue today. The "Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture" included an exhibition with the title "Look! This is Our Lee Tung Street!", where some of the difficulties were illustrated in a large number of photographs. The exhibition was put together by the "H15 Concern Group", whose members were all residents or owners of shops on Lee Tung Street. H15 worked out their own redevelopment plan and proposed it to the authorities, and engaged in educational activities such as guided tours through the area among others. The political conflict between the group and their supporters and the city authorities was most likely the reason for the problems that arose. Reparation, priority rights, and the preservation of the Wan Chai Market façade are all results of these efforts and fights. As a matter of course, while the group celebrated glorious victories in some points, they suffered bitter defeats in others. At all events, "the continuation of the local network and preservation of the city’s history above economic profit" is a fundamental idea that has the support of all citizens that fear for a loss of Hong Kong’s identity.
Particularly worth mentioning is the fact that several artists and architects are actively and concretely involved in H15’s redevelopment plans and the resulting fights. That’s certainly also why H15 are connected to the Urban Renewal Authority, who participated in this time’s exhibition with a display titled "R-Space". Kind of "strange bedfellows" indeed, but in this geographically small and densely populated city, the problem of urbanization has been one that concerns everybody since Hong Kong became a melting pot of people and capital even before the "One Nation, Two Systems" formula. Plus, what happens in Hong Kong today will quite surely happen to us tomorrow.
The February 25 edition of the South China Morning Post contained an article titled "New plan may save heritage buildings". If the new plan the Urban Renewal Authority is going to propose becomes reality, "at least five tenements (three in Wing Lee Street and two in Staunton Street) would be restored and preserved," including the 1951 erected Bridges Street Market. I don't know any further details, but there must have been continued dialogue and struggle between the local community and authorities here as well. The situation here is much different from that of the West Kowloon Cultural District Project (see Out of Tokyo 139), which under the influence of recession and SARS was condemned to start again from scratch.
Strolling along Graham Street for the first time in a while, I found the street lined with commodity and food stalls, and crowded with lots of people - the same hustle and bustle I saw three years ago. According to a friend in Hong Kong, this "last market in the Central district" seems to be in a precarious situation as well. While wanting to avoid talking about the issue from the merely nostalgic point of view of an outsider who visits the area only once in a while, I hope that it will be reborn in the best possible form. One thing I'd like to add from my outsider’s perspective would be that I'd be happy to contribute to the "continuation of the local network and preservation of the city’s history" in Tokyo, where I'm not an outsider, and that’s at once a shout that goes to all of Tokyo’s artists, architects and other creators.
Ozaki Tetsuya / Editor in chief / REALTOKYO