Hong Kong, the once-colonial city, was a village-turned-trading port before becoming the international trading hub it is today. As technology advanced, many traditional trademarks of Hong Kong are dissipated with time. But a group of curators is showcasing miniature replicas of Hong Kong before the neon lights and veranda shops were torn down.
Art of the Veranda Shop
A veranda shop is an open-air balcony attached to the outside of a building. These architectural patios have a rich history in Southern China. They were built to be shophouses—vernacular architecture. The building is usually two to three stories high. The first floor, or ground floor, was used as a shop, while the second and third floors were for residents. These structures can be seen in old buildings still erect in Malaysia, Singapore, and Penang.Hong Kong has changed over the years. Gigantic malls and luxurious serviced apartments have replaced some signatures of the world’s Oriental Pearl. In reality, the neon signs hanging outside buildings or the colonial-looking three-story building with an open-air balcony are a thing of the past.
These history-rich buildings remain in filmmaking. The old unique charms of “east meet west” are still captured vividly in movies based in the 60s and 70s.
Today, seeing veranda-style buildings and neon signs in Hong Kong is a rarity. That’s why the Hong Kong Jockey Club University of Chicago Heritage Courtyard and Exhibition Center curated the special art exhibition.
AI-Activated History
The exhibition features AI-activated color imagery from the 20 century, created by OldHKInColour.A Time Capsule of Hong Kong
This exhibition will be the first time the Wood Concept Art and Culture Association openly shares and displays its exquisite work to the public.Possession Point in Sheung Wan is of great magnitude to the history of Hong Kong. The British landing in 1841 symbolized the dawn of Hong Kong as a trading port.
With so many iconic spots in Hong Kong, the curators began in Sheung Wan. It took nearly two years to study almost 1,000 old photos of the district and try to restore the looks of the shops and landscapes architecturally. The curators want to convert the way Hong Kong was by using model manufacturing technology.
The miniature models of the primitive veranda buildings and calligraphy-written boutique names hanging on stone pillars bring back vivid details of the Old Sheung Wan.
The illuminated neon signs in the night are all integrated into it, bringing visitors back to old Hong Kong in the 1960s.
The “White House,” not the one in Washington D.C., but the one on Mount Davis, was rated as a grade III historical building in Hong Kong in 2010.
After its restoration, it became part of the campus of the University of Chicago Hong Kong Campus, which was later transformed into a courtyard and exhibition center by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. So as you walk into the exhibit, you are footing into a Hong Kong historical monument to encounter a bite-sized revival of old Hong Kong.
Old but Gold
Curator Eric Yung and his assistants had to verify every detail of the model displays, from the model structure of stone pillars to shops that once lived on the streets in Sheung Wan. They want to show visitors how different the shops looked compared to the ones now.Technology Restored History
Most of the shops displayed in the show are no longer standing.
However, if you examine it carefully, you can still see some of the architecture in Hong Kong today. Say the corner walk-up buildings on No 1, Queen’s Road West, was once a shop that sold famous and mouthwatering char-siu (barbecued pork).
Even though the shop had been handed down to several owners, you can vaguely see the painted words on the walls outside the shop that said the name Yau Kei Hub, golden pig (roasted crispy suckling pig).
The fading words on the signs are the markings of the old Hong Kong culture.
Teahouse Gatherings
The exhibition shows a prototype of the old Fu Lung Teahouse at No. 382 to 386 Queen’s Road, Sheung Wan.Fu Lung Teahouse was “the place” where everyone hung out. In the teahouse, you would hear the songs of Nanyin and chirping sparrows that loyal diners brought in. The bird cages would hang by the windows soaking in the sunlight. Hanging out at Fu Lung was one of the significant forms of entertainment for people.
Nanyin is an intangible heritage on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List. According to UNESCO, Nanyin is a folk music performing art from Fujian Province that later inspired the birth of Chinese opera.
Eric Yung, one of the curators, was sentimental as he looked at the complete models. “In the past, the teahouse was a leisurely place. Everyone sat together, sharing pots of Chinese tea and dim sum. But right now, we live in a fast-food culture, so a half-hour lunch has become more of a norm. But fast food dining swept over and replaced the aroma of elegance and closeness in old dim sum restaurants that once had,” he said.
In Memory of Rickshaws
The red human-powered rickshaws died away in 1980.Since rickshaws no longer exist, the curators could only restore the looks by researching and studying photos. They hope the public can learn about the once-important transportation in Hong Kong.
The Neon Life
Born in the 1970s, Yung witnessed the peak of neon signs and wanted to highlight the blinding, sharp neon-colored signage hanging all over Hong Kong during the production. He said, “neon lights were very famous at the time. Since the streets were dense, you could see a sea of neon signs in different colors.”But as the government removed neon signs, LED became the replacement. Yung felt that Hong Kong had lost part of its charm with the disappearing neon signs and some industries.
When making the old street model in Sheung Wan, team members spent the most time looking through photos and replicating the typography once used on the neon signs.
As Chinese characters are made of different components and strokes, and most signages use handwritten script fonts, making 3D prototype signatures is challenging.
“In the past, shops hired calligraphists to handwrite the signs before sending them to signage makers to make signboards.” For this exhibition, Eric said they only had the old photos’ signage as a reference.
Each signboard had different calligraphy styles. Hence, Yung’s team had to computerize the Chinese words one by one before printing to recreate the likeness as closely as possible.
“Some of the words might have faded from the photos. So the only thing we could do is to sketch them ourselves, without any sampling, which requires a lot of time,” Yung said.
Typhoons are common in Hong Kong. People devised a way to counter the possible damage to avoid the vast and heavy sign from blowing away. People would create a ventilation outlet on the signboards, so the strong wind could go through those outlets instead of hitting the signage directly.
Hong Kong Memories: Miniature Model and Photo Exhibition of Old Streets of Hong Kong will run for six months, starting from Dec. 23 at the University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus, 168 Victoria Rd, Mount Davis, Hong Kong.
