Saturday, July 21, 2007

Sham Shui Po

Now Playing: "Jesus Hairdo", The Charlatans

Old Chinese tenement at Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

Mr Yau, a man with 2000+ Books but less than 60 Sq. Ft. of room
Photos above are from the project " Our Life in West Kowloon"

(I started writing this article at 21/07/2007. Oh my f**king god, I desert my blog for a month. Luckily, I've not launched it officially...yet.)

"Hong Kong is a modern and prosperous city. But do we hear the voices of those living beneath the poverty line? Do we realize that there are still people living in such poor conditions today? In this wealthy society, the poor are given nothing but the cold shoulder. Their dignity has been heartlessly crushed. Struggling day after day, never getting any closer to living stable lives. Caring and acceptance, rather than hypocrisy are all they crave from society." From " Our Life in West Kowloon". (In English, click here for Chinese version)

I got an email from my friend H about the project . I highly recommend this website, especially if you only know Hong Kong for its Metropolitan side.

Like what the website said, Sham Shui Po is "one of the poorest districts in Hong Kong. It is also the area where most new immigrant families, singletons, street-sleepers, newly emerged underprivileged groups".

I used to go to Sham Shui Po a lot. I bought my pirate computer games on floppy disks there when I was a kid. I went there to get fabric and electronic parts, almost twice a week, when I was working in films/TV. Many friends of mine bought their 1st decent Hi-Fi system there.

I miss Sham Shui Po. I wish I can eat the lovely tofu desert (Tofufa) and chat with the friendly staff of the fabric shops there now.

1 comment:

Kailah said...

I lived there this summer, in a tiny rooftop flat. I'm non-Chinese, and moved there from Tuen Mun. I'm glad to have gotten to live in such an interesting district as Sham Shui Po! It also had such a neighborhood feeling.