Award-Winning Film Helps Stave off the Wrecker’s Ball

Hong Kong – It took an award-winning film to swing the balance and save a colonial-era terrace (right) — a rare victory for Hong Kong’s increasingly vocal heritage preservation lobby.

In a place where knock-it-down-and-rebuild has become the norm over the years, the emergence of a youthful movement dedicated to saving Hong Kong’s “collective memory” took the establishment by surprise.

This interest has become a rallying cry of an increasingly politicised section of the younger generation of Hong Kong people. Heritage has become part of a broader platform demanding greater representation.

One of these young activists is Wong Ho-ying: He explains his motivation:

The success of the battle to save the tong lau (Chinese tenements) of

is unusual.

Other conservation efforts came to naught: despite sit-ins and demonstrations, they failed to save the old Star Ferry Pier on the

in November 2006 or the adjacent Queen’s Pier the following year.

Nor did their efforts halt the demolition of “Wedding Card Street” — a row of tenements housing old-fashioned printers in a neighbourhood where generations have ordered not just wedding invitations, but letterheads, name cards, calendars, lai see (lucky money) packets and banners — in short the sort of printed goods required for rites of passage.

The tong lau of Wing Lee Street are an exception to the rule. The success of the award-winning (and publicly-funded) Hong Kong movie Echoes of the Rainbow is credited for the stay of execution.

But does this single victory signal a change in direction? Many activists are pessimistic The tong lau of

in the Sham Shui Po district of central Kowloon have not attracted much high-profile attention. Activists fear their demise.

Older structures are still being phased out and the heritage guardians are losing the “war” against the publicly-funded Urban Renewal Authority. One such setback was Tsoi Yuen Village demolished to make way for a controversial high-speed rail network.

“I think that urban redevelopment issues, like Lee Tung Street and Tsoi Yuen Village, are democracy issues,” Wong said. “In the midst of democratic reforms, we need more discussions as to how to put democratic ideals into people’s daily concerns.”