bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

Sydney Chung Sheung-chee

former dean of medicine at CUHK

'I love wet markets in Hong Kong, and the government should try to protect them and keep them in their present shape. I am a bit worried that they could be replaced by supermarkets in the future. Shopping in wet markets is so different from shopping in supermarkets.

'When I was small, I went to wet markets with my mother. Now sometimes I go with my wife. I enjoy talking to the hawkers there, and I always ask what vegetables are best and sometimes they teach us how to cook, it is a kind of social activity. In supermarkets, you can only see the goods, not people.'

Winston Chu Ka-sun

founder and adviser of Society for Protection of the Harbour

'Hong Kong is too pro-development; our town planning is focused on making money instead of creating a better environment for the people. We are a prosperous city, we don't have to sell our family silver. We need to strike a balance between development and conservation.  We used to have a Cloth Street and a Bird Street; they were unique but they're gone. I would like to see the Stone Step Street (Pottinger Street),  Wedding Card Street (Lee Tung Street) preserved - the preservation should be the whole street, not just a few houses. I also hope the government  preserves walled villages in the New Territories, prohibiting the construction of small houses. In those villages, a few new houses can destroy the whole environment.'

Mathias Woo Yan-wai

a director of theatre company Zuni Icosahedron

'There are many places in Hong Kong worthy of preservation. But if I had to name one, I would suggest the Wong Do Theatre building in King's Road, North Point. It is a low-rise building. It was built in the 1950s but was turned into a shopping mall and a snooker  hall a few years ago. It has social, historical and architectural significance.

'Architecturally speaking, it was influenced by the Soviet Union's  constructivists of the 1920s and 30s. Historically and socially speaking, it is one of the last remaining independent old-style big cinemas.  We don't have big cinemas any more.'



Three perspectives on what constitutes heritage