Sign maker and calligrapher keeps his art alive, architects preserve old signs as they are stripped from Hong Kong streets
- One of the last artisans still making signs using Chinese calligraphy, Au Yeung Cheong describes his work. Two architects, meanwhile, save old Hong Kong signs
- A recent exhibition of signs they rescued from businesses that shut or fell foul of government safety rules drew nostalgic older people and curious youngsters
During the latter half of the 20th century, colourful signboards that projected horizontally over busy Hong Kong thoroughfares such as Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui and Lockhart Road in Wan Chai were synonymous with the city’s vibrancy. Eye-catching, and many glowing in neon at night, they drew passers-by to shops and restaurants.
“For those of you living in Hong Kong, you all know the density of the streets and cityscape. So when you walk on the street, you seldom see the elevation and facade of the buildings,” says architect Ken Fung Tat-wai. “What you see are the different signboards protruding from buildings, which form a very vibrant cityscape of Hong Kong.”
But these markers have been quickly disappearing, something Fung and fellow architect Kevin Mak King-huai, both 36, began noticing about six years ago. One day, walking back to their office after lunch, they noticed the Chinese signboard of a pawnshop discarded on the ground and cut in half.
“At the time we didn’t think much of it. But we thought there was some kind of cultural value to it, and we asked the workers if we could keep the sign,” Fung recalls.
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Sign of the times: group tries to save Hong Kong’s last calligraphy signboards
“So from there, we started paying more attention to the signboard streetscape in Hong Kong, and then in the following years we noticed a rapid disappearance of signboards from the streets.”
The reasons are twofold. Some older shops have shut, while the signs of some existing businesses have been taken down for failing to comply with the Buildings Department’s Signboard Control System regulations, implemented in 2010. The initiative kicked in after incidents in which neglected signboards came loose and fell onto pedestrians.