How Hong Kong's stress on safety has made children's playgrounds a bore
The city's older playgrounds are fast giving way to cookie-cutter designs that remove all element of risk. Although well-intended, they may be doing children a disservice, experts say
Can the loss of a playground slide make a difference? It certainly did for some parents. When officials removed a 14-year-old slide from Hong Kong Park in April, several parents set up a Facebook group calling for it to be reinstalled.
Most old playground favourites such as metal slides, jungle gyms made from iron pipes, and climbing ropes and nets have gradually vanished from the city. Leung Kwong-fuk, a photographer, mourns the disappearance of what he views as more stimulating facilities for children's play.
Leung has spent more than 20 years taking photos of playgrounds across the city, and published a selection last year in his book, So Long Playground, which features many vintage images.
"The old playground installations were not designed for the use of just one child," he says. "They took group effort - like the carousel of wood and metal. Children must push together to get the heavy wheel spinning and jump on when it gathers speed. Children learned social skills in the process.
"Slides also used to be very tall and were made of wood or metal. Now everything is made of plastic. Climbing frames could be up to two storeys high. I enjoyed climbing all the way to the top as a child."
When he was growing up, safety features weren't a factor in playground design and if children fell, they just picked themselves up, Leung says.