Mouthing Off | Why Hong Kong’s Central Market heritage makeover will succeed where others fail
- Andrew Sun waxes lyrical about the newly renovated Central Market, and predicts a rosy future with plenty of pedestrian traffic
- Meanwhile, PMQ and Tai Kwun, two similar projects designed for creative users, are in danger of becoming white elephants
Strolling through the newly renovated Central Market last week, I felt surprisingly sentimental. It didn’t happen with bigger renovation projects in Hong Kong’s Central district, such as PMQ and Tai Kwun. Those historic sites had grander ambitions but not the same emotional connection for me.
Maybe it’s because my mother didn’t take me to those places when I was a kid (that’s right, my mom and I never went to Tai Kwun when it was Central Prison).
But I still have vague memories of the old market, navigating grimy stalls to buy fresh meat for dinner. The place didn’t smell particularly nice – does any wet market? – and I hated having to dodge all the dirty puddles to keep my canvas shoes clean.
But setting foot inside the reopened site stirred some real nostalgia, like catching up with an old classmate. The old, utilitarian relic now has a new life.
Some people really like it, but others, with higher expectations, not as much. I think grass-roots advocates hoped for more community-based or cultural usage instead of a bunch of commercial retail and food and beverage tenants. But that’s wishful thinking in Hong Kong.
Such idealists might as well join hands and imagine all the people with no greed or hunger, sharing all the world and living life in peace. Sorry, no Leninists (or Lennonists) here.
