Hong Kong neighbourhood where spark for 1967 riots was lit, San Po Kong wears its history lightly

San Po Kong’s modest origins as a village in Kowloon belie its important role in bringing about social change in Hong Kong

The area remains a neighbourhood unlike any other, and with a community that today includes literary organisations and theatre groups

5-MIN READ5-MIN

Bleak House Books. What does the defiance of a second-hand bookshop in San Po Kong, frequently closed in the past six months, reveal about the history of the neighbourhood? Photo: Christopher DeWolf

Published: 6:03pm, 9 Dec 2019Updated: 10:05am, 10 Dec 2019

Book lovers in Hong Kong know there’s a haven of English-language literature and comics to be found at San Po Kong’s Bleak House Books.

However, those that have attempted to visit the second-hand bookshop in the past six months may have found its doors closed – in support of the city’s pro-democracy protesters.

“We wouldn’t be able to do what we do if we did not have the freedoms that all the protesters have been fighting to protect,” says Albert Wan, a lawyer who opened Bleak House Books two years ago.

Bleak House ended up in San Po Kong, an industrial neighbourhood in Kowloon northeast of Kowloon City, quite simply because the right space became available at the right price at the right time. It has since become an important part of a creative community that includes literary organisations, photographers and theatre groups.

San Po Kong as seen from Bleak House Books. Photo: Christopher DeWolf

Its political advocacy is in keeping with the neighbourhood’s spirit.

A mix of industrial buildings, working-class apartment blocks and recently built upmarket developments, San Po Kong has a history of being at the forefront of political change.