There Goes the Neighborhood

It’s human nature—we don’t treasure something until it’s gone. And then when it’s gone, we say well, there are still some others left—until they too are gone. This is the case with Wing Lee Street in Sheung Wan. This tiny little street behind Bridges Street is arguably the last authentic Hong Kong neighborhood, a street with entirely 1950s architecture that we commonly call “tong lau,” which has been virtually unchanged over the past decades. Even though it is now surrounded by high-rise residential estates, the buildings on Wing Lee Street still look the same, and the spirit of the community’s inhabitants—many of whom have lived there for decades—is still the same. But not for much longer.

In 2003, a redevelopment plan from the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) revealed that Wing Lee Street would be demolished—a plan that has yet to be approved, but could be passed as early as this month. But Wing Lee Street’s popularity was brought to new heights last month, when local film “Echoes of the Rainbow,” which was shot there on location, won the Crystal Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival. Its filmmakers, Alex Law Kai-yui and Mable Cheung, made a public plea, asking the URA to conserve Wing Lee Street instead of demolishing it. As of press time, the URA has not wavered on its decision to demolish.

With yet another URA redevelopment project set to destroy yet another valuable piece of our existing heritage, the least that HK Magazine could do is to present what is happening to our readers, document the history before it is gone and open the discussion once again on this controversial project. In the following pages, we report on why Wing Lee Street has a strong heritage value, seen through the street’s residents and its architectural value through its tong laus. We then provide a glimpse of the URA’s vision of what they think Wing Lee Street should look like in their redevelopment project. We also examine how Hong Kong, a city full of history, has had its historic bits taken apart to such an extent that it has become a headache for local filmmakers hoping to reclaim our old heyday on the silver screen. And finally, we talk with those who appear to be the URA’s worst nightmare—people who have spent their own money to renovate tong laus; you see, the URA’s position is that old, dilapidated tong laus must be demolished.

That’s the best that we can do but you can do more—before its demolition, take a trip down collective memory lane, to Wing Lee Street, before it’s too late.

Save the Tong Lau

Why should we conserve Wing Lee Street?

Wing Lee Street might be tiny, but is a testimony to Hong Kong’s history, and one of the last remaining pieces of heritage of this kind. Architecture professor Woo Pui-leng of Chinese University, who has done extensive studies on the urban transformation of Central and Western district, takes us on an architectural tour down Wing Lee.