The light display that snowballed into the biggest festive show in Hong Kong

‘Have you seen the lights yet?’ In the early 1980s, that was the question everyone seemed to ask as Christmas approached

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Christmas lights blaze in Chater Road, Central, in 1981. Photo: Robin Lam Kit

Published: 2:00pm, 21 Jan 2017Updated: 6:54pm, 21 Jan 2017

Hong Kong was no stranger to decorative lights when Tsim Sha Tsui East first started to dress up for the festive winter in the 1980s, but it was the seasonal sparkle that drew unprecedented crowds to the tune of hundreds of thousands.

“At first there weren’t many lights,” recalled Terence Wong Kim-shan, a long-time designer of the district’s decorations. “So when you make Christmas lights that come in many colours, many people would come.”

In time, the number of visitors snowballed from 20,000 to 100,000, then to 150,000 and 300,000 before reaching 800,000, he said.

Cheng Po-hung says the Christmas lights had become a major attraction by the early 1980s. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Cheng Po-hung, an adviser to the Museum of History, said the district’s eye-popping scale of twinkling displays made it a must-go site for Hongkongers seeking Christmas lights.

“Almost everyone in the early 1980s would ask if you’d seen the lights, as if they were asking if you’ve had lunch,” he recounted.

Revellers crammed shoulder to shoulder as they walked along the promenade from the Cultural Centre towards the newly reclaimed area, Cheng said, with people jamming the footbridges to get a better vantage point of the twinkling lights.

Pedestrians take in the festive light show in Central. Photo: Robin Lam Kit

And some would catch a glimpse from a Star Ferry plying Victoria Harbour as many light displays were strategically placed along the vessels’ routes.