Sean Rocha

On the streets of Hong Kong in 1938

I lived in Hong Kong for three years in the early- to mid-1990s and the pace of change was so rapid that we were all conscious of an Old Hong Kong that had been there once before but of which little trace remained. A few vestiges of it could be found in Sheung Wan or Sai Ying Pun — or self-conscious reenactments of it, as at the Old Peak Cafe or high tea at the Peninsula — but for the most part this earlier city was a phantom presence. It was understood to be smaller scale, more human, poorer and more unjust, and how you regarded it owed a great deal to which of those descriptors you valued most.
This film, from 1938, captures the scale and charm of that older Hong Kong as few others do; also, the ridiculously condescending colonial attitude on which it was founded. This is how the film’s narrator presents the scene:

Under tolerant and wise British rule, with willing Oriental assistance, has grown a modern Western city in an Eastern setting, where more than a million contented Chinese well in harmony, merging their ancient civilization, culture and manners with those of the 20,000 Europeans who guide or minister to them.

Well, that’s something to consider. My first visit to Hong Kong was in 1989 — I landed nine days after the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing on June 4, 1989 — and one of the principal reasons I went was to see the HSBC headquarters designed by Norman Foster, which replaced the building below that can be seen in the film. But, as it happens, my grandfather’s first visit to Hong Kong came seven years (and one world war) after this film was made so this, roughly, would have been the city in which he landed.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 1st, 2018 at 8:02 am. It is filed under That is Genius and tagged with China, East Asia, film, Hong Kong, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.