Muted signs, traversing desires: a trip with no itinerary in Hong Kong’s Kowloon, 1934 (OR, Street-walking: geography of leisure and control) / Linda Chiu-han Lai
feature image: Nathan Road in 1925, looking at Haiphong Road at Whitfield
This essay is a tale of my virtual walk through a few thoroughfares in the new commercial centre of colonial Hong Kong around 1934, a relatively quiet year without any major political crisis, although the colony was a hotbed for espionage and the threat of Japanese invasion was already severely felt in China. The areas covered by my walk in 1934 are, in contemporary Hong Kong, the heart of tourism, in the southern tip of the Kowloon Peninsula, which is on the opposite side of the Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong Island, the earliest hub of the colony's urban development and administrative centre since its founding in 1842. In this essay, my walk covers the tourist-obsessed Nathan Road, Canton Road and the Temple Street, among others.
KEYWORD SUMMARY
historiographic experiment | experimental narrative | topology | cartography | Dasein | being as a site | presencing (presentness) | flanerie | emergent narrative | virtual ethnography | performative walking | situated ethnographer | cognito-perceptual experience of the sjourner | sensorium of the drifter |1934 Hong Kong | Kowloon Peninsula 1934
FULL ESSAY [READ ...] -- part of a book project
EXPOSITION: the origins of a virtual ethnographer's quest for the historiographic real
I often wonder what gives me the pride of being a Hong Kong Islander except for the reason that I was born and grew up on this island, went to school and still live here, unless my parents decide to move. Kowloon is just on the other side of the harbor and it has always been the backdrop of daily travels through the Island. It could be that Kowloon is mainly a product of the 20th century, the way it goes in our daily conversation, a mere offshoot of Hong Kong, unlike the Island, where the heart and soul of the colony lies. Every street on Hong Kong Island has a counterpart on the Kowloon Peninsula. Our Robinson Road, the first main road built on the mid-level, used to be also the name of Kowloon's main artery, now Nathan Road, renamed since 1908. (Tregear and Berry, 18)
My queries all began with a poem I read by Wen Yiduo, key figure of the May Fourth Literary Movement in China, “qi zi zhi ge” [the song of the seventh son], in which he spoke in the first person on behalf of Kowloon. Calling him(it-)self “the younger Daughter,” Kowloon summons to Mother China for her attention to the pain and suffering of her elder Son Hong Kong Island. The lines were quoted in the travel journal of another literary writer Zhang Ruogu, whose visit to the colony last year (1933) concludes with a patriotic lamentation for the colony’s occupation by Britain.
I read in the newspaper an article by local writer Lee King-sun [Li Jingxin] about his setting aside a whole day to make a meaningful trip to Kowloon. [WKYP, 30 July 1934, 4:3] The 'special occasion' he describes, especially how he packed the day with a full program, intrigues me. There seems to be so much to do there: seeing friends and relatives, visiting schools and some of the historical scenic spots. As a matter of fact, he has turned the entire trip into a four-part essay titled “After visiting Hong Kong and Kowloon” [you Xianggang Jiulong hou] (1-4). I read every line with utmost curiosity, except that these articles give me almost no clue to the material, urban quality of the Peninsula: I do not get any sense of the hot and noisy streets of the thick residential areas or the bustling business center that is supposed to be there.
... ...
I once came across W.H. Auden’s poem. The first two stanzas read:
“The leading characters are wise and witty;
Substantial men of birth and education
With wide experience of administration,
They know the manners of a modern city.
Only the servants enter unexpected;
Their silence has a fresh dramatic use:
Here in the East the bankers have erected
A worthy temple to the Comic Muse. …”
I have seen what he has seen. But his impression for the colony, too, seems to fall short of a good thorough walk into the crammed dwellings of Hong Kong and Kowloon.
The poem, titled “Hongkong,” was published as part of the book
Journey to a War that W.H. Auden authored as a result of his traveling to the Far East with Christopher Isherwood in the late 1930s. The book, with both poems and prose, recorded their impression of hostilities in China. The poem I read is anthologized in Barbara-Sue White, p. 195.
The poem was quoted in Zhang Ruogu’s essay, “Xianggang yu Jiu Long” [Hong Kong and Kowloon] in Lo Wai-lun [Lu Weilian] (ed.), Xianggang de you yu: wenren bi xia de Xianggang (1925-1941) [the sorrow of Hong Kong: Hong Kong according to the literati (1925-1941)] (Hong Kong: Wah Fung, 1983), p. 39. Zhang’s essay was written as a response to his strolling in the colony in May 1933. The first two lines quoted are: “wo de baoxiong Xianggang zai su ta de kutong, muqing ya, ke ji de ni de you nu jiulong?” [My brother Hong Kong is lamenting his pain. Oh, mother! Do you still remember your young daughter Kowloon?]
See WKYP (4:3) July 30, August 1, August 4, and August 8, 1934.
Bibliography:
Benson, Stella, 1996: “Hong Kong Prostitutes,” in Barbara-Sue White (ed.) Hong Kong: Somewhere between Heaven and Earth. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong. 182-92.
Bergson, Henri, 1912/1999: An Introduction to Metaphysics; introduction by Thomas A. Goudge; trans. T.E. Hulme. Hackett, Indianapolis, Cambridge.
Brennan, Tim, 2001: “Manoeuvre: discursive performance,” Architectural Design 71:3, 48-51.
De Beistegui, Miguel, 2008: (Review Article) “Jeff Malpas, Heidegger's Topology, MIT Press, 2006”. Parrhesia, no. 5: 73-7.
Feng Zichi, 1996: “wo zai Ping An dianying yuan ershi nian de jingli” [my twenty years of experience at the Alhambra Theatres], originally published in Tianjing wenshi ziliao xuanji [a selection of materials on the history and documentation of Tianjing], no. 32, June, 1985; anthologized in China Film Archive (ed.), Zhongguo wusheng dianying [silent films in China]. China Film Publishing, Beijing. 1583-1588.
Fung Bong-yin [Feng Bangyan], 2001: A Century of Hong Kong Real Estate Development. Joint Publishing, Hong Kong.
David (david@gwulo.com), images of old hong Kong at: http://gwulo.com/ (since June 29, 2009)
Gillian, Rose, 1999: “Performing Space,” in Doreen Massey, John Allen and Philip Sarre (eds.), Human Geography Today. Polity Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Gleber, A., 1999: The Art of Taking a Walk: Flanerie, Literature, and Film in Weimar Culture. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Hoe, Susanna, 1991: “Stella, Gladys, Phyllis, and Brothels,” in The Private Life of Old Hong Kong. Oxford University, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Government Public Records: archived photo albums at the Public Records. [abbrev. HKGPR]
Hong Kong Museum of History: family albums from the 1930s of Frederick George Clark deposited at the Resource Centre. (HKMH – Clark Album)
Hong Kong Museum of History (HKMH): archived photo albums at the Resource Centre.
Industrial and Commercial Daily Press (pin-yin Gongshang ribao) , a Chinese-language daily newspaper. 1933-1934. [abbrev. I&C]
Hume, David, 2003 (1739-40): A Treatise of Human Nature. Dover, New York.
Lai, Chiu-han Linda, 2000: HK Cinema in the 1930s: Docility, Social Hygiene, Pleasure-seeking & the Consolidation of the Film Industry. Screening the Past, issue #11. Officially Upload on November 1, 2000: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr1100/llfr11h.htm
__________, 2006: Producing heterotopia: Traces of the cinema in the thick space of governmentality, localism and citizenship in 1934 Hong Kong (Ph.D. thesis submitted to the New York University). 658 pages. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-09, Section: A, page: 3203.
Leeming, Frank, 1977: Street Studies in Hong Kong: Localities in a Chinese City. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong.
Liebst, Lasse Suonperä, 2012: Intensifying the Atmospheric: a post phenomenological reappraisal of the ambiance of urban space. Paper ref: 8105. Proceedings: Eighth International Space Syntax Symposium; ed. M. Greene, J. Reyes and A. Castro. Santiago, Chile.
Lo Wai-lun [Lu Weilian] (ed.), 1983: Xianggang de you yu: wenren bi xia de Xianggang (1925-1941) [the sorrow of Hong Kong: Hong Kong according to the literati (1925-1941)]. Wah Fung, Hong Kong.
Lui Lun [Lu Lun], 1948: Yong jiu zhi ge [the long-lasting song], short story anthology. Lucky Publishing House [hong yun chuban she], Hong Kong.
__________1951: Kang Li [the couple], an anthology of Lui Lun's novels. Man Kwok Book House, Hong Kong.
Malpas, Jeff E., 2006: Heidegger's Topology: Being, Place, World. MIT Press, Cambridge, U.S.
Massey, Doreen; Allen, John; and Sartre, Philip (eds.), 1999: Human Geography Today. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.
Nam Chung Po (Nam Zhong Bao), a Chinese daily (1933-1935).
RTHK, 1988: Sixty years of broadcasting in Hong Kong [1928-1988]. Radio-Television Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Smith, Carl T.: Carl T. Smith archival notes, read at the Public Records.
South China Morning Post , local English-language daily newspaper, Hong Kong (1923-1934). [abbrev. SCMP]
Tong, Cheuk-man; Toong, David P.M.; Cheung, Alan S.K.; and Mo, Yu-kai (compil.), 1993: A Selective Collection of Hong Kong Historic Postcards. Joint Publishing, Hong Kong.
Tregear, Thomas R.; and Berry, L., 1959: The Development of Hong Kong and Kowloon as Told in Maps. Hong Kong Unversity Press and MacMillan, Hong Kong.
Tse Wing-kwong, 1994: Tang xi hua yue hen I & II [marks of flower and moon in West Shek Tong Tsui]; an adaptation of Law Lai-ming's 1200+ articlesin Sing Tao Evening News (1956-60), anthologized as a 4-part series with same title in 1963. Ming Po Publishing, Hong Kong.
Wah Kiu Yat Po [hua qiao ribao], a Chinese-language daily newspaper, Hong Kong (1933-1934). [abbrev. WKYP]
Abbreviations:
HKGPR = archived photo albums at the HK Government Public Records
HKMH = archived photo albums at the Hong Kong Museum of History's Resource Centre
HKMH-Clark = private family photo albums (1930s) by Frederick George Clark deposited at the Hong Kong Museum of History's Resource Centre.
I & C = Industrial & Commercial Daily (daily – Chinese language, HK)
SCMP = South China Morning Post (daily – English language, HK)
RTHK = Radio Television Hong Kong
WKYP = Wah Kiu Yat Po (daily – Chinese language, HK)
General Reference:
Hong Kong Directory and Hong List for the Far East - 1934; the 72nd year of publicaation. The Hongkong Daily Press Limited, Hong Kong and London.
Hong Kong Government, 1840-1935: The Hong Kong Government Gazette. Government Printer, Hong Kong.
__________, 1934: Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of the Colony of Hong Kong During the Year 1933. Hong Kong.
__________, 1935: Blue Book for the Year 1934. Government Printer, Hong Kong.
__________, 1935: Hong Kong Administrative Report. Government Printer, Hong Kong.
Index of Streets of Victoria & Kowloon 1934.
Hong Kong Year Book 1934. Hong Kong Year Book Publishing House, Hong Kong.