Hong Kong Vernacular

Heritage conservation is the hot topic these days. We demonize the government for tearing down the Star Ferry pier because we have a “collective memory” of it (even if you’ve only take the ferry once or twice in your life). Any attempt now to tear down anything with an 80-year-old history would no doubt create a public outcry.

But stop and think about how the preservation of buildings affects your daily life. Helping to preserve them makes you feel good, but that building itself may have little impact on your daily life. Meanwhile, there are plenty of uniquely Hong Kong objects, shops and traditions that, though possibly of little obvious historical value, significantly shape our everyday experience of this city. Think of the corner newspaper vendor, the traditional teahouse, the street cobbler. Many of them are quickly disappearing.

Some may call these the “vernacular” aspects of Hong Kong. In linguistics, “vernacular” usually refers to the native language of an area; similarly, “vernacular architecture” refers to a style of design that reflects the unique attributes of a place. When we say “vernacular” here, we are talking about the human-sized, street-level culture of our city, taking a cue from the famous urbanist Jane Jacobs, who often argued that the most important part of a city was its fundamental unit, the street.

The tiny little temple at the end of your street may not have the historical value of a bigger one like Man Mo Temple, but it does have vernacular value. It’s a feature of your daily commute, and perhaps you bow at it out of habit. Or remember the outdoor market down the street where your mother did most of the shopping when you were young?

A quick walk around Hong Kong Island will give you a quintessential vernacular tour. Right after you exit the Central MTR station near Theatre Lane you are confronted with green tin stalls – locksmiths, cobblers and chop-makers. Their shops have been in that small alley for decades. Nearby is the Li Yuen Street outdoor market chock-full of cheap clothes, followed by more stalls on Pottinger Street selling everything from electronic gadgets to tin boxes and Halloween costumes. The outdoor wet market just around the corner on Graham and Gage Streets is one of the few remaining markets of its kind (you might even see an old Chinese servant with her braided ponytail there, groceries in both hands.) Keep walking up to on Bonham Road near High Street and you’ll find several beautiful masonry wall trees.

Social commentator Tim Hamlett, who arrived in Hong Kong 30 years ago, says the street life was one of the first things about Hong Kong that made an impression on him. “When I first arrived, Hong Kong had the most exciting streets in the world. Walking to work was more exciting than tourism in Europe,” he remembers. “There were people selling food and vegetables, live turtles, fresh quail egg congee with odd things floating in it… there were people who would cut your hair, read your letters and write replies, sell you dubious jade and respectable shirts and on and on.”

Those of us who have lived in the city for decades cannot forget how much we used to depend on small outdoor businesses. With few shopping malls and limited retail space, most entrepreneurs on a budget usually ended up doing their business on the street. Some still remain – watch repairmen, threading ladies (who use needles and thread to remove your facial hair) and even the devil beaters under the Canal Road bridge (who will cast “spells” for a small fee). Even if you don’t use them, you probably walk past them everyday.