The hawkers of Hong Kong and Los Angeles: two cities, two very different stories

Street vending has long been an iconic part of the urban scene in Hong Kong and Los Angeles, enriching them socially while helping the less well off earn a living. Now, as one city does all it can to preserve the culture, the other seems intent on destroying what’s left of a way of life.

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A stinky tofu stall on Portland Street, Mong Kok, during Lunar New Year 2016. Photo: EPA

Rachel Cheungin ShanghaiandCharley Lanyon

Published: 9:15am, 16 Mar 2019Updated: 1:53am, 17 Mar 2019

Hawkers have been peddling their wares on the streets of Hong Kong since there was little more than a fishing village on the island. By the 1960s, the street-vending scene had reached its peak and vibrant, bustling, fragrant collections of hawker stalls – offering everything from snacks to cheap household goods and newspapers – could be found serving communities across the territory. Nearly one in six of the population made a living by selling their wares in the open and almost everyone who remembers those heady scenes recalls them with fond nostalgia for a bygone era. After years of government clampdowns and confrontations, this intangible cultural heritage is on the brink of disappearing.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Los Angeles is rekindling its street-hawker culture. Wander the American city’s streets of an evening, squint your eyes and sniff the air, and you could be anywhere from Honduras to Iran. Many of LA’s pavements are crowded with food stalls, impromptu second-hand markets and wandering fruit vendors. The diverse street scene is like nowhere else in the country. As the federal government sought to tighten its grip, instead of enforcement, the city opted to thumb its nose at Donald Trump and take radical steps to protect its vendors, orchestrating a renaissance in its street-vending culture.

As the two cities head in opposite directions, we look at how they came to follow such different paths.

Hong Kong

Chan Chuen (right) sells oyster pancakes in a Cheung Sha Wan playground during the Lunar New Year. Photo: Antony Dickson

Chan Chuen deftly scoops an oyster pancake from the sizzling oil, places it on a paper plate and hands it to the customer waiting at the head of a growing line. On his cart stands a jar of peppers for those who want an extra kick. Across the way, even before he has set up his stall, a crowd gathers around 59-year-old Tsang Kai-sun – aka the king of rice rolls – a veteran hawker who has made a name for himself with his signature dim sum.

Fried pig intestine, nan bread with tandoori chicken, grilled lobsters and oysters; the mouth-watering array of street food on offer at the more than 200 hawker stalls has drawn a huge crowd to Portland Street, in Mong Kok, already one of Hong Kong’s busiest districts. These first three days of the Lunar New Year are the only period when unlicensed hawkers are allowed on the streets.

For many here, the spectacle is a nostalgic reminder of Hong Kong’s past.

“Hawkers were in every district. It was a bustling scene and it felt almost like the nights would never be over,” says Chan, who is in his 60s and has the weathered face of a man who works long hours in the sun.