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Connor Mycroft

When Andrew Chui Shek-on was ordered to remove the 42-year-old neon signboard hanging over the Tai Ping Koon Restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, he could have taken it down and left the storefront barren.
Instead, the fifth-generation owner of the chain of four Chinese eateries famous for its Swiss chicken wings and giant souffles replaced it with a new one.
For him, the neon sign was an important part of the 163-year-old restaurant’s history.
“It’s not just a sign,” Chui said. “It represents the culture of Hong Kong.”

Like Tai Ping Koon, businesses such as Nam Cheong Pawn Shop in Sham Shui Po and Hong Zhou Restaurant in Wan Chai have put up new neon signs this year that meet current rules.
Ken Fung Tat-wai, co-founder of signboard preservation group @streetsignhk, said: “Over the past few years we’ve seen more shops choosing to rebuild their signs.”
Since 2017, he and fellow architect Kevin Mak King-huai have used their group to promote signboard culture, while also helping businesses preserve and rebuild their traditional signs.
“Even in 2017, people still saw signboards more as a hazard than a piece of Hong Kong’s heritage,” Fung said.

The disappearance of Hong Kong’s traditional neon sign boards, following the rise of LED technology and tightening signboard regulations, received renewed attention this week with the release of the film A Light Never Goes Out.
Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang stars as a grieving widow who takes up her late husband’s trade of making neon signs. She is a nominee for Best Actress at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday, having already won an accolade for the role at Taiwan’s Golden Horse last year.

In Hong Kong, public safety concerns grew in the 2000s after incidents of ageing signboards falling on pedestrians.
By 2010, the government had introduced a dedicated signboard control unit and retroactively rendered all existing signboards illegal unless they complied with new building standards on size and placement.
The Buildings Department, which is responsible for enforcing the rules, said it did not keep track of neon signboards specifically, but some groups estimate that there are only a few hundred left.
Businesses can register under the Signboard Validation Scheme to avoid having their signs removed, but since its introduction in 2013, only 410 applications have been approved.
Lights out for Hong Kong’s neon signs? Why tradition is losing its shine
The department said an average of about 3,300 signboards had been “removed or replaced” annually between 2018 and last year.
Fung said cost remained the biggest hurdle stopping more businesses from installing new neon signs.
These signs require a skilled master to build them, and there are only around eight left in the city. Businesses also need to spend thousands of dollars a year on maintenance, as the glass tubes are easily damaged by bad weather and falling objects.
But even LED signs, which are considerably cheaper and more energy efficient, are too expensive for many small businesses suffering from the city’s economic downturn over the past few years, Fung said.
“It’s already a big cost for a small business to take down a sign,” he said. “So most will not think of installing a new one.”

Winnie Lam Wing-yee, owner of Koon Nam Wah Bridal, said she paid more than HK$300,000 (US$38,216) to replace two large neon signs taken down from her Kowloon store last August.
She said she was heartbroken to receive a final warning from the Buildings Department to remove the signs which were first installed when her father ran the business nearly 50 years ago.
“I wanted to keep them up as long as possible,” Lam said.
But owners who do not remove their signs face up to a year in jail or a fine of up to HK$200,000.
11 of the best Hong Kong neon signs – catch them while you still can
Lam complied with the order but immediately started planning for a new sign that was smaller and within the rules.
“I still want to keep the tradition alive,” she said. “It’s something you can only see in Hong Kong.”
Brian Kwok Sze-hang, an associate professor at the design school of Polytechnic University, said neon had a symbolic association with Hong Kong’s economic boom period of the 1980s and 1990s, particularly among a younger generation becoming increasingly interested in the craft.
“Neon signs represent the prosperity of the city,” he said.
He said retaining the signs while obeying current rules could still convey the “high level of craftsmanship” involved and reflect a shop’s deep connection with Hong Kong.

Tai Ping Koon Restaurant’s Chui said he was already preparing to install another new neon signboard to replace the 60-year-old sign at his Yau Ma Tei branch.
Now 61, he said he was looking forward to the day when his son Anson, 13, took over the business and inherited the new neon signs.
“I want him to understand that the sign has so much meaning for us, it’s a part of our family’s legacy,” he said.
“When the old sign is torn down, it will feel like the end of an era, but when the new sign goes up, it represents a new era for him.”


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Hong Kong culture

Bright future for Hong Kong’s signboard culture as businesses replace old neon designs with smaller legal ones

The Nam Cheong Pawnshop was ordered to remove its signboard in December after it was said to have violated the Buildings Ordinance. Photo: Sam Tsang

Tai Ping Koon Restaurant’s neon sign being removed from their branch in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: Handout

Co-founders of @streetsignhk Ken Fung (left) and Kevin Mak (right) with Wu Chi-Kai at Wu’s studio in Tai Wo Hau. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Sylvia Chang in a scene from ‘A Light Never Goes Out’. Photo: Handout

Owner of Koon Nam Wah Bridal Winnie Lam. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Andrew Chui, owner of Tai Ping Koon, at his Yau Ma Tei branch. Photo: Dickson Lee

The Hong Kong neon artist teaching his craft to a new generation – can he help it survive the onslaught of LEDs?

Jive Lau Ho-fai teaches neon-bending workshops at Kowloneon, a neon workspace in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong. Photo: Connor Mycroft

Hong Kong in the 1960s was awash with the neon signs of bars and nightclubs. Photo: Getty Images

Lau wants to pass on his knowledge of neon in the name of cultural preservation. Photo: Connor Mycroft

The neon-bending classes at Kowloneon can be taught in Cantonese, Mandarin or English. Photo: Connor Mycroft

Lau demonstrates how to heat the glass so it can be bent. Photo: Connor Mycroft

Lau is calm and confident when bending glass, but that is the result of years of practising. Photo: Connor Mycroft

After the glass tube is heated, it is placed on a table and anchored with a wooden block for bending. Photo: Connor Mycroft

Lau sketches out the designs his students dream up. Photo: Connor Mycroft

Although Lau has been bending glass neon tubes for two decades, he feels he still has more to learn. Photo: Connor Mycroft

Neon artist Karen Chan reclaims a Hong Kong icon and forges her own path as a woman in a traditionally male craft

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the use of neon signs rocketed in Hong Kong. Photo: Imaginechina

Karen Chan in her studio in Fo Tan in the New Territories. She apprenticed with a 70-year-old  neon master in Hong Kong to become the only active female neon designer and maker in a male-dominated industry. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Chan at her studio in the industrial district of Fo Tan. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Chan with neon master Wong Kin-wah. Photo: CeeKayEllo

Chan with “Every Body is a Beach Body”, a piece that was part of a recent exhibition. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

“Every Body is a Beach Body” is about self-love and how we should embrace our body shape, says the artist. Photo: Karen Chan

News

Hong Kong

Society

Businesses ordered to remove ageing neon signs choose to keep a slice of city’s heritage alive
About 3,300 signboards have been ‘removed or replaced’ every year between 2018 and last year


Businesses ordered to remove ageing neon signs choose to keep a slice of city’s heritage alive.


Hong Kong society

Living heritage of Hong Kong

Bright future for Hong Kong’s signboard culture as businesses replace old neon designs with smaller legal ones

Businesses ordered to remove ageing neon signs choose to keep a slice of city’s heritage alive About 3,300 signboards have been ‘removed or replaced’ every year between 2018 and last year

Businesses ordered to remove ageing neon signs choose to keep a slice of city’s heritage alive

About 3,300 signboards have been ‘removed or replaced’ every year between 2018 and last year