Some examples of our research in April 2014:
Kweilin Street (Day/Night)
The Kweilin Street is a market street like many others in Sham Shui Po. The atmosphere and the users changes during the day. During daytime there are the „official“ hawkers with their stands. Most of them run by Hong-Kong people. After 8pm the atmosphere changes. The stands now are closed and well packed for the night. Around them directly on the street other hawkers are selling their stuff. Cheap used things for daily life. Many of this hawkers come from mainland China (most of them without a Citizenship), or from India, or Pakistan. Around 11pm also the most shops around are closed and they switched off the neon-lights from their advertising boards. It’s getting darker at Kweilin Street and the customers come with torches to see the goods (videos by Andreas Rudolf).
This changes at Kweilin Streets (and others) can be read as a metaphor for the different layers of the society in Hong Kong. There is a bright and official one, and a dark and (half-)illegal one. The bright one consists out of Hong-Kongnese, the dark one out of immigrants. They are sharing the same place, but not the same time. They live in different segments of the city, in different worlds. The change of day and night rerpresents also the change of social classes.Here the politics of space becomes visible (photos by Jürgen Krusche).
Banks
Many banks in Hong Kong changes their face after closing. Like on the streets a scond layer of the society comes after 7pm to use the fronts as their shops (photos by Andreas Rudolf).
Hai Tan Street
The street as market and shop. Infront and around of one of the oldest temples of Hong Kong there is a wellknown 2nd hand market of electronics which is in the hands of immigrants. They buy the old electronic devices from the Hong-Kongnese and sell it to their homelands, to Pakistan or Nigeria (photos by Jürgen Krusche).
Trolleys
Trolleys are the top transport vehicle of Hong Kong. Traders, Hawkers, Homeless, all are using it. A real democratic vehicle! A new one costs only around 100 HKD (15 CHF), and produced in Hong Kong itself, in Sham Shui Po (photos by Jürgen Krusche).
