Causeway Bay: The Fascinating History Of ‘The Diamond Of Hong Kong’, From Coffee Farm To Simple And Innocent Residential Area With Warehouses In The 1950s, As Recollected By A Barrister David Lai

13-08-23

I do not keep a diary. I remember too little. When I was in a scene, I hardly paid it any mind. The memory of being with others is often offered by others to me as a lasting impression of their own.

Causeway Bay (CWB) (銅鑼灣) is a very famous shopping district in Hong Kong. There is a big department store Sogo and what in front of it is the super busy pedestrian scramble crossing. Every minute, people in all directions inundate the entire intersection. The spectacular sight ‘Sogo Crossing’ is akin to the famous ‘Shibuya Crossing’ in Tokyo.

CWB means Copper Gong Bay. In 1916, the southern foothills of it were coffee plantations. There is still a cemetery by the nickname of ‘coffee plantation cemetery’ (咖啡園墳場). Its proper name is Mount Caroline Cemetery.

CWB was originally a bay located between North Point (北角) and Wan Chai (灣仔). The area has been chiefly reclaimed along the southern seashore of Victoria Harbour(維多利亞港). CWB of today is an area that was water a few hundred years ago. In 1841, the British colonial government sold a large plot of land, very near the typhoon shelter where thousands of fishermen lived, to the opium trader Jardine Matheson and they turned the area into godowns and factories.

My barrister friend David Lai (黎德誠) remembered, “In the 1950s when I was a child living there, Causeway Bay was not as busy as Central (中環) or Wan Chai (灣仔). The huge warehouses area was later demolished and turned into many stylish residential blocks with seaview balconies in the late 50s. These blocks now form the bustling shopping district of Paterson Street (百德新街), Great George Street (記利佐治街) and Kingston Street (京士頓街).”

David is quick-witted, helpful and sincere. His grandfather and father were grain trading merchant in Mainland China, Hong Kong and South Asia before World War II. After the war, his father assisted in managing one of the first 5-star Chinese restaurant Café de Chine (大華大飯店) with a nightclub on the rooftop at the junction of Pedder Street (畢打街) and Queen’s Road Central (皇后大道中). He was a sporty and righteous young man. In the 70s, he was an Assistant Station Officer of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department, starting as a Probationary Inspector of the Royal Hong Kong Police and, as time went by, served as the Personal Assistant of the Commissioner of Police Raymon Anning (顏理國) and as the Head of Interpol Hong Kong before leaving the Force to join the private sector as top executive of local entities and regional head of multinational corporations. Fond of law and court trials, the secret urge of being a brave barrister crashed on him. He gave up his corporate’s top executive career and started afresh as a junior lawyer. Now, he is a busy barrister boxed up in his office helping people to look for justice especially over trust and commercial matters.

David sighed, “When I was a child, the northeast side of Causeway Bay was quiet as there were many warehouses including cold storage(The Dairy Farm Ice & Cold Storage Co) and ice factories. A typhoon shelter was outside the waterfront (it was later reclaimed to become Victoria Park (維多利亞公園), the biggest park in Hong Kong).

During the day, thousands of fishermen lived on boats in the shelter. At night, some boats hang up red lanterns and put up colourful paper festoons. They became seafood restaurants. Other boats became floating cabarets. The air was pervaded with singing, music of erhu and claps of the hands. The water shelter was also a ‘swimming pool’ for the kids. We caught small mussels, cockles and clams and later surrendered them to mother for cooking.”

I asked David, “What are your special memories about Causeway Bay in the 50s?” He smiled, “In the 50s, you could park your car anywhere in Causeway Bay. Now, there is hardly any place for one to stand or any space for a car to pass in the clamour of the crowded streets.”

David carried on, “In those days, funeral service at home was legal. The end of the ceremony was that coffin would be lowered with a rope from balcony to the street. Then, a funeral procession ensued. The deceased was carried by a van to the final resting place. Family members followed the vehicle on foot. Musicians played traditional Chinese farewell music and suonas (‘啲打’), gongs (鑼) and drums(鼓) were the common instruments. We, as kids, shared no sorrow but made fun of such events.”

I explored history, “What made Causeway Bay a busy shopping district in the 60s?” David felt pity, “From 1958 to 1962, there was an economic and social campaign called ‘The Great Leap Forward (大躍進)’ in China. The campaign was to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into an industrialized society through extreme measures. But, the campaign failed and a famine was resulted. Refugees flocked to Hong Kong and Causeway Bay was suddenly flooded by thousands of homeless people strewing along, down and across the roads. I recall that they slept on the staircases and roofs of buildings, including our block. Even the Police could not stop such tramps. Some squatters took over empty roofs and built iron sheet houses. Other opportunistic flat owners subdivided their units into small cubicles and let them to refugees. The loss was that Causeway Bay became so beaten down that it stopped having the refined middle-class residential aura. The gain was that consensual interest of new immigrants in Causeway Bay made her a very densely-populated area. Gradually, old, elegant and spacious blocks without ground-level shops were pulled down. Tall, packed and multi-functional buildings with tiny dwellings, shops and workshops for tailors, goldsmiths and shoemakers replaced. The simple and innocent Causeway Bay in the 50s was gone. I told myself it was vital to be optimistic when the world seemed to have suddenly a very strange face!”

I listened with great enthusiasm, “Does it ring true that Causeway Bay was a lucky place with great ‘earth pulse’ feng shui?” David thought about it, “Not necessarily true. There are objective factors. Watching football matches was a popular pastime in those years. The Hong Kong Stadium (former name ‘Government Stadium’) there, opened in 1955, housed more than 20,000 audience members. So, every day, thousands of people went in and out of Causeway Bay. Besides, Causeway Bay was a new area and it was easier to accommodate the construction of huge cinemas. There were almost 10 in the district, the then mega movies like Ben-Hur (1959), The Longest Day (1962) and Zulu (1964) were shown in big cinemas like Roxy(樂聲) and Hoover(豪華).” I added, “When I was a small boy living in Wan Chai, my parents often took me to Causeway Bay to watch movies. They said Causeway Bay offered more varieties such as Hollywood, Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong movies.”

David concluded, “In 1960, the first Japanese department store Daimaru (大丸) arrived in Hong Kong and it settled down in Causeway Bay. The shopping paradise selling Japanese trendy things attracted crowds after crowds. It is a regret that Daimaru, once hot, was no longer hot. It finally vanished in 1998! Surely, it contributed tremendously to the past prosperity of Causeway Bay.”

We cannot get through a single day without changes around us. The present Causeway Bay was developed 70 years ago but can it survive the challenge of another 70 years? We yearn for the better changes. Whenever I walk around in Causeway Bay, I find new shops and restaurants. Sadly, it is also getting aged and dirty at the same time. Need for urban renewal is a pressing problem in Hong Kong. One has to endure bad traffic, air pollution and crowdedness in Causeway Bay now. We all look forward to more gentrification there, the transformation of a city neighbourhood from poor environment to higher-value surroundings particularly with more trees. The 2 eye-soaring filthy footbridges in Yee Wo Street are already the ‘monsters’, worth the urgency of rebuilding!