31-12-21
Kowloon City is a poetry. It is no mere city in Hong Kong. It is a nostalgically romantic notion, as much as an imperishable nexus of the longest histories and memories in Hong Kong. The vanished Walled City therein is still constantly hurting very deeply the artists all over the world who miss this ‘Gotham City’, like the home of Batman. The old Kai Tak Airport was situated right at the centre of Kowloon City from 1925 to 1998.
About 700 years ago, Emperor Bing, the last emperor of Song Dynasty who was defeated by Mongolian soldiers, escaped to Hong Kong. He saw 8 tall mountains protecting the peninsula opposite to Hong Kong Island. He called the 8 mountains, together with himself, 9 dragons and ‘Kowloon’(九龍) meant ‘Nine Dragons’. In the middle of the ‘Nine-Dragon’ Peninsula, the Nine-Dragon City(Kowloon City九龍城)is a very very old district which never gets old. Emperor Bing stayed there for a while and so people called the area Nine-Dragon City. Every old folk there carries in himself the unforgettable memory of an old walled city within Kowloon City called ‘Kowloon Walled City(九龍城寨)’ which started to exist in 1840s and disappeared in the late 1980s.
In 1842, China was defeated by Great Britain in the Opium War. Hong Kong Island was ceded to Great Britain. The Chinese government, during Ching Dynasty, however began to build a fort near the waterfront of the Kowloon City surrounded by a long brick wall with a barrack of 150 soldiers to keep a military eye on the activities of the British on Hong Kong Island which was on the other side of the harbour. In 1860, China and Great Britain fought again. Kowloon Peninsula, together with Kowloon City, was granted to the latter but with a solitary exception of this small Walled City. Over the next 100 years, until the demolition of the City consented by China in 1987, British authorities attempted many times to negotiate control of this fort area, but no Chinese government, despite several changes of power in the country, agreed to formally sign a new treaty with the British for the requested territorial arrangement.
Frustrated but respectful, Great Britain took the administration of whole city of Hong Kong but, as the sensitive political situation remained unresolved, did not touch the governing of the Kowloon Walled City. Refugees, illegal immigrants, drug dealers, prostitutes, gangsters, gamblers, unlicensed doctors and poor men sought shelter for protection against the law in the ramshackle huts of the Walled City. Sir Alexander Grantham once wrote that the Walled City had become ‘a cesspool of iniquity, with heroin divans, brothels and everything unsavoury’. The result of Hong Kong government’s non-intervention policy was ‘a city outside the law’. Professor James Crawford described it as a place in which ‘there was no tax, no regulation of businesses, no health or planning systems and no police presence. It was little surprise that criminal activity flourished there. There was no law to speak of. It was an anarchist society, self-regulating and self-determining. It was a colony within a colony, a city within a city’. With the consent of Beijing finally, the Walled City started to be demolished in 1987 by the colonial government. The remarkable place is now a beautiful memorial park.
Nobody in Hong Kong forgot or do not know Kowloon City. The 1,000-year-old City was there before Hong Kong was born. This ancient Kowloon City also gave birth to the unholy and mysterious territory of the said Kowloon Walled City, also known as ‘The City of Darkness’, 100 years ago. Kowloon City now still possesses a haunting unique beauty and a sense of timelessness despite the disappearance of the Walled City. There, when you walk around, you are anxious to look for her past. Full of dingy but dignified low-rise buildings with traditional, ethnic and special shops and restaurants, Kowloon City is the most ideal place for a stroll to remember the old Hong Kong. A great Sunday would be to wake up, go there and get a cup of tea and some dim sum, head up to the Kowloon Walled City Park for an enjoyable tour in its museum, go down to the narrow streets in front of the park to check out the time-hounoured brand shops of old cobblery, Chinese herb, wine, clothing, funeral paper offerings, jewelry and dry seafood. You will be touched by the shop owners’ dedication to the good old days. After all, the shops were and are an important part of their family honour since the grandfather days. It is lucky that a lot of these old shops still survived but the graceful cinemas are now replaced by tall buildings, but we, ‘modern’ people, have not become any taller. Gosh! One of the oldest McDonald’s restaurant in Hong Kong opened in 1978 moved but is still there in another street. To one’s relief, the 100-year-old Kowloon City Market has existed up to now but from the form of a market hut to the present gigantic concrete structures built in 1988. The late father of my buddy sold fruits in the market. My friend said, “Our meals were often rotten oranges and apples. We envied the rich kids who could eat fresh fruits after meals!”
Since 1940s, Kowloon City had been a town dominated by the Chiu Chow(潮州)(or Teochew or Chaozhou)people. Their ancestors moved to Guangdong Province from the Central Plain of China in order to escape from civil wars during 200 to 400s. They speak a different Teochew dialect and their living habits are different from those of the Cantonese. Chiu Chow people are influential in Asia including Thailand and Cambodia and there are millions of them. A lot are businessmen.
As Cantonese were the major ‘race’ of Hong Kong, Chiu Chow people flocked, for the idea of unity, into Kowloon City and created the charming Chiu Chow atmosphere of the district which can still be felt nowadays. My father and mother always took me to Kowloon City as a kid because my family was Chiu Chow. There, they could enjoy the freedom of easy access to anything that was Chiu Chow: tea, food, mahjong, opera and beyond everything, friends. Chiu Chow people funded neighbourhood cultural and charitable events such as ‘The Hungry Ghost Festival’(盂蘭節) to celebrate their traditions. Kowloon City was often compared to Little Italy in Manhattan, New York City. I remember whenever a plane flew over Kowloon City, it was like a giant metal bird trying to destroy the city with its deafening engine noise before arriving on the ground of Kai Tak Airport.
Many Chiu Chow men in Kowloon City married women in Thailand as the Chinese in Thailand chiefly consisted of Chiu Chow descendants. The wives ran small Thai restaurants and shops in Kowloon City. More Thai people were then attracted to set up business there. Paradoxically, the ancient Chinese-style Kowloon City is currently transforming herself into a new area known as ‘Little Bangkok’(小曼谷). Traditional Chiu Chow aura of invincibility is slowly but deeply eroded by the Thai ways of life.
If you love the tales of roots, visit the old town of Kowloon City. A lot of the cities have changed and yet a lot are untouched. I talked to an old Chiu Chow classmate there, I asked, “Is Kowloon City the same?” He laughed, “No! It is not Nine-Dragon! It is Ten-Dragon now after the commencement of the Tuen Ma Line in June 2021 with a speedy train passing Kowloon City! In 2013, construction workers discovered six wells and thousands of artefacts dating back to the Song Dynasty in our city around a thousand years ago. A museum is now built inside the subway station of Kowloon City. What a new and exciting chapter for our old district. Come to visit the relics!”
Laughter is really tears. For my part, I am never ready to see a different Kowloon City…After my parents left, Kowloon City was never the same in my soul. For 40 years, I have not walked from Kowloon Tong(‘Tong’ means a pond), where my high school was, to this romantic old city of Kowloon City.
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