I recently saw three of the videos in Tang Kwok Hin’s ongoing series ‘Present “Reminiscences of the Eastern Capital”‘ at Para/Site Art Space. Mounted side-by-side on the gallery wall, they were immediately captivating, speaking to many things I wonder about – presences and absences, changing spaces and practices in cities, the incursion of big brands and big capital into more and more spheres of life. The camera’s unchanging focus upon street fronts, and the layering of spaces and images put ‘new’ (read: global capitalism) and ‘old’ (read: local merchants and industries) aspects of Hong Kong up for consideration. Ghostly people walk straight into gated store fronts, and buses pass in front of local shops, only to leave Dior and Louis Vuitton in their wake. While the absence of sound in the gallery heightened my experience, you can find a version of one of these shorts with sound here:
Tag Archives: hong kong
Permanently temporary
In Knowles and Harper’s wonderful book ‘Hong Kong: Migrant lives, landscapes and journeys‘ (2010), they interweave photos and stories of the interconnected lives of diverse migrants in a global city. While it is based on academic research, the text reads like a well-crafted documentary or novel and feels like a personal tour of the city and the lives within it. The content resonates not only with my work, but with my own life, and my uncertainty about where I will end up in five or ten years.
“Anticipation of departure is part of the substance of everyday life and fitting in. Departure calculations are complicated. They are about job prospects and the quality of life and enjoyment of a place. They also involve interpretation of the broader political climate. Abrupt and prolonged periods of unemployment can lead to a recasting of connections to a place. Getting bored and wanting to be somewhere else is not uncommon. Migrants know they can move on; it is one of their skills.” (p59)
While of course this skill is available more readily to those with economic and social capital, knowing that being here – being anywhere – is a potentially temporary arrangement shifts the rhythms and quality of everyday life.
“Staying on means being permanently ready to leave, so that the anticipation of departure is also a way of staying, a way of dwelling: a feature of migrant life.” (p61)
Dr. Allison Hui 