A Disappearing City
The pier – where I came from, and where the city came from.
However, in this rapidly developing city, this slow and ancient transportation and way of life are almost going to be replaced or even eliminated. It is not just the piers that are disappearing, it is also the city, and where I came from.
Influenced by the famous philosophical proposition, I also ask myself from time to time: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going?
Obviously, there is no practical answer to this question, but at some point, I would like to answer it with ‘space’ and ‘architecture’.
I am a Hong Kong people. I come from Cheung Chau.
Just like a ship departs from a pier and returns to its original starting point after passing various piers.
So, my place of return, I would like to tentatively set at Cheung Chau.
The tone of the film is the story of me and my forgotten way back. As well as the city, and its forgotten place of origin.
Hong Kong has a huge advantage in terms of maritime transportation due to its geography, which resulted in an important influence on its history. It is only fitting that the pier is the starting point of Hong Kong.
But nowadays, this place has become less special and is gradually being buried by the development of the city.
Both the city and I seem to have forgotten where we came from.
Research
During the initial research of the film, I was inspired by asking old fishermen about their past life to understand the life of the old generation of fishermen, and by understanding their past ties with the pier, to create a short film comparing the ancient and modern pier for Hong Kong. Also, I talked to the present-day fishing enthusiasts and compared the difference between the two definitions of pier. The pier has long changed, not because of the fishing industry, but because the city has developed that the pier no longer has the meaning it once had.
A field trip to Cheung Chau was conducted to understand the development of the island now, especially the construction and demolitions of the piers. How the place has changed from a fishing village to a tourist attraction was observed, and investigated how it has struck a balance between fishing and tourism.
A field trip to Tsim Sha Tsui and Central piers, which are the most active passenger terminals in Hong Kong, to see how the piers are now carrying passengers, and how the cabins work and are restricted.
Filming Approaches and Reflections
The first-person perspective at the beginning of the work suggests the same perspective for the walking sequences that follow, from low to high, mimicking the walking pace and switching perspectives of a growing child. It also suggests that the film is simulating a daughter’s view, listening to her father’s past story, feeling the transformation of her living place, and thinking about where she came from. Therefore, it allows the audience to experience the changes in the piers over the past half-century.
Time-lapse photography, a technique that appears in the film, is used to document the city’s movement in the present day. The reason for not using speed-up video but time-lapse photography is that the most special characteristic of it is to make the images flip fleetingly without losing the resolutions of each frame, which symbolizes the city’s fast pace of life without losing the excitement of each story. In an era of rapid development, we are still able to tell our own stories in different ways, and this is the charm of the city as well as the time-lapse photography.
There are many freeze frames used in the work, and each moving image of the narrative pier is often accompanied by a few seconds of freeze-frame photography. This is a technique inspired by the freeze-frame in film. It is believed to be an attempt to change the actual concept of time from the film, but I think it is also a record of an important moment. As a film nostalgic for a disappearing city, what I expect is that the city of today will not disappear in the future as now it does. When I looked at the digital library of the University of Hong Kong, I found very few old photos of Cheung Chau Island over the decades, and the pier photos that are like the one existing at the end of the film are even fewer. Therefore, to take a freeze-frame to end each story in the form of a photo is my obsession with time, and my way of making up for the lack of the past.
—— “If the place we came from disappeared, where can we return to?”
References
10 Best Freeze Frame Shots In Movies, Ranked. (2020). ScreenRant.
Anonymous. (2011). Freeze frame. Physics, 4. https://doi.org/10.1103/physics.4.s22
Cheung Chau History. (2022). Cheung Chau Megazine. http://www.cheungchaumagazine.com/%E9%95%B7%E6%B4%B2%E9%9B%9C%E8%AA%8C/category/cheung-chau-history-%E9%95%B7%E6%B4%B2%E6%AD%B7%E5%8F%B2/?lang=en
History of Hong Kong – Past, present and future. (n.d.). Civitatis Hong Kong. https://www.introducinghongkong.com/history
Ngai, B. (2021). 7 best places to go fishing in Hong Kong. Localiiz. https://www.localiiz.com/post/whatson-things-to-do-best-fishing-spots-hong-kong
Oregon Field Guide | Time-lapse Photography | Season 24 | Episode 2402. (2022, May 14). [Video]. OPB Video. https://watch.opb.org/video/oregon-field-guide-time-lapse-photography/
Singer, L. (2017, March 10). OUT OF TIME: THE MOVIE FREEZE FRAME [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/207820540
“The Complete Alfred Hitchcock – Harvard Film Archive.” (2016, May 7). Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20160507134147/http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2013julsep/hitchcock9.html
Time Lapse Tutorial. (2014, February 21). Timothy Allen. https://humanplanet.com/timothyallen/2009/02/time-lapse-photography/
University of Hong Kong Libraries. Special Collections. (1928). Cheung Chau [Photograph]. https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5425kh31c#?c=&m=&s=&cv=
Yeung, N. (2020). A history of the iconic Star Ferry and its 130-year-old story. Localiiz. https://www.localiiz.com/post/culture-history-star-ferry-local-public-transportation-hong-kong
Site List
-Central Pier
-Cheung Chau Pier
-Cheung Chau Sai Wan Pier
-Tsim Sha Tsui Pier
—— Law Hong Lam, 3035935797
I love the narration in this video. Throughout the video, your dad takes on the role of narrator. This video shows the theme of disappearing city by shooting the present scene in the same place and comparing it with your dad’s memories. For me, it’s a very creative and innovative way of narrating. And the use of Cantonese, the local language of Hong Kong, adds a kind of helplessness and nostalgia for the old city’s gradual disappearance. Anyway, this is really a very impressive video for me!!!
Meaningful study of disappearance through a mix of site observations, interview and virtual research. The video is also clear in communicating your research and you utilised various techniques effectively. As you touched on disappearance, perhaps you can reference Abbas’ text?