[Field-Homework 3] Construction City: a trip to Pound Lane Public Toilet

Theme description:

The video has two themes: a) the construction of a public toilet as a means of construction of equality and fairness within the city; b) how could the construction and redevelopment process be more considerate to users?

Public toilet, public health, these represent one of the most important aspect of a city’s development, especially justice for the unrepresented people. Such argument could be supported by the history of Hong Kong’s first toilet built at Pound Lane in the Tai Ping Shan area. In May 1894, the Bubonic Plague raged rapidly in the Hong Kong TPS district and cause thousands of people to die (Cheng, 2012). The poor hygiene issue, which partially results from the lack of bathrooms in the household, was claimed to be the direct reason (Ceng, 2015).

Tai Ping Shan was the area where the British government officials removed the Chinese coolie to live (Hong Kong Extras, 2011). Back-to-back houses there had no water supply, and rubbish accumulated to fill the open drains on the street. Due to the fear of the spread of pandemics, the British colonizer had no choice but to demolish many of the houses and reconstruct the area with a relatively better sanitary condition for the people. This new construction including the HK’s first public toilet with a bathroom to meet the public’s needs.

The pandemic treats everyone the same, but the superior and powerful class would always have the priority, such as a hygienic environment, to protect themselves in facing these disasters. This is unfair, and this is why I regard the reconstruction of public toilets as a means to achieve justice and equality. But no matter how powerful you are, you cannot alive when everyone dies in the pandemic. The plague in 1894 is a bloody lesson for us to view humans as a community of shared destiny. After realizing this, the pandemic could become an opportunity to help us to figure out which part of our urban design is problematic, which vulnerable groups of people we may ignore, and enable us to make a change. Meanwhile, the construction of a public toilet is a construction of an equal city, giving rights to every citizen.

We are experiencing pandemics right now in the 21st century. I went to Pound Lane to film the video and found the Pound Lane toilet is closed for refurbishing, which maybe relates to the epidemic as well. It is not bad, but I suddenly realized that there’s no sufficient substitution for this toilet’s one-year update. Only one exists on the upper staircase. The difference between such a huge-scale Pound Lane toilet and this tiny-scale movable toilet is conspicuous, and I emphasized this feature in my video. What makes me more surprised is that this substitute toilet is not openable. This becomes the second theme of my video: the construction process should be more humanized and considerate.

Method of Research:

Historic part: Government report, old maps, old newspapers, online documentary.

Present part: personal visiting, experiencing, observation from different aspects after the COVID19…

Documentation and making of the video:

In the first half of the video, I aim to show my way to the toilet,  as well as give the background information. I am an outsider of Hong Kong, my knowledge of the public toilet comes from popularization education, thus I use narrations from Max Media Asia’s documentary, in addition, to give the audience a feeling of official and distance (The Max Media Asia does not claim any copyright of this work and has made it publicly available for educational purposes). This is also how I view the heritage site before my physical visit. In the second half of the video, I create a quick switch between the closed toilet and the substitute one. Contrasts are emphasized in the scene. I maintained the original Mandarin I spoke in the video, to emphasize my outsider identity: I am not the local residents in Tai Ping Shan, but I don’t feel pretty well when walking on the Tai Ping Shan Medical Heritage Trail. My feeling as a visitor of the heritage trail is an aspect for the government to make a change.

Objectives and reflections:

1. Toilet as a bottom-level topic that related to the local community’s life. The historic value and social value are rooted inside the ordinary people. This is definitely a REAL Hong Kong culture. To some extent, I hope this exploration of this public toilet could against the “disappearance of Hong Kong’s culture and history” stated by Abbas (1997).
2. The video has a micro-scale perspective. I hope this micro-history research could somehow link the past (1894) and present (2021) through the place, i.e., Pound Lane Public Toilet. We can learn from past experience, and make some progress, and that’s why I raise the question at the end of the video.
3. Some connections between the image in my video may not be clear. For example, I want to make a contrast between the males and females through times of mentioning the male sign on the toilet and flowers & Marilyn Monroe, yet it seems to fail. The gender inequality relates to public toilets is always what I want to explore, anyway, it may be difficult to contain so much information within this 2 mins video.

Li Yueshan 3035663760

References:

Abbas, M. (1997). Hong Kong: Culture and the politics of disappearance. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Ceng Yong Xin岑詠欣(2015年1月19日)《教育update——太平山醫學史蹟徑》。《頭條日報》。URL:http://news.hkhl.hk/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=316619&section_name=wtt&kw=37 (accessed 13^th May 2021)

CHENG Po Hung鄭寶鴻. (2012). 港島街道百年; 香港第1版. 香港: 三聯書店(香港)有限公司

Hong Kong Extras. (2011). THE TAIPINGSHAN MEDICAL HERITAGE TRAIL. URL: http://www.hongkongextras.com/_taipingshan_medica_heritage_trail.html (accessed 13^th May 2021)

MaxMediaAsia, (2014). The Hong Kong Story (History of Hong Kong 1841 to 1997). URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk6gfAtwZ7Q&t=1089s (accessed 13^th May 2021)