[Reading Response] – Cuts through Hong Kong

The writing depicts 60s Hong Kong living spatial relationship through analyzing immigrants and their homes in the film. Unlike nowadays’ housing situation, the bonding between both neighbors and spaces were much tighter in the past.

Even though Hong Kong is still renowned for its insanely high housing and population density, the newly built commercial buildings and residential projects have taken away more private space. The walls have divided the city into interior and exterior regions. Back in the days, buildings were majorly tong laus. Owing to the density, people’s relationships were shortened due to short distance between households. You could easily smell the cooking smells, hear the couple arguing from the next room and see the old man reading newspapers in the opposite building through the window. Despite living in a private room, it was also like a public space back then.

The reason for that is the tong lau residents were mainly immigrants in the past. The blocks were designed more packed in order to deal with the bulk population. Therefore, short room height and tiny area had become its features. Open-plan was also an unique characteristic for owners to further divide the rooms and sell them to more households. Divided by wooden boards, the rooms were always identical. Even though staying in the isolated space, people could still notice what’s happening in other rooms due to poor ventilation, noise cancellation and close distance between rooms. They could also easily imagine someone must have been cooking in the exact position in other room like theirs when they cook.

The room plan divides tong laus into different private sectors, yet the spaces are also public due to the above aspects.

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