Theme
Hong Kong is one of the most populated cities in the world. Unlike many cities such as Xi’an or Rome, many of whose historical sites could be preserved entirely. In Hong Kong, architecture preservation needs to consider both cultural value as well as economical effect. The theme of this video is “memory in a bottle”, which could be interpreted as how to choose the most representative and valuable part of architecture to be preserved. Ideally, people should select the minimum set of architecture features that capture most public memoroes. This video mainly investigates three historical sites: Kowloon walled city, Kai Tak Airport and Kowloon Railway Station. All these subjects were deeply linked to previous generations of Hong Kong citizens and well-known to the entire world. However, the fate of preservation of these sites are different. Buildings in Kowloon walled city was partially preserved, the basement of south gate and the Almshouse has become a museum which display past lifestyles in the walled city. Meanwhile, Kai Tak Airport was demolished completely and transformed into residential houses, yet a sky garden and a runway park were built upon Shing Fung Road with aviation as its main feature. These parks also serve as public area for people to exercise and sceneries to decorate the city. In some sense, the spirit of Kai Tak airport was preserved in these parks. Finally, the Kowloon railway station was partially demolished in 1978. The only relic was a bell tower standing in the middle of nowhere. For younger generation, it is very hard to connect such bell tower with the railway station demolished decades ago. It like a zombie of the railway station, although the body still exist, the spirit had already disappeared.
Research method
To find proper locations for the field trip, I refer to this site [1] to find information. When determine the locations, I focus on selecting sites that are preserved differently and are well known across Hong Kong. Since Kai Tak Airport is not a listed historical site, I mainly found its information here [2]. As for Kai Tak sky garden, I collect information from [3] and [4]. Information of Kowloon railway station can be found [5] and information of Kowloon station can be found here [6]. When researching on these sites, I focus on following questions: 1). Why it needs to be demolished? 2). Reason behind current preservation choices? 3). How does such preservation strategy utilize spaces and integrate with people’s daily life.
Film making process
In the first part, I use timelapse of different areas in urban Hong Kong and especially those construction sites to highlight landscape of Hong Kong is undergoing constant changing. I also use timelapse function of google earth to show the changes of Hong Kong’s landscape over past 30 years in a broader scale. Though out the film, I use the analog of packing the memory in a bottle to connecting three places, where I film the process of cutting pieces from the old photo of historical sites. Since I hope to create the blend-in effect between history and reality, before filming the actual sites, I usually looks for old photos from internet and try to plan about where to take photos of the current sites such that the blend-in effect looks most natural. I used these techniques three time in the film: 1). Transition from bronze model of Kowloon walled city to actual footage of the walled city. 2). Transition from the road in Kai Tak sky garden to airplane take off. 3). Transition between current bell tower to old Kowloon railway station. For the second transition, since it is hard to simulate the speed of airplane takeoff while filming in the sky garden, I use time warping with increasing time scale to mimic the acceleration process before plane take-off. I also use some stills in the film. This is because it is hard to find old footage that have good enough video quality and it would be much more convenient to use stills for old footage. Therefore, for visual consistency, I replace some short videos with still pictures. For background music, I use uplifting music Elysium at beginning to show the fast-changing nature of Hong Kong landscape. For Kowloon walled city and Kai Tak airport, I use smooth piano music Newborn to show the feeling of slight nostalgia. The last background music is Ye Wenjie, a piano solo with a sad aura, showing the sadness of loss of public memory.
Name: Chen Sirui UID: 3035532882
References
[1] https://www.amo.gov.hk/tc/historic-buildings/monuments/index.html
[2] https://www.cad.gov.hk/english/kaitak.html
[3] https://www.youth.gov.hk/en/cultural-and-leisure/stories/detail.htm?content-id=2402313§ion=CLA
[5] https://hkrail.fandom.com/wiki/%E4%B9%9D%E9%BE%8D%E8%BB%8A%E7%AB%99
[6] Sinn, E. (1987). Kowloon Walled City: Its origin and early history. Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 30-45.
Although some of the content in your video remains on an introductory level, your creative idea of storing the memories in a bottle helps immerse audiences into the world you have created in the 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I enjoyed watching your video and it helps me to understand the urban development of the city in the past. However, you should also take note that the instruction of the assignment asks you to focus one particular space.
Please also pay attention to the way you reference a source. Your writing style under the section ‘Research method’ is not appropriate. Also, completing a full version of the bibliography instead of simply copy and paste the links is crucial especially when you are working with history.