Most of the materials were shot at or around Letter Street near upper central. Letter Street connects Queen’s Road West and Caine Road and is mainly constituted of stairs. Its foundations can be traced back to the 1840s when the colonial government impoldered Victoria Peak to evacuate Chinese immigrants from Victoria City. ()
Since Letter Street had become the center of Hong Kong’s Chinese society, numerous shops, ancestral halls, and casinos had emerged around the street, turning the block into a very busy area. Now this street was registered as a historic site by the government, and buildings that remained were also preserved. The history in this area has attracted tourists and artists, whose appearances also brought significant changes to the street. One can see doodles, sculptures, and posters in every alleyway; bars and cafes targeting tourists and foreign residents occupy walkway corners that were quiet from cars. However, these changes were rather contemporary by themselves: a doodle may be cleaned or replaced by another in months; bars and art stores seem new, furnishing kits are scattered beside the streets; and there are always shops vacant for a new rental. Constructions thus became a daily routine in this area. This reminded me of the“disappearing city” concept, and it seemed like history is folded between the emerging.
Geometrically, the iterated patterns of staircases and the grid subdivisions of blocks also resemble origami art, where a big sheet of paper is reduced to a small, exquisite piece of art. Larger the paper, the more details an origami can have, so as the blocks in Upper Central, where density brings diversity to the street. As the stairway connects communities and alleyways of different heights, it is a shared space for a wide range of residents. Stairways also contribute to the walkability of the community. High-speed automobiles were restricted in east-west main streets along the contours, leaving the in-between to pedestrians. Despite the efforts the government had made on road signs and obstacles, the city still lacks walking-friendly streets in many regions. Along the stairway, pedestrian-friendly areas are separated and folded by main roads for cars, forming small walkable spaces.
The accessibility of a stairway is also very crucial to the residents around. After all, the architecture was built for transportation. And most of the time, most people spend their time on a stairway because they want to get over it. A non-end-in-sight stairway on the way may be disappointing for nearly everyone but is desperate for an old person or a pregnant woman. Despite its historic or artistic value, Letter Street is not appealing to residents nearby. It has more than 300 steps, and the steps are narrow and steep: in the hardest part the average width is 27cm and the height is up to 17cm. This slightly passes the HK law of stairs. Unfortunately, people who live here are very likely to be affected by this: there is a kindergarten just beside letter street and a majority of residents in the area was aged 65 or above. There were proposals regarding constructing escalators like in Central, but no promise has been made and there have been many debates. Some expressed worries that building escalators may demolish the public space and the historic value of stairs. Artistic events regarding the topic were held several years ago.
Before going to the site, I searched and read documents about public spaces and walkability. I also searched for the history of development in Sheung Wan. During my time spent at the site, I walked through the stairs in the region and recorded the sizes, noise levels, infrastructures, etc. Then I walked through the streets and alleys connected to the stairs. After getting a rough idea about the region, I focused on specific topics in my mind like diversities, pedestrians, etc., and tried to record. I recorded as much as I could during those times and picked materials to form the video.
The most important thing I’ve learned through this project is the complexity and ambiguity of cities and real life. At the very beginning, I wanted to find some strong conclusions about stairs, that they have great influence over people, and they are determinant of people’s feeling about the city. It turned out that I was wrong. Architectures may carry meanings, but they are not films or literature that pose a direct or even deterministic impact on people. Especially for infrastructural architectures like stairs. I then came to realize that a specific analysis of the architecture (e.g. the accessibility problem of stairways) may work way better than trying to get a general conclusion, about communities or city lives. When I diverged from the specifics but still tried to find conclusions, it became easy to come to absurd consequences due to exaggerations in my mind. I didn’t have a clear goal in mind throughout the shooting, I should contemplate carefully and reserve enough time for recomposition and editing. It didn’t come as I expected, but I still learnt a lot from the process.
Credit: directed & photographed Shen Kaizhe
References:
《2008 年建築物(規劃)(修訂)規例》就《建築物(規劃)規例》內附表三的主要修訂https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr07-08/chinese/hc/sub_leg/sc57/papers/sc570616cb2-2291-1-c.pdf
2. Adams, J. , and M. White . 2002. “A Systematic Approach to the Development and Evaluation of an Intervention Promoting Stair Use.” Health Education Journal 61 (3): 272–286. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/001789690206100308. [Crossref], [Google Scholar]
3. Frank LD, Sallis JF, Saelens BE, et al
The development of a walkability index: application to the Neighborhood Quality of Life Study
British Journal of Sports Medicine 2010;44:924-933.
4.https://stairculture.com/stepuphk/about/
5. Abbas, A. (1997). Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance (NED-New edition, Vol. 2). University of Minnesota Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttshbm
Shen Kaizhe 3035974640
I appreciated your original topic and interpreting the stairs in the city as “folded”. Some explanation on your definition of “folding” will help with the understanding of your video. Your footages are well-shot and documents the different aspects of Ladder Street comprehensively. I am interested in seeing the different spaces produced by the stair condition (outdoor seating of cafes, congregating spaces for the community, entrance platforms to recreational spaces etc.)