Having moved to Sham Shui Po for more than three years now, I’d never stepped in, or even noticed any alleyways. These edged spaces seemed too dangerous for a girl to go in alone.
So, I took this project as an opportunity to really understand my community. All the alleyway footage in this film was taken within a 15 minutes’ walk from where I live.
Dated back to the 1880s, larger parcels of land rented from the government started to be divided in the middle. The lanes allowed waste disposal, daylight, and air to enter from the back façade.
Although technically alleyways are “planned” spaces, they can hardly and have rarely been regulated. In the eyes of the government and most people, they are the “black spots” of the city that should be hidden. The beginning of the film provided an overview of the city resonating with this idea. It also reminded me of the voyeur perspective of Michel de Chateau in her chapter “Walking in the city”.
However, this also gives it a unique identity with the freedom to do whatever in it.
I did not deliberately plan where to start and end because I had no idea where to find them. Instead, I just wandered around in the vicinity and got ready to be surprised. Here are some of the spots where I filmed.
By paying attention to the niceties of the streets when walking around to find the entrances of alleyways, my neighbourhood suddenly became way larger, way more vertiginous and chaotic.
Yet, stepping into these alleyways did make me have “a sense of remoteness in the heart of the city”. One moment I was still like a tuna squeezing in the street, but once I took a turn to the alleyway, I would be freed and feel more relieved filmed almost like no one’s around, like I own the space. In that quiet and intimate space, it became easier to observe and talk with the people within it.
I filmed from a third-person objective by simply putting down my tripod and stand there for a while. I did not use any advanced filming techniques in the process which is hoped to show the most realistic sides of the alleyways. When some people actively told me it’s okay to film close or in different angles, I would follow their will. Part of the video clips’ colors and lighting were adjusted to invite the audience to reflect on whether their impressions are biased.
For the editing, I created different montages to show the contrast, the similarities, the macro picture of all the alleyways to give audience a sense that these in-between spaces are what make up of our city.
I started my research online and was first fascinated with a Bloomberg Article that interviewed Wuthrich and her colleague Geraldine Borio. Many of my inspirations were drawn from their book “Hong Kong In Between”. It talks about how “people’ freedom is not proportional to the size of space but to the possibility of appropriation”. In some of the alleyways, I saw personal belongings hanging around. People being free to transform the space turned it into a second home. They rest, they eat, they socialize, and they work hard in alleyways. In this sense, I agree that the people in these in-between spaces have a true sense of autonomy, and they to some extent represent the traditional Hong Kong identity who worked with the “lion rock spirit” under the laissez-faire governance.
There were two major kinds of people I saw who worked in the alleyways. The ones with a legal storefront and those without. Unlike the authors who advocated to re-imagine the space with social initiatives, I resonated more with the sad stories in the alleyways from the letters. I felt empathetic towards the people working in it. After all, the seedy alleyway was not the most ideal place to be. Indeed, in one of the first few alleyways where I filmed, I encountered an old man in front of me urinating in the midst of rubbish bins. After visiting so many alleyways, I still regarded it as somewhat dangerous.
It is true that the alleyway’s a free space. But only for people who struggled to make ends meet by pulling hand trucks, or wetting cardboard. People who could only have lunch on a stool chair and rest under the makeshift stinky shelters.
Was that the freedom they asked for? If they were given a choice, would they rather stay in the alleyways?
Bibliography
- Bloomberg, “The Roots of Hong Kong’s Identity Are in Its Back Alleys“, 16 July 2016
- Michel de Chateau, “Walking in the City”, 1980
- Caroline Wuthrich, Geraldine Borio, “Hong Kong In Between”, 2015
Tsz Kiu, Wong
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I really like your idea of projecting Hong Kong faces in such a narrow alley. Human activity turning a small, no-name space into a place of prosperity and struggle is well illustrated, and the video shows how Hong Kong’s true identity has enough depth under the mask of all glorified commercial hubs.
The scene of putting multiple camera shots in one frame also reminds me of being a voyeur sitting in a “security room”, gaining pleasure while watching other people’s lives. Besides, like what you mentioned in the video, we looked down from the top of the Garden Hill, and sees no alleyway in our sight. This line strike heavily on my mind to think of what I subconsciously intented to overlook, social inequalities and other social issue, and as many like me are being tempted by the shining metropolise, how do those politicians prompt to get civilization thrive? Moreover, what kind of city I am actually living in?
Overall, the video is very intriguing, and worth watching and reflecting on.
I appreciate your effort in recording so much scene of different alleyway. It is interesting to see how you are showing the bright side of the alleyway even thought it is always being unseen by people. I agree on your point that despite some alleyway are beautiful and showing some old activities of Hong Kong, it is still considered as dangerous. I believe this is also a problem on planning that no early planning is made on development or maintenance of the alleyway. Instead of forgetting the alleyway, there is actually more project in Hong Kong focusing on it. And these has raised public awareness toward back alley spaces. I think your video has definitely helped people in understanding more about the space.
I really like your opinions on alleyways in Hong Kong. I was doing the alleyway research of Hong Kong as well, but my perspectives are from a out-sider, a foreigner of this city. You goes really deep in this topic, you started to focus on specific person and their lives. I need to say I really like your essay and editing, though there are no that much of tecniques and arts performing, the story you tell goes deep into people’s heart.
Thank you so much! I left comments on you video essay too. I love your aesthetic and editing : )
I highly appreciate your overall design of the video. Talking about an alleyway, it is a place where pedestrian will seldom walk through, and that most people may have a negative feeling towards it. Your photographic stills and short video clips, especially combined with the use of montage, are very well chosen. You show the hard-working true face of the people ‘using’ such places. It offers the audience with a ‘new’ view and a deeper understanding to the society they are living in, at the meantime striking off their stereotypes towards alleyway. Making it more down-to-earth, you also mentioned that people being the ‘major users’ of the alleyway are also worth our attention and appreciation. This is a very inspiring but yet a often ignored piece of fact. It is very precious that you can convey this message in the video through your own lens.
I really enjoy all the contrasts in this video! Light and dark, strong and weak, the dense cityscape and open albeit narrow alleyways, and the normally negative connotations related to alleyways but a playful tone portrayed in this video. Almost forces you to look at this subject matter from a different perspective. The music is also exquisitely applied!
Thank you so much for documenting so many different alley scenes. It is interesting to see how you show the bright side of the alley even though it is always invisible to people. I agree with you that even though some of the alleys are aesthetically pleasing and showcase some of the old activities of Hong Kong, they are still considered dangerous. I think your video does an excellent job of helping us understand this section and reflecting on how to plan our environment better.
Interesting methods of research which emphasise experience and being open to observations. The text is also well-written and thought-provoking with regards to the function of alleyways and the ways in which they are appropriated by people. I appreciate the effort put into exploring some visual techniques. The narration of the video was sometimes a bit abstract and did not really convey the ideas mentioned in the essay as clearly. Take note of the proper citation format. Also, it should be ‘de Certeau’ not ‘de Chateau’.