Hong Kong (香港), 36-44 Nathan Road (彌敦道), December 2018

I too spent my first nights in Hong Kong in a small guesthouse in Chungking Mansions, a place most of you may know from Wong Kar-wai's film Chungking Express. Chungking Mansions was one of the first high-rises on the southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula, in the heart of the city's tourist belt. When it opened in the 1960's, Chungking Mansions was briefly considered chic and housed some film and music stars. Its many entrances were however also excellent for shadier deals and the building's reputation quickly deteriorated to a tiny corner of the third world in a city that otherwise became richer and richer.

Chungking Mansions became a centre for South Asians, backpackers, drug addicts and later for Africans. For them it is a self contained world and business centre were they can meet their suppliers and find the comfort food from home. It is said that twenty percent of all mobile telephones sold in Subsaharan Africa move through this building:

Chungking Mansions serves as a central hub of what I term ‘low-end globalization’. This is the globalization of cheap, often copy goods smuggled across borders, largely under the radar of states and laws; this is globalization as experienced by most of the world’s people. I estimate, on the basis of extensive interactions with merchants, that 20% of the mobile phones in sub-Saharan Africa have passed through Chungking Mansions. The building exists as a hub of low-end globalization because, due to Hong Kong’s flexible visa policies, it serves as an intermediary between South China manufacturers and developing-world entrepreneurs. South China, with its massive production of cheap goods, plays an essential role in spreading the fruits of globalization to South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, areas that otherwise would not be able to experience globalization; Chungking Mansions, under Hong Kong’s neoliberal rule of law, facilitates this process.

Honkies long considered the eyesore an embarrassment for their city and security became subpar in an otherwise very safe place. In the last few years, the facade has been cleaned up and a lot of CCTV's were installed. The atmosphere and smells inside have changed little since my stay in September 1988. Wong Kar-wai's assessment still applies:

It's a legendary place where the relationships between the people are very complicated. It has always fascinated and intrigued me. The mass-populated and hyperactive place is a good metaphor for the town itself.

All photos taken here were tagged as Chungking Mansions.

Taken in: Hong Kong / Kowloon City / Tsimshatsui East (show map)

Taken on: December 5, 2018

Tags:

Nikon

D7000

straatfotografie

rue

photographie de rue

Straße

Straßenfotografie

street

street photography

jalan

fotografi jalanan

zwart-wit

noir-et-blanc

schwarz-weiß

black-and-white

B&W

hitam-putih

Hong Kong

香港

هونغ كونغ

הונג קונג

เขตบริหารพิเศษฮ่องกง

Гонконг

Chungking Mansions

burka

boerka

Muslim

Islam

Muslima

burqa

Moslima

are, bure, boke

globalisation

Globalisierung

globalization

TST « less

Sets appears in: • Hong Kong 香港

Groups appears in: • FlickrCentral • Hong Kong Images more » • AreBureBoke • KAOS • Street Photos - Hong Kong and China 中國香港街拍同好 • EYE-Photo Magazine « less

Camera: Nikon D7000, f/3.5, 1/60 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 1800 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7000
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO:	1800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	ACD Systems Digital Imaging
Show full info

Stats: 3,788 views / 4 comments

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: