Chung King Mansions

The Chung King Mansions, which is now a cheap housing area and a very run-down shopping arcade stands proudly near the harbour of Kowloon. A rather odd sight, especially in comparison to the new museums, hotels and other huge shopping malls nearby. It is supposed to be a historical site, rated as one of the top ten "cultural places" to visit, a display of how immigrants used to work so hard to make a living then. Life was difficult, and they lived on very simple necessities like food and shelter.

As we ventured into the dark, dirty and gloomy building, we found ourselves in the midsts of many Indians and people of dark ethnicity. Cramped shops line both sides of the walkways, people peddling their stores hopefully to us visitors, people standing around not seeming to do anything... For a moment, it really felt like I was walking through some alley in some unknown parts of a developing country. The air was somewhat stale and the place had a stink of the lack of hygiene.

Undeterred, we went up to one of the motels on the 8th storey, and asked to be let in, on the pretense of looking for a room, just to see how the living conditions really were.

It wasn't appropriate to take too many photos, but this was the general picture. We entered a rather empty unit, roughly the size of an entire floor at PGP residences. When we entered, we were in the middle of a corridor with doors along the sides of the corridor. As we were showed a room, we were quite stunned. The room was perhaps only 1.5 metre by 1.5 metre - just an L-shaped raised platform with straw mat on it. Something we would think is a bed. But the most interesting find was that given the short length of the bed, the person renting the room probably cannot sleep lying flat. He would have to curl up his body to the L-shape.

It was interesting to note how eager I was to leave the place. It simply gave me the creeps -- the levels of cleanliness and hygiene, the stale and suffocating air, the cramped conditions, the suspicious people looking at us, the cold "you're-not-welcome" stares from some... What have I learnt from this trip here? That our forefathers had hard lives? I guess I wanted to get out so badly that I didn't give it much thought. But now, I feel that practicality rules, as always. While the Chung King Mansions could have been an important place in the past for holding immigrants, it is simply not practical anymore in the world today. Is it still something worth preserving?

This leads me to think more about a question that has been bothering me... Can culture be artificially preserved? Is there value in these old artifacts, or are they no longer relevant and should remain part of history?


The nice signboard...


How it really is like...