Arhur and the New Territories (ch.III)

TROISIEME DEAMBULATION : TSUNG HIM

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SCENE UNIQUE : The Historian I arrived at the school of Tsung Him after walking a quarter of an hour from Fanling Station. After climbing through the gate and walking a few steps into the school, I saw someone standing at the corridor of the main of school building and he gave me a sign..

ARTHUR

You write a book about the schools?

THE HISTORIAN

No, not really. I am interested in the history of the New Territories, which needs to be written1 and which seems to me necessary in this period of identity crisis in Hong Kong. These schools are part of the identity and allow us to read the relationship between the village and the government, but also bring a positive history towards China, which seems important to be told nowadays.

ARTHUR I take my notebook out and lean against the railing.

Why? Which identity crisis are you talking about?

THE HISTORIAN

You see, we were passionate by the question of the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, especially when the Tienanmen event in 1989 has created fear. The artists were very active, critical and engaged. The whole world posed question on the Hong Kong identity. What would be stayed after the British have left? Finally everything has been forgotten when people saw that things were doing fine. Until 2008, the year of the demolition of the Star Ferry Pier, beyond the ubiquitous speech against the developers, manifestations and attempts for the classification of the building showed the growing disorder in Hong Kong by the definition of their heritage, which is, their shared history or their identity2.

ARTHUR

There are classified buildings in Hong Kong??

THE HISTORIAN

Yes. After this event, the public and the media concerned more about the question of heritage, and in 2008, the government has introduced several procedures of the classifications and revitalization of buildings3. Once again, the government stays passive. It puts the tools available, but it will not do the revitalization of buildings. Recently a small village school got a funding4 to be converted into a local library managed by an association in the framework of the ÂŤrevitalization planÂť.

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ARTHUR

It could have said that all schools could use this funding?

THE HISTORIAN

True in theory, but the funding is decided by the jury according to the social project accompanied with the revitalization. It is necessary that the project is supported by the local politics, which is the representatives of the village.

ARTHUR

And you, you visit all the schools?

THE HISTORIAN

Almost. There are around 250. Although the buildings are often similar, they represent a unity with diversity. According to the location, size, site, quality of the landscape, accessibility, state of conservation or collapse! I have an album5 with one photo by school, and their geographical coordinates. I can send them to you.

ARTHUR

With pleasure! What beautiful trees! This is really a nice garden.

THE HISTORIAN Cherche dans son ipad.

Yes. There were an exhibition of these schools, named “Under the Trees”6, which referred to the presence of a huge tree in most of the schools. It was organized by the Education Department and has organized some conferences, but it didn’t attract any big discussion. There is also a small booklet, which is also done by the Education Department and in Chinese.

It shows mainly the learning quality7 of the village schools and publishes some historical photos, interviews of the students, teachers and parents…

I can pass it to you as well.

ARTHUR

Ah! Thanks a lot! So… until now nothing has been proposed as one project for all the schools?

THE HISTORIAN He shows me his ipad with the schools pictures.

No. One student studies interior design in the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong works on a project of designing furniture to squat some of the schools8. JI can put you in contact with him. You must see what Emptyscape has done! See. I have more than twenty pages of the photos of schools.

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ARTHUR I am scrolling through the pictures.

Thank you! Lots of them fall into ruins! And to go back to your book, the history of the schools…

THE HISTORIAN

Ah yes! During the time when the increasing permeability of the border with China is relatively negatively experienced by Hong Kong people9, it seems to me that the history of schools could enable this integration more positively. It reintroduces the immigrants’ vision of Hong Kong as haven, be they Chinese, Vietnamese, or others ... and their children were able to integrate, to learn Cantonese, to read and write due to these schools.

ARTHUR

But the situation nowadays has changed, hasn’t it? It is not the refugees who arrive but the investors, the tourists, the women who want to give birth in Hong Kong, the merchants who look for profits by selling parallel goods10…

THE HISTORIAN

Of course. I do not deny this reality but regret that monopolize the debate and mask positive facts and projects, such as the artists and activists who see Hong Kong as a subversive place where a critical and democratic thinking could be developed and introduced to the visitors from China11.

Let’s walk a little bit.

ARTHUR I follow the historian to the stairs.

So for these abandoned schools, if we revitalize them, could there be a support for such project?

THE HISTORIAN

It will be interesting! Especially in terms of educational, the relation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and with the rest of China, continues to grow.12 I will think about that. When you talk about rehabilitation, we must agree on what we want to continue in these schools. If current policies are based on a western concept of heritage13, it does not seem to me that the schools, in their materiality, are very interesting. They are pretty poor architecturally most often. However, the atmosphere that the schools have, through their location, the aura of their site, and the relationships it generated, is really interesting.

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ARTHUR

Hmm… But we need to look carefully these buildings to perpetuate this “aura”?

THE HISTORIAN

Not really. For example, if we do a museum, if we “mummify”14 one school, it will not respond to the daily lives of the residents nearby, it will no longer create encounters for children and parents ... It will become fundamentally another thing, even if the bricks and roof are still here. However, if the place retains a certain educational function, and the neighbours can still meet there, and it is closer to what was before, even though we might need to alter its existing form.

ARTHUR

I see. I agree fundamentally, but can we still consider this as heritage?

THE HISTORIAN He walks towards to football court.

Of course. Let’s sit here. In Japan, for example, they demolish and rebuild their temples identically15. We say the temple has several centuries even though its pillars are new. What is important is what is going on, that the very act of its construction continues. Transforming many school sites with negotiation to realize a metropolitan project, not just for teaching this time, but also for culture and for local realization. This is more about heritage than the simple act of museumizing one or two..

ARTHUR After a moment of reflection..

So we need to conceive a policy of revitalization of the ensemble of schools. The government will have money for this or it is necessary to find private funding?

THE HISTORIAN

It is the intention that is missing. The government has money but it prefers to put millions of dollars in the project of the West Kowloon Cultural District. You would like to see it. This will motivate you for sure to do a proposition of a revitalization policy of the schools, which could be an alternative cultural project, another urban project.

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NOTES : TSUNG HIM

1. This thesis, while moving the focus away from the centre of Hong Kong towards the New Territories share with the films of some directors (Fruit CHAN and CHEUNG Hung) and sociologists the understanding of the New Territories as “the backstage of Hong Kong” (James HAYES) whose recognition is required to write the history and think about the future of the metropolis. The prospect of reintegration of Hong Kong to China in 2047 reinforces the importance of the New Territories.

2. For an analysis of the issues underlying activism and governmental policy in the domain of cultural heritage in Hong Kong, see “Le patrimoine culturel à Hong Kong, montée de l’activisme et contradictions identitaires” (Cultural heritage in Hong Kong, rising activism and identity contradictions) by Sebastian VEG. 3. The terms of the assistance policy in the rehabilitation of historic buildings are presented in 2008. Entitled “Heritage Impact Assessment”, it reviews the objectives and the means mobilized by the Revitalization Plan for Historical Buildings via partnerships.

4. The report titled “Creative proposals selected under Batch III of Revitalisation Scheme” describes the announcement of the selection made by the Council Committee of the Revitalisation of Historic Buildings in the Revitalization Plan at a press conference given by the Minister of Development, Mr. Pau Chan, who enunciated: «the characteristics of the three selected proposals that will give a new lease of life to the three buildings and will provide new social benefits to the local community.»

5. An online album by Frigoman on the Picasa website includes the photos of two hundreds abandoned schools in the New Territories in Hong Kong.

Messages sent to the author of the album were not responded.

6. The title of the exhibition in 2011 on the village schools, «Under The Trees», refers to the recurring presence of one or more mature trees within these schools. Yet it would be more accurate to say that these schools are systematically located on particularly privileged sites, often incorporating a large tree in the village, the same comment is described by Ronald G. Knapp when he depicts the configuration of traditional villages: “The most important space constructed in the Chinese cities and villages is constituted traditionally of one or several temples, the house of Clan, sometimes named as ancestor hall. In many villages, both in the north and the south of China, the presence of an impressive tree projecting a huge shadow, usually near the altar of the god of the earth […], constitutes a place for communal activities, a form that provides an identity and gives its name to the place.”

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7. The past, present and future of the village schools in the North District (existed only in Chinese).

8. Lawrence WANG accompanied me to several visits of the schools in Tai Po. His project of designing furniture suggests the possibility to squat inside the schools.

9. Concerning this subject, refer to the dissertation of LEUNG H.C. “Hong Kong and China, between dependency and autonomy”, which explains the integration of Hong Kong in the conurbation of the Pearl River Delta.

Accessible in the Internet on the site “L’atlas des Villes” (Atlas of cities) of ENSAPM, contributions 2012.

10. Ibid.

11. This vision of Hong Kong as a pole to initiate China’s democratization movement, which exists already in the fields of journalism and of information, is notably defended in the artistic world by the curator Shu YANG. In the architectural and planning field, this position is also suggested by ZHU Tao in his essay “The Bi-City Biennale, A Catalyst For Change?”: “What can be the transposition (of this vision of role of media) in the architectural discipline? We should have regretted that the Hong Kong architectural community has not taken the responsibility that it could have had and did nothing with its potential to reclaim more important objectives other than “making money”. […] Since the reform of China and its open door policy in 1980s, the Hong Kong architects brought their excellence and their efficiency for calculation rather than their cultural sensibility or their spatial imagination to China. […] How could it be that the Hong Kong architects adopt such a passive attitude, that their architectural developments are so detached with its development of local cultural which is so dynamic?”

During a debate organized in the Biennale, 4th December 2010, ZHU Tao added that Hong Kong could position an equilibrium point between China and Taiwan.

12. The project of Salottobuono entitled The Learning Cloud investigated this question by announcing a project of interregional campus situated at the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The text which accompanies explains that “as the Hong Kong and Shenzhen citizens become more and more integrated in their daily lives, the question of education has become an important issue. Many people have a cross-border life, children from cross-border marriages choose to live in Shenzhen and study in Hong Kong, resulting in a large population of trans-border students”.

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13. We can refer to the work of Augustin BERQUE and especially his critique in Milieu et Identité humaine (Milieu and Human Identity) P. 83-100, on his definition of heritage that against the one of Françoise CHOAY in l’Allégorie du Patrimoine (Allegory of Heritage). This opposition provides a debate between the two authors and is transcribed in the article “La puissance des formes” (The power of forms) published online. The geographer Augustin BERQUE intends to make mesology (the study of the relationship between man and his « milieu ») as a way to bypass modernity that, according to him, is a dead end leading to the self destruction of man by altering their « milieu ». In terms of architecture, he argues that museumification of heritage and the reduction of architecture to its image derived from a same thought inherited from classical modern paradigm established in 17th century. In an objective world, principally because of the triumph of scientific thought, man would be excluded by conceiving the world as «environment». It is particularly through the study of Japanese and Chinese cultures that he builds a critique of the absence of cosmogony of modern man causing the Western concept of heritage: «To keep a shape in the space or the matter in time, is to conserve it as an object; To freeze its identity. This is part of the judgment on modern object that abstract from the one of the existential movement by which, in reality, the objects are related to the subjects, making it as concrete things, not just objects. The «Conservation, universelle et identificatoire” (Conservation, universal and identifying) suggested by Ms. Choay proceed of the same logic, made more readable by the monumentality of its object. » 14. Augustin BERQUE, Milieu et identité humaine.

15. Once more, I borrow an example of Augustin BERQUE who, in “La puissance des formes” (The power of forms), writes: “In the rite of periodic reconstruction of certain temples in Japan, the unchangeable form – the gesture of the builder as well as the object being built – has the power of replay, cyclically, the ancestral to present. […] This monumentality then has nothing to do with that of the isolated monument by grids such as the Baths of Cluny. It is not an object heavily inscribed as a heritage and conserved itself in a certain space; but a social entity in the techno-symbolic, spatial-temporal deployment from its concrete form.

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