SPRING
THE YELLOW SEA AND ME
MAP 08
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Welcome To Chungking Mansions 120 Nationalities Under One Roof
2  Robin Fall Photography July 2009
Photographs by Robin Fall
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Chungking Mansions Hong Kong
M
y name is Hussein Tariq, and
be confronted by a handful of guesthouse workers. I am a refugee here from Wearing a suit? Here come the tailor-made busiPakistan. The Chungking nesses. Longhaired backpacker that hasn’t showMansions in Hong Kong ered in two weeks? Hashish is just a transaction is a famous place. Every away… just say the word. country’s people come here and it is very well known. Here my life is athews categorizes the main people that secure… not too much bumping, bomb blasts, stay in the building as traders, business owners/ injured, killed. “ managers and their employees, asylum seekTariq is among the 4,000 people that stay in the ers, and tourists. Another obvious group, if you decrepit building on any given night. People from happen to pass by at night, are the sex workers: Africa, South Asia (Indians, Nepalese, Pakistanis, around 80 from various parts of Asia. In front and Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans) and other areas of wandering around the alleys you’ll find around 40 the world come to live a safer, more sustainable heroin addicts and drug dealers. Mathews estilife than the one they had in their home country. mates that a grand total of 10,000 people pass According to Gordon Mathews, an anthropologist through the Mansions every day. It’s also said that and professor at the Chinese University of Hong around 20-30% of all mobile phones in Sub-SahaKong, “There are some 90 guesthouses and 380 ran Africa come from the Chungking Mansions. businesses in the building, including food stands, sellers of mobile phones, watches, electronic items, “Maybe you buy some mobile phones… instead of clothing, and many other goods sold retail and 100 HKD here you can sell it for like 300 HKD back wholesale.” home… so you can make more money and then your family back home can send the money back he self-sufficient building has a reputation to buy another one. Then at the end of the day you for being able to get anything you want including have some loot, you have some money so you can copy-watches, tailor-made suits and hashish. The support yourself.” most obvious business is that on the semi-legal or illegal scale pitched from numerous people stand- -Kevin (Ghana) ing outside. If you’re carrying a backpack, you will
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Chungking Mansions Hong Kong
“They beat me
me, for six or
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e in my chest, 3 hard punches. After they beat r seven hours I felt intense pain in my chest.” Lucky Ali
information then you are in trouble. A lot of time I give information to him about the illegal work, illegal business, drug business. “
“Copy watches sir? Good price!” 29 year-old, Lucky Ali, from India, stands outside the Chungking Mansions everyday trying to get customers inside, where his secret shop is located. Although selling copy-watches is illegal, they are still allowed to lure in customers granted that their shops aren’t out in the open. “Before the financial crisis, we could sell 10-20 watches per day per person. We could make one to two thousand a day. After the world wide economic crisis we can only make one or two hundred and somedays nothing.”
The semi-illegal buisiness comes with reprec-
A raid was going down in and around the Chungking Mansions in the 3rd week of August. Lucky was asked to give some information on a copywatch location in which he complied. He was arrested the next day anyway. “It was a very hard time yesterday. They beat me in my chest, 3 hard punches. After they beat me, for six or seven hours I felt intense pain in my chest.”
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ucky’s shop was also ransacked and everything was taken, even the shelves off the wall. “They took all of the stuff… watches, bags. They photos (from top broke my door, table… They caught me in my left): Lucky Ali, age home. We kept stuff there just like a store. They 29, relaxes after took everything and broke everything… my bed, spending a night pillow, everything. Now we need to start again and decorate our home.” with the police; After a night with the police, a deal was made and one boy took the wrap. Lucky and the few standing on Nathothers that were arrested were released.
ussions and relationships with the police and gang members is a must to keep the money flowing. While the profit margin is higher compared to their tailor-suit seller counterparts, they must either rat out other business locations or let the police bust them from time to time. When there is a raid, people get arrested and an Road in front of one or two of them take the wrap for an entire Chungking business. Another drawback is that helping one “My boss is really well known to Hong Kong, he’s policeman doesn’t ensure that another will bust Mansions waiting lived here 10-15 years... I’m not sure. He has a for customers; you. big connection with the police because he is blackLucky went through hard times and tough decilisted. He is sometimes doing the copy business sions were made at the end of August. He’s been message from CID and sometimes drug business. Sometimes he working in front of the Mansions for two years and police; takes drugs with my friends... all CID police know can say “copy watches” in 5 or 6 languages. One of him.” his many friends is an officer in the CID (Central opening the eleva- Lucky’s boss was the one to give him up on this Intelligence Division) of Hong Kong. tor that leads to his occasion. In order for him to keep his businesses running he too must give information to the police. now broken shop “The Hong Kong CID police give pressure to give According to Lucky, once every six months. Lucky information on any illegal work. If you don’t give got a call from his boss that day and was told to go to his apartment and bring him his mobile phone. When he arrived the police were waiting for him. “He can do anything in Hong Kong, man. It’s the history of Hong Kong… ganstars with the police. They always help each other. If my boss wants to kill me, he can. He can send some Chinese people,
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Chungking Mansions Hong Kong
“That’s why I want revenge; I’m an emotional person. He used me.”
they can kill me.”
During the interview with Lucky, he received a phone call from the CID police.
Lucky: I want to see you and talk with you about something. I have some photographs I want to show you. When do you have time? CID: 8:00pm. Lucky: OK I’ll see you then. “One of the photos is of my boss, the other is his right hand. I worked for him around 2 years. The police told me my boss gave the information. After that, I think to myself, I gave the service to him for two years, and what did he give to me? He wants to put me inside the jail, inside the prison. That’s why I want revenge; I’m an emotional person. He used me.” For now Lucky will start picking up the pieces of his home and what’s left of his shop. His story is similar to many that are struggling to make a living inside Chungking Mansions.
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photos (from bottom left to top right): Lucky’s shop which was filled with copyhandbags and copy watches now contains almost nothing; Lucky’s boss whom turned him in to CID police; walking to his now trashed home; redecorating and restarting after their busininess was hampared by police
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