Edited by Yip Kai-chun November 2017
nº5
Hong Kong
S’LIM
Inner cover photos by Chiu Yee-ling.
November 2017
nº5
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Hong Kong To Leave, to Come, and to Stay Editorial
Lee Chuen-ming & Li Guixiang Yip Kai-chun
Treasure Island – Host in a Shell Anne from Berlin
Feral Colonies of Causeway Bay Chiu Yee-ling & Olli Tapio Leino
Close to Heaven Ryan Chan Hon-yan
Edited by Yip Kai-chun
Girl with a Box Joel Kwong
you know where to find me Jolene Mok
To Leave, to Come, and to Stay
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Yip Kai-chun
Dear Reader, Thi s f if t h is s ue of S ’ l i m i s a s e c o n d part o f a s pec ial se ri e s o f th re e g u e s t edi te d s lim z ines – m a d e p o s s i b l e w i th the suppor t f r om t h e F i n n i s h N a ti o n a l Counc il f or A r c hit e c tu re a n d D e s i g n . Wi th t his oppor t un i ty, w e h o p e to a p pro ac h plac es t ha t h a v e c ro s s e d o u r paths in t he r ec en t y e a rs , th ro u g h th e eye s of pas t and pre s e n t c o n te mp o ra ri e s, i n t he ephem e ra l fo rma t o f S ’ l i m. For this “ s ophom or e ” e d i ti o n , w e h a v e i n vi ted ar t is t and c u ra to r Yi p K a i -c h u n as g ues t edit or, t o d e v e l o p a l te rn a te , parti c ular and per s o n a l v i e w p o i n ts to the c it y t hat s o of t e n i s s h o w n o n l y i n i ts mo s t hy per bolic fo rm. Se l i m P r ojec t s
What pushes one to leave a place called home and stay in another unfamiliar place? Of course, it could just be an adventure (speaking of this, I feel almost ashamed of myself for having lived in Hong Kong for my whole 33 years!). For the more prudent ones, it could be about opportunity – for income, for living standard etc. For some, it is a miserably inevitable decision – what is called home becomes not quite livable anymore. To leave is not to live better; it is to survive. With the apparently striving economy, low unemployment rate and crime rate, it may not be easy for outsiders to instantly understand why leaving Hong Kong could become a popular topic (and actual decision for some) among the Hong Kongers. It has been quite a long while. I have got
this realisation when I watched a 1992 Hong Kong production To Liv(e). Set in the last years of British Hong Kong, the dilemmas of leaving or staying of the characters appallingly mirror that of many of us 25 years later. When Hong Kong was decided to be handed over to China in the 1980s, flocks of Hong Kongers left to all over the world out of fear of the Chinese rule. What was called home might have deformed into somewhere not quite the same. But then things seem not to have changed that much. At least the skyscrapers are taller and shinier than ever. Still, Hong Kongers are leaving again. To leave or to stay has been a state of Hong Kongers, a state of Hong Kong. The stagnancy strikes me. And still, like all the other great metropolises, people from around the world have kept coming to Hong Kong for the plentiful opportunities and adventures promised by this Asia’s world city. But for many of the current middle-aged generations who came to Hong Kong from the neighbouring countries in turmoil decades ago, security and stability were the things they sought. What was called home became not quite livable anymore, and Hong Kong has eventually become home. People come, people go, and come again, and go again. Hong Kong has always been a fluid. This is the spirit of Hong Kong. I feel excited and pressured to edit S’lim #5 Hong Kong. No place can be easily fixated and represented, and Hong Kong is simply too compact, vibrant and multifaceted to nail down. But above all is my closeness to Hong Kong. The city has abundant stunning
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cityscape and gorgeous nature to show, but they just constitute the skin. The people are breath and blood that run a city. The people coming and going. The spirit of Hong Kong. The issue comprises fragments of memories and stories of people around me, coming to Hong Kong, leaving Hong Kong, staying in Hong Kong, swinging between Hong Kong and other places. Imagine this issue like a tiny stall selling untraceable old photos and letters in a flea market. Invaluable memories frozen into images. Intimate words of one anonym to another anonym. Impalpable messages to be deciphered. Coming and going both challenge the idea of home. What makes a place home, actually? The place of birth? The place where one has stayed for the longest? The place where one’s love is? The place where one knows well enough that one recognises the cats there? Or, could home be anywhere – home is body?
Photo by Yip Kai-chun
Like home, to the contemporaries always on the way, Hong Kong can be abstract, drifting, spilling out, evaporating. Then, the stagnancy of to leave, to come and to stay of Hong Kongers and Hong Kong may transform into a freedom that is openended, borderless. A Hong Kong that people can share; no one can ever capture. No matter where I would be, Hong Kong will always hold that irreplaceable position in me.
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Lee Chuen-ming & Li Guixiang Yip Kai-chun
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Treasure Island – Host in a Shell Anne from Berlin
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Photos on this page by crk.
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Feral Colonies of Causeway Bay Chiu Yee-ling & Olli Tapio Leino
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Victoria Park is a green enclave on the south side of Victoria Harbour, flanked by residential areas, highways, and shopping districts of Hong Kong on all sides. It provides a peaceful and sheltered environment for community animals, among whom are approximately 100-150 of feral and semi-feral cats (based on SPCA and AFCD estimates). Victoria Park is an indivisible part of Hong Kong. Thus, the cats in the area are ruled by the Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation Department (AFCD) of Hong Kong Government. ACFD’s prevailing policy on what they call “stray cats” is “catch and kill” — officially known as “euthanasia” policy. According to this policy, AFCD can make individual community animals disappear. The policy involves capturing the individuals and taking them to animal management centres, from where only those with good health and “gentle temperament” can be considered for rehoming. In 2016, 449 cats were “euthanized” by AFCD. There are also a number of animal welfare organisations in Hong Kong who take care of community animals. These include Society for the Prevention of Cruelty on Animals (SPCA) Hong Kong, who have carried out “Cat Colony Care Programme” (CCCP), which involves trapping and neutering (TNR). Since 2000, SPCA Hong Kong has desexed more than 59,000 street cats. We have observed a number of cats in the park, including an individual we nicknamed "Big and Beautiful Cat", exhibiting the “tipped ear” characteristic to cats who have undergone a TNR operation. Over a 27-month observation period we have noticed that the cats live a relatively sedentary life within their enclave, where the individual colonies keep to themselves in their designated areas. We have noted that the same individuals can usually be found in their ‘home’ locations. Given that among adult cats, ‘meowing’ is likely to indicate domestication, we can postulate the cat colonies in Victoria Park involve at least two generations of ferality: first-generation cats, i.e. escaped or released domestic cats who communicate with humans by meowing, and, second- or later-generation cats, who do not possess this ability, or, who wish to not communicate with humans. One individual we have nicknamed “Friendly Cat” appears to be a first-generation Victoria Park cat based on their preferred modality of communication. Interestingly, a colony may include both first- and later-generation Victoria Park cats in harmonious coexistence, such as in the case of Friendly Cat’s colony: it includes a also a black-haired individual, who prefers wet food, stays in a dark area surrounded by palm trees, and does not meow. During our observation period, we noticed the sudden disappearance of a colony headed by an individual we nicknamed “Elegant Cat". This colony of 4 cats had made the area surrounding a public toilet building in the north-west corner of the park their home, and could be often found both daytime and nighttime hanging out around the public toilet building. At the time of disappearance, construction work for a tunnel of Central-Wanchai Bypass highway was about to begin near the said public toilet area, reducing the size of the park by 20,000 square feet and involving the re-provisioning of a number of facilities including a playground, nursery garden, and a bowling green, relocation of 290 trees and felling of 60 trees. We may speculate that the construction work, together with AFCD’s catch and kill policy, and this colony’s prominent public presence contributed to their disappearance.
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Close to Heaven Ryan Chan Hon-yan
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Girl with a Box Joel Kwong
this was a box with a letter inside a letter cannot be sent will not be sent the box was sealed something have no start will never come to an end the box was posted to the recipient in Hong Kong postman mistook as someone else rejected returned the box covered with the word “rejected� was returned to the sender in Taipei the sender learned that like the box tenderness can be rejected the recipient and the sender swore they would be lifelong friends the sender ended the four-year-long bi-city life and returned to Hong Kong the box rejected promised a lifelong friendship
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28 On the phone, Aunt mentioned to me three things: 電話裏頭，姑媽提到三件事: First, on the 7th night, you will be back. 一、頭七嗰晚，你會返來。 Second, you can travel to everywhere now, wherever that is. 二、你依家邊度都去到 。無論幾遠，你都去得到。 Third, if something weird happened, don’t panic, it’s a sign of you. 三、 假如有怪事發生，唔好怕，係你顯靈。 What if … you made it here, but couldn’t locate the house I am staying? 你會唔會來搵唔到我留宿嗰間屋呢? You know where to find me. 你一定知道。你一定搵得到。 Longyearbyen – Hong Kong – Skagaströnd 朗伊爾城 - 香港 - 斯卡加斯特倫鎮 21 December 2013 二零一三年十二月二十一日
you know where to find me Jolene Mok
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Contributors & Contemporaries
We would like to thank all the contemporaries who shared their contributions on 香港.
S’LIM is a zine that focuses on a particular place at a
Lee Chuen-ming was a housewife. She was born in Chungshan, Guangdong, grew up in Macau, and lived in Hong Kong since the 1960s (exact year not known). Her son remembers she wanted to travel but did not want to spend money, and guesses she would not have wanted to leave Hong Kong. Li Guixiang is a construction worker. She was born and raised in Fuitung, Guangdong. She has lived in both Fuitung and Hong Kong since 1999, and would like to continue to do so. She has got her Hong Kong identity card in 2015. Anne from Berlin became a Hong Kong-addict in 2009, coming back every year since. The ambivalence of the city continuously amazes her. Her dream is to move to Hong Kong for a few years to see/feel/ taste more of it and be one little cell in this crazy organism. Chiu Yee-ling is an artist and a photographer. She was born and lives in Hong Kong. She wants to try living on a boat in Amsterdam and someplace where she has to be cautious of penguins crossing the road. (www.chiuyeeling.com) Olli Tapio Leino is a scholar and a DJ. He was born in Finland, and has lived also in Lapland, Denmark, Czech Republic, UK and Hong Kong. He wants to try living among animals. (http://386.sx) Ryan Chan Hon-yan is a film director and cinematographer. He was born and raised in Hong Kong, and currently lives in Taipei. He used to travel a lot as he worked 5 years for an airline. He would like to be based in Taiwan in the next few years for his film career. (http://www.vimeo.com/chanyan) Joel Kwong is a media art curator & consultant, and Programme Director of Microwave International New Media Arts Festival. She is currently based in Hong Kong. She is a frequent traveler around the globe for art projects, consultation and festival collaboration. She used to live in both Taipei & Hong Kong for four years, and always believes art is the key for a better future. (http://www.microwavefest.net) Jolene Mok is an itinerant video artist and an experimental filmmaker. She was born in British Hong Kong tho she has not yet lived in the UK. To date, she has lived in Hong Kong, North Carolina, Skagaströnd, Incheon, Seoul, Ólafsfjörður, Mänttä, Fukuoka, Nagano, New York City & Dublin. She would want to live somewhere in the UK at a certain point. (http://jojolenelene.net/) Issue Guest Editor Yip Kai Chun Yip Kai-chun is an artist and a curator. He was born, bred and lives in Hong Kong. He has not lived anywhere else. He has always wanted to try living in another place. (www.yipkaichuns.com)
time, merging the contemporary and the historical experiences of visiting, living, staying and theorizing. ISSN 2343-1016 (online) ISSN 2343-1024 (print) Produced by Selim, a Helsinki-based contemporary platform for editorial / curatorial / cultural / visual / spatial projects. SELIM Selim Projects Katajanokankatu 8 D 24 00160 Helsinki, Finland http://www.selim.fi info@selim.fi © 2017 Selim Projects / Henrik Drufva and Mika Savela. The copyright on the individual text and images is held by the respective contributors and authors. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission from the publisher, except for works existing in the public domain. This issue has been generously supported by a grant from the National Council for Architecture and Design, Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
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