Very MK is a rooftop farm in Mong Kok, Kowloon, located on a building that has been scheduled to be redeveloped by the URA (Urban Renewal Authority) since 2012. Very MK is an initiative to create a queer green space—a portal between the heart of the city and farm lands at the periphery. Ve r y M K 是一個位於旺角的天台農場，其所在大廈於2012年被市區重建 局宣佈重建。Ve r y M K 以其獨特的身位探索，展示城市空間的多樣性。 在繁華鬧市中以食物﹑泥土和微生物連結本地農夫﹑社區以及MK仔， 為城市人創造這個位於六樓後座的綠色浮城異域。
Illustrations by Siu Man 插畫 蕭敏 好旺角書仔, 二零一五 Very MK Zine, 2015 Essay by Holok Chen (English) 文章 陳可樂 (英文) Translated by Leo Lin 翻譯 里佬連 Photographs by Very MK 攝影 好旺角 #VeryMK www.facebook.com/verymk 背景資料 Background info English: https://goo.gl/kdr2v0 中文: https://goo.gl/jgyWPK 鳴謝 Thanks Facebook: 國際街坊連線 International Kai Fong Alliance ISBN: 978-988-12600-3-1
The Rooftop Farm as a Semantic Machine Two years ago, Michael and I decided to start a farm in Mong Kok. We were in a process of reflection on the issue of an “urban edge” raised by architects and urban planners, interested in the potential antagonism that an urban intervention project could bring about. We were looking at building structures upon existing infrastructure and developed a layout for a rooftop that was scheduled to be demolished. In our city, air is trapped in a cubical and put up for sale. Standing on a rooftop and looking around, you soon get the feeling that the sky in this city does not belong to everyone but only to those who can climb high enough. Volumes are traded in the market, and the circulation of air takes another form in economic terms. I live five stories up, in a volume made up of 2,000 cubic feet of air. The developers literally make money out of thin air. Very MK, as a form of installation art, creates a visual space: air is manifest visually as its production by plants, filling up space and flowing in from the harbor before being blocked by luxurious apartments. You see the surrounding pre-war buildings and newly-erected shopping malls, where volumes of air are commodified and traded on the real estate market. Prostitutes, mafia, and farmers Mong Kok, having served as the backdrop for ‘90s mafia movies, represents the dark side of the Hong Kong landscape. The dazzling night scenes and the robust, chaotic, and dangerous atmosphere are where mafia members and prostitutes feel at home. The pink light boxes are a signature of the district’s brothels. This is what director Fruit Chan portrayed in his Hong Kong trilogy, not the bright, sterile lights of Central. The first floor of my building used to be a brothel. The pimps were very talkative—probably because they were really bored. I often sat inside and chatted with them late at night while customers came and went. When we first started Very MK, I gave a pot of mint to one of the pimps. He told me a little bit about the history of the red-light district, and surprisingly, it has something to do with farmers. The 1970s and ‘80s were a prosperous period in Hong Kong. Ferraris parked at the intersection of Soy Street and Reclamation Street, which was coined the Golden Cross. Girls were picked up here for business in Tsim Sha Tsui. Before the handover in 1997, the Chinese government tried to stabilize Hong Kong by providing some benefits to local gangsters. Members of the mafia got to take part in the
development of the sex industry in Dongguan. With industry shifting to China, the Golden Cross began to lose some of its glamor. After the handover, however, mafia members returned to Hong Kong because Communist Party officers had begun to take over their work in Guangdong. But the business in Hong Kong had already shrunk, so those who could not regain work turned to other illegal businesses, such as forced land evictions. The mafia members started small property companies and were hired by developers to evict existing farmers. Some of these lands were turned into illegal columbarium businesses. The story of Hong Kong’s gangsters provides an intercontextual reading of the changes in the rural landscape. The urban landscape as part of agricultural development The wild passionfruit at Very MK climbs with its green vine up a red rope tied to a laundry rack one story above the rooftop. It presses against the window of a tin house built upon the roof, a structure that reveals another story of local agriculture. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hong Kong’s farmlands were mainly paddy fields. These fields were abandoned after the ‘30s when indigenous Hongkongers migrated to England and The Netherlands. After the Second World War, waves of Chinese refugees flocked to the city and built tenements on top of industrial buildings and at the peripheries of town. To relieve population pressures, the British Hong Kong Government spread leaflets across Victoria Harbour by helicopter, encouraging the city’s newcomers to go to the New Territories and cultivate farmlands. These immigrants and their agricultural techniques revitalized the vacant farmlands into vegetable farms primarily growing choi sum. When these farmers went back to visit their homelands in the ‘80s, however, they were shocked to find out that the knowledge of growing choi sum had been completely forgotten after a generation of political turmoil in the Mainland. In this way, knowledge originating from Southern China has been preserved in Hong Kong’s north east New Territories. The British Government had tolerated the existence of rooftop tenements and squatters in the New Territories. But in the ‘80s, things changed. With the prospect of handover looming, in 1988 the colonial government decided to gradually wipe away the obtrusive structures. The Land Development Corporation, predecessor of today’s Urban Renewal Authority (URA), was formed, and farmers and residents of old neighborhoods began to be evicted by land developers and the government for a regional integration project with the Mainland. From this story, we can see there is no such thing as “the concrete jungle invading virgin lands.” The relationship of the urban and the rural is always dynamic. We need to get past the stagnant view regarding nature as fragile, pure and
untouched, thus needing protection. We need to envision nature as self-surpassing and transcendent. After a typhoon or heavy rainstorm, the rooftop will be a mess. During the sunniest day, the Dragonboat Festival, the plants dry up. Yet continuously, we receive sunshine, rainwater, and air from nature. We are in a reciprocal relationship with nature. We exchange with bees, birds, millipedes, and frogs. We exchange with the rural farmers, too. “We face the yellow earth and turn our backs to the sun,” said Mr. Chan, a Yuen Long farmer who was evicted by Henderson Land. “I am really tired of the legal process; the lawyers don’t understand what earth is. The soil and the trees are living things. You don’t treat them like objects.” In solidarity with our project, Mr. Chan kindly donated some fruit trees and soil from the northeastern New Territories to Very MK. In this way, we became a portal between the heart of the city and its periphery. What we really want to show is an alternative image of Hong Kong and the genesis of its urban landscapes. The growth of plants is at the same time the perpetual production of meaning and living experience, which we feed with the rich fertilizer of subjectivity. For now, Very MK’s role as farmland in the center of a financial hub produces an excess of meaning that overflows its actual production. If one were to measure Very MK by its harvest, we would be little more than a joke. But in a sense, Very MK doesn’t have to take the form of a farm. It may be anything, from a semantic machine to a branch, stretching out in an endless rhizome of signifiers. Holok Chen Very MK August 2015
天台農場 – 意義生成器 兩年前梁志剛(Michael Leung)和我決定在旺角設立一個農場。當時 我們正在就著一項名為「城市邊緣」的議題作出回應──該議題由一 群建築師及城市規劃師提出，他們關注的是城市介入項目可能引發的 潛在抗力──於是我們在現有的建築物上尋找空間，後來便在一個即 將被清拆的天台上為它作出新的用途規劃。 在我們的城市中，空氣是被困在立方體裡放售的東西。站在天台上環 顧四周，你很快便會感覺到這裡的天空並不屬於任何人，而只是屬於 那些攀得高高在上的人。樓盤空間在市場中被任意拋售，而空氣流動 亦以某種經濟模式進行，地產發展商基本上是無本生利。我就居住在 五樓，一個由空氣「建成」的二千立方呎單位內。 作為一種裝置藝術，Very MK創造出一個視覺空間：以植物來顯示空 氣的存在，空氣在被一棟棟的豪宅大廈阻隔前，由維港飄盪而來並填 滿所有空間。你看看周遭的戰前樓宇和簇新的大型商場，於當中流動 的空氣變相已成為一種可在地產市場裡交易的期貨商品。
娼妓、黑社會與農夫 旺角不但經常充當九十年代港產江湖片的故事背景，在現實裡也代表 著香港景貌的黑暗面。燈紅酒綠的霓虹夜色下，混沌而危險的氣息讓 娼妓與黑道人物猶如置身家中。粉紅色的霓虹招牌正是這區妓寨的標 誌。這亦是陳果導演在他的香港三部曲電影中所呈現的──與中環那 明亮潔淨的燈光截然不同的風景。 我居住的樓宇一樓曾經是一所妓寨。或許是生活沉悶無聊的緣故，那 裏的皮條客都非常健談。那陣子我經常在深夜時份到妓寨內與他們閒 談。剛成立Very MK時我曾把一盤薄荷送給其中一位皮條客，於是他 跟我說了一些紅燈區的歷史，出乎意料地這話題竟然與農夫扯上關係。 七、八十年代的香港欣欣向榮。新填地街及豉油街交界處經常停泊了 數輛法拉利跑車，它們的任務是接載妓女前往尖沙咀進行性交易的生 意，因此這交界處曾經有「金十字」之稱號。 中國政府在九七回歸前，為了先行穩定香港而向本地黑幫社團提供某 些利益。從那時起，香港黑幫成員能夠參與發展東莞的黃色事業。 隨著本地黃色事業的重心北移，昔日「金十字」的風采亦逐漸減退。 香港回歸後一段時間，由於共產黨官員著手接管他們在廣東的生意， 早前北上發展的社團人士陸續回流。此時香港的色情事業亦趨萎縮， 所以部份黑道中人轉而從事其他非法勾當，例如強拆迫遷。他們成立 小規模物業公司並受僱於發展商去威迫農民遷離農地，而得來的土地 部份被用來經營非法骨灰龕場。香港「古惑仔」背後的故事提供了另 一個本地鄉郊地貌變遷歷史的閱讀方向。
城市地貌作為農業發展的一部份
Very MK種植的百香果與其樹藤攀附在一條綁著晾衫架，掛得高高的 紅繩上；它的莖輕輕擠壓著—間天台鐵皮屋的窗戶，屋子的結構訴 說著另一個關於本地農業的故事。二十世紀初之時，香港的農地主 要是水稻田，然而在三十年代大量香港原居民移居英國及荷蘭後陸續 荒廢。二次大戰後大量國內難民湧進香港，並在工廈天台上及市區邊 緣搭建寮屋居住。港英政府為了舒緩人口增加的壓力，利用直升機在 維港兩岸散發傳單，鼓勵新抵埗的人士前往新界定居並開墾農地。這 些新移民及他們的務農技術重新把空置農地活化成主要種植菜心的農 場。當這些農民在八十年代重返他們內地的家鄉時，驚覺國內經歷整 個世代的政治動盪後，種植菜心的知識已被遺忘得一乾二淨。從另一 角度看，起源於華南的農耕知識已在香港新界東北地區扎根。 直至八十年代前，港英政府一般對天台及新界寮屋的存在抱持容忍 態度。但踏入八十年代後，這種包容態度亦隨著九七年回歸日漸接 近而改變。1988年，當時的殖民地政府決定逐步取締有礙景觀的建 築物；因此成立現今市區重建局(Urban Renewal Authority)的前身 ──土地發展公司，為未來中港兩地融合計劃作準備，使農民及舊區 原居民逐步被政府及土地發展商迫遷。 由此可見，在這段歷史裡根本就沒有什麼所謂「石屎森林侵略未開墾 地」這回事，城市與鄉村之間的關係無時無刻都在變化當中。我們須 要摒棄那種認為大自然是脆弱、純潔及原始的呆滯觀念。反之，我們 應該想像大自然能夠自我超越，亦是超然於文明運作的存在。經歷一 埸颱風或暴雨後，天台農場必定會一團糟；在陽光最充沛的端午節 時，植物都快要乾枯了。但大自然仍持續不斷地帶給我們陽光、雨水 及空氣。大自然與我們共處於一種互惠互利的關係，這關係當中也包 括了蜜蜂、雀鳥、千足蟲和靑蛙。 這種互利關係的交流不只存在於人與其他物種之間，我們和一眾鄉 郊農夫亦保持著同樣微妙的關係。陳先生說：「背向太陽，面向黃 土。」陳先生是一個被恆基地產迫遷的元朗農夫。「法律程序讓人感 到非常疲勞，律師們根本不明白泥土到底是什麼。土壤與樹木同樣有 生命，不應只當作死物看待。」因為陳先生與我們的計劃站在同一 陣線上，所以他慷慨地將來自新界東北的土壤及數株果樹贈予Very MK。由此，我們成為了銜接市中心與其邊緣地區的橋樑。我們最希 望展現出來的，其實是主流以外的另一個香港形象，以及這城市景貌 的起源。種植作物亦同時是以豐富的主觀性作為肥料，培育出新的生 活經驗與意義的行為。作為一個正正位於國際金融中心樞紐地帶的農 地，Very MK所出產的「意義」遠超過實際的蔬果產量。如果單以蔬 果收成來衡量Very MK，那我們大概不過是一樁笑話。但Very MK不 必然以農場的形態存在，它可以是任何其他形態，可能是一個意義生 成器；又或者是一根樹枝，在無窮盡的根莖之上向外舒展。 陳可樂 (Holok Chen) 旺角天台農場 二零一五年八月
木製植盆版的《香港農民曆》為限量製作，在農耕同好及HK FARMers之間分享傳閱， 而所有內容的電子版本以及工作坊的紀錄可於其出版人Spring工作室的網頁免費下載。 www.springworkshop.org/the-hk-farmers-almanac .
The HK FARMers’ Almanac is produced as a limited-edition volume-in-a-planter, to be shared among fellow agriculturists and other nurturing souls. Digital versions of all content as well as documentation from its publisher Spring Workshop will be downloadable from www.springworkshop.org/the-hk-farmers-almanac .