A major in-depth article in the Financial Times (FT) features the life and times of the Chungking Mansions, future site of the Diversity Hub. Some extracts:
“Chungking Mansions, a dense and decrepit warren of flophouses and eateries, has the air of a busy bus station. On the street outside, restaurant touts jostle for attention. Through the entrance, beneath the name printed in dull gold English and Chinese script, the ground floor resembles a bazaar. The aisles are narrow, the ceilings low, the cables and pipes visible. Where it isn’t dark, the light is too bright, and fans the size of giant satellite dishes blow a gale in corners where young men listlessly gather. Trays of samosas languish under spotlights; tins of evaporated milk teeter; pots of curry and stew bubble. There are cardboard boxes in various states of being unwrapped.
In the midst of it all are dozens of people with suitcases and backpacks. Each 17-storey block is serviced by a pair of lifts, whizzing visitors up to apartments, restaurants and guesthouses. Signposts add to the confusion. Anybody looking up is likely to see surveillance cameras winking back.
All of this is made more incongruous by the environs. Nathan Road, on which it sits, was once known as the Golden Mile and, today, is abuzz with shoppers sashaying past with Gucci-emblazoned bags. The glamorous Peninsula Hotel, which appears in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, is not far away. Across the harbour, silver skyscrapers are resplendent against the verdant green of Victoria Peak …”
The article also includes quotes from our client Jeffrey Andrews: “Of course there is vice in Chungking Mansions — “It is not a church,” Andrews said. Yet the way in which he and others talk about the buildings, as a centre of a community, a sanctuary, lends it a faintly sacred air … On a blazing hot day, Andrews and I climbed up on to the roof of one of the blocks, clambering up a spiral staircase. He gestured at the world-class museums, five-star hotels and gleaming new high rises all around. He has been coming up to this roof for more than a decade, he said. Each time, he is overwhelmed by the changes around him. “I do worry for this place,” he said.”
For the full article, please go here.