Much has been said about Hong Kong’s “development”. Favorite landmarks like Queen’s Pier, the Repulse Bay Hotel, and many others are gone forever. In his new book, The Hong Kong I Knew: Scenes and Stories from a Childhood in Kowloon (Blacksmith Books, 2021), Mark Isaac-Williams writes of his childhood years in Tsim Sha Tsui and many of the marvelous customs and landmarks that have been lost to “progress”.
Isaac-Williams was born in Hong Kong in 1939 and spent most of the war year with his mother in Australia, which included a stint in Manila en route. His father stayed back in Hong Kong and was a prisoner of war at Stanley Prison. The family reunited in Australia after the war and ended up back in Hong Kong in 1947, spending several years living at the Peninsula Hotel.
He writes about his school years at what became King George V School, or KGV. After four years at the Peninsula, his family moved to a flat on Kimberley Street, not to be confused with the larger Kimberley Road. Isaac-Williams went to boarding school in the UK in 1952 and returned to Hong Kong at the end of the decade. His parents moved to other homes higher up on the Kowloon Peninsula, on Waterloo Road and Boundary Street, respectively.
Some of my favorite parts of his book include the vignettes in the second half that are accompanied by lovely illustrations from Lucy Parris. One such vignette tells the early history of Kowloon Motor Bus at a time when all buses in Hong Kong were wiped out in the war. Another tells of the way the people at the observatory tower would physically hoist signals to indicate the severity of storms. And of course there’s Kai Tak, now gone 24 years. Did you know cars used to be able to drive across the runway and traffic would be halted to let airplanes have the right of way?
Yet there are some parts of the book that show Hong Kong still has some remaining traditions. Dai pai dongs are not gone, albeit many fewer than before, and the Star Ferry still runs, even as the harbour shrinks due to land reclamation. Stinky tofu and doufu fa are still staples of Hong Kong cuisine and rattan shops haven’t completely disappeared.
Still a resident of Hong Kong, Isaac-Williams writes with authority of a city that many may have never known. Thanks to his book, we have these memories.
What are your favorite memories of Kowloon?
just viewed another utube from the chappie above – a walk around the Peak – very peaceful no noise apart from the occassional flashy race car screaming past – lovely views and homes but all concrete everywhere – but that is the God of Riches in HK eh concrete?
ps: the abandoned villages, monasteries and schools continue to be well reported under HK haunted places or something similar and a more recent report in the SCMP tells of increased urban building going way out in the new territories with flats already sellling. So a lot of people are continuing to remain and NOT leave but with the current birth rate at approx 1.31% that should slow down the growth of future populatio?
well I think I have rather stopped playing “memory games” as they just seem to become more painful as time goes by?
friends ask me if I would go back to HK eventually – and they are well meaning but I don’t think I could because the HK that I remember and enjoyed so much is no longer there. they just keep piling more and more cement everywhere and calling it a city!!
I do hope they can’t knock the churches down – will nothing be sacred in that no non-christian state of China?
Glad to hear that the star ferry is still running – always a joy to use it for one brief moment it felt you were at the seaside or somewhere similar. I have even stopped looking at the deserted villages and towns of HK on facebook – so scary to see a once free country just deteriorate and fade away from the poor and peasant farmers to the rich hide aways that once were.
HK I doubt will ever have its freedom again – it had it for one brief moment between being a crown colony to revert back to China – they were perhaps the years of real hope and promises only to be dashed by broken promises. That would make a good book title heh? And now I hear that many countries are no longer able to fly into and land in HK? Yes lets talk about old HK? Why?
I heard recently that the Star Ferry may stop after all this time. It’s too awful to think about Hong Kong without the Star Ferry. If the trams go, I can’t imagine anything ever being the same there again.
Greetings life goes on and take turns left or right. More recentl came across a 40’s man now of HK origin who I knew and sometimes cared for as a young lad of 9 ish in my own HK days. you can find him on favebook Matthew Chou doing various things but also developing his own youtube adventures as he travels around favourite city and country spots with his son. this is not a highly professional presentation but as Mat says it’s an attempt to showcase the new HK for those that remember past days perhaps.
so I have ‘walked down’ the new Nathan Rd – unrecognizable without his aid – interesting but NOT my Nathan Rd if you understand. Walked along the harbour front in Tsim Tsa Tsui – seen a star ferry coming in and boarding! but gain not my days. and the third I viewed more recently a walk along the resevoir wall in stormy weather and something I had never done and found very relaxing and comforting? He will continue with this venture and I have challenged him to do a drive up route TWISK to the ex- Sek Kong Army base and back down again. He tells me he did the run daily for 3 yrs once. So a new look and take on old HK – would it draw me back – I doubt it especially as they keep arrresting retired catholic cardinals or something?? but it did shift my view slightly!