Christopher Dewolf, Author at Zolima City Magazine

Hong Kong’s Industrial History, Part IX: Locally-Brewed Beer

Christopher DewolfOctober 16, 2019

Hong Kong has been awash in beer since its very beginnings as a British colony. ...

Char Siu and Cocktails: Can a New Generation Save Montreal’s Chinatown?

Christopher DewolfOctober 10, 2019

One of Canada's oldest Chinatowns is feeling the pinch of gentrification and redevelopment – but a wave of young entrepreneurs hopes they can keep the neighbourhood's spirit alive....

CultureFoodHeritageHistoryTradition0 Comments147 views 0

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part IX: PolyU

Christopher DewolfOctober 3, 2019

The redbrick campus of the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong is an underrated modern landmark. Here's what makes it remarkable. ...

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments1564 views 0

Chop Suey Canada: Karen Tam is Turning Chinese Restaurants Into Art

Christopher DewolfOctober 3, 2019

How a Montreal artist has turned a childhood spent in her family's Chinese restaurant into a lifelong investigation of Chinese-Canadian spaces...

ArtCultureFoodTraditionVisual Art0 Comments301 views 0

Jyutping or Yale? How to Write Cantonese in the Roman Alphabet

Christopher DewolfSeptember 26, 2019

Jyutping lets you accurately read and write Cantonese in Roman script. So why isn't it more popular?...

CultureLanguage0 Comments756 views 0

Hong Kong’s Industrial History, Part VIII: The Ill Fate of Rennie’s Mill, AKA Little Taiwan

Christopher DewolfSeptember 4, 2019

The story of an unlucky Canadian who opened a flour mill – and how it eventually became a bastion of support for the Kuomintang...

Big StoriesHistorySmall Stories & Secret Stories0 Comments802 views 0

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part VIII: The Hopewell Centre

Christopher DewolfAugust 25, 2019

A circular tower welcomed Hong Kong into the golden era of the 1980s....

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments1768 views 0

How Did Christianity Become So Influential in Hong Kong?

Christopher DewolfAugust 21, 2019

A foreign religion has come to play an outsized role in Hong Kong's civic life....

CultureHeritageHistoryTradition0 Comments1016 views 0

Kowloon Forest: A New VR Film Plunges Into the Private Lives of Hong Kong

Christopher DewolfAugust 15, 2019

Alexey Marfin's virtual reality film explores the spaces we create for ourselves in a crowded city. ...

ArtCinemaCultureVideo artWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments664 views 1

The Unexpected Link Between Hong Kong’s Urban Spaces and the Global Climate Crisis

Christopher DewolfJuly 25, 2019

A new project by the Canadian Centre of Architecture examines the link between Hong Kong's financial district and environmental damage around the world....

ArchitectureDesignUrbanism0 Comments729 views 0

Hong Kong’s Industrial History, Part VII: The Rise and Fall of Local Milk

Christopher DewolfJuly 17, 2019

Hong Kong's dairy industry launched a multinational business empire – but don't try finding any local milk in the supermarket....

CultureFoodHeritageHistorySmall Stories & Secret Stories0 Comments2688 views 0

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part VII: The Monster Building

Christopher DewolfJuly 11, 2019

An enormous block of shops and housing was conceived as an affordable place to live – but now it has also become a tourist attraction....

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryUrbanism0 Comments2099 views 0

Hong Kong’s Industrial History, Part VI: Indigo

Christopher DewolfJune 27, 2019

Indigo dyeing is making a comeback decades after the artisanal industry died out....

CultureDesignFashionHeritageHistoryTraditionWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments394 views 0

Eaton HK: The Counterculture Haven That Wants to Be More Than Just a Hotel

Christopher DewolfJune 20, 2019

Katherine Lo, third-generation scion of the Great Eagle dynasty, has taken a staid hotel and transformed it into a lively haven for the arts, queer culture and alternative politics. Can it work?...

ArtCultureInspring ItinerariesMusicPhotographyVideo artVisual ArtWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments818 views 0

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part VI: City Hall

Christopher DewolfJune 13, 2019

City Hall was Hong Kong's first truly public cultural centre, but its central role in the city's urban space has been chipped away by redevelopment....

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments1383 views 0

Hong Kong’s Most Beloved Public Space is Under Threat

Christopher DewolfJune 6, 2019

The Western District Public Cargo Working Area, also known as the Instagram Pier, is a rare open space on the waterfront. But government plans could soon carve it up into smaller pieces – or worse....

A Little BreakArtPhotographyUrbanismWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments2184 views 0

Reading the City’s Hidden Poetry—城市詩意—A New Series by Photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze

Christopher DewolfMay 29, 2019

Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze continues his documentation of Hong Kong's urban landscape, this time with a poetic twist. ...

ArtCultureLanguagePhotographyVisual ArtWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments508 views 0

The Instagram Wall: Why Are Huge Crowds Flocking to See a Mural in Central?

Christopher DewolfMay 23, 2019

Dubbed the Instagram Wall by its friends and the Idiot Wall by its detractors, Alex Croft's mural for Goods of Desire has become inexplicably popular...

A Little BreakArtStreet ArtUsual Suspects & LandmarksWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments2622 views 0

The Vancouver Art Gallery Looks Across the Pacific

Christopher DewolfMay 16, 2019

For a time in 2017, the best museum to see Hong Kong art was in Vancouver. That year, Tsang Kin-wah, the artist known for his so-called “wallpaper art,” wrapped the Vancouver Art Gallery in creeping vines of text pulled from local newspaper editorials in the 1980s and 90s, when an influx of Hong Kong migrants […]...

ArchitectureArtDesignInspring ItinerariesVisual ArtWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments263 views 0

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part V: SCAD, the Former North Kowloon Magistracy

Christopher DewolfMay 8, 2019

How the former North Kowloon Magistracy was converted into the Hong Kong campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design....

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments610 views 0

In the Footsteps of Miroslav Šašek, Illustrators Capture the Spirit of Hong Kong

Christopher DewolfMay 2, 2019

Hong Kong's visual feast has long been an inspiration to illustrators. We meet three artists who are channelling the city's energy into their work....

ArtHistoryUsual Suspects & LandmarksVisual Art0 Comments1853 views 0

One of a Kind: The Kowloon Walled City Through the Eyes of Photographer Greg Girard

Christopher DewolfApril 25, 2019

A unique quirk of history created one of the strangest and most fascinating urban settlements the world has ever seen. ...

HistoryUrbanismUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments9056 views 0

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part IV: The Mills

Christopher DewolfApril 17, 2019

Some of Hong Kong's first cotton mills have been reborn as a centre for art, heritage and textile....

ArchitectureArtCultureDesignHeritageHistoryUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments1139 views 0

Hong Kong’s Industrial History, Part V: Incense

Christopher DewolfApril 10, 2019

The trees that gave Hong Kong its name fuelled local industry for centuries – but they are now at risk of disappearing....

CultureHeritageHistoryNatureSmall Stories & Secret Stories0 Comments839 views 0

There’s a Lot to Discover in Hong Kong’s “Hidden” Collection of Colonial-Era Travel Posters

Christopher DewolfApril 3, 2019

Gallerist Christopher Bailey amassed a treasure trove of vintage handpainted Hong Kong travel posters – and now they are available to the public. ...

ArtHeritageHistoryVisual Art0 Comments3693 views 0

Do You Speak Hong Kong English?

Christopher DewolfMarch 29, 2019

How Hong Kong's second language has evolved over the years. ...

CultureHistoryLanguage0 Comments14821 views 0

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part III: Choi Hung, the Rainbow Estate

Christopher DewolfMarch 20, 2019

Choi Hung changed the way Hong Kong built public housing – and its unique appearance has given it a second life as a tourist attraction....

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryUrbanism0 Comments2121 views 0

The Origin of Hong Kong’s Mexico Bun: A Story of Exile and Return

Christopher DewolfMarch 13, 2019

How exactly did the Mexico bun get its name? The answer is found across the Pacific at a time when Mexico banished its Chinese population....

CultureFoodHistorySmall Stories & Secret Stories0 Comments20709 views 3

Hong Kong’s Industrial History, Part IV: The Rock That Built Hong Kong

Christopher DewolfMarch 6, 2019

How generations of Hakka quarry workers and stonemasons provided the granite that built the city as we know it....

HeritageHistorySmall Stories & Secret Stories0 Comments1668 views 0

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part II: Truth Lutheran Church

Christopher DewolfFebruary 27, 2019

A Space Age emblem of postwar expansion, the Truth Lutheran Church stands out as one of the few remaining works by an influential Hong Kong architect. ...

ArchitectureCultureDesignHeritageHistoryTradition0 Comments1384 views 0

Ghana Must Go: The Surprising Global Journey of Hong Kong’s Red-White-Blue Bag

Christopher DewolfFebruary 21, 2019

A symbol of Hong Kong's grassroots spirits turns out to have a world of other meanings and associations. ...

DesignHistoryProduct DesignSmall Stories & Secret Stories0 Comments1799 views 0

Hong Kong’s Industrial History, Part III: Squatter Factories

Christopher DewolfFebruary 6, 2019

Hong Kong became an industrial powerhouse thanks in part to informal factories run out of shantytowns and residential flats....

CultureHistorySmall Stories & Secret StoriesUrbanism0 Comments1162 views 0

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part I: The General Post Office

Christopher DewolfJanuary 28, 2019

The General Post Office is an ugly duckling – but it represents a unique time in Hong Kong history. Is that enough to save it from redevelopment?...

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistory0 Comments1543 views 0

Hong Kong’s Missing Trees

Christopher DewolfJanuary 24, 2019

The destruction of Typhoon Mangkhut underscored the precarious nature of Hong Kong's urban forest. ...

CultureNatureUrbanism0 Comments737 views 0

Green Tea and Politics: The Surprising History of Hong Kong’s Abandoned Tea Plantation

Christopher DewolfJanuary 15, 2019

Progressive politician Brook Bernacchi was the first Westerner to plant roots on Lantau, where he opened a school, gave jobs to ex-convicts and grew tea....

CultureFoodInspring ItinerariesNatureTraditionWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments3272 views 0