Christopher Dewolf, Author at Zolima City Magazine

Fighting Until the End: Hong Kong’s Vietnamese Refugees

Christopher DewolfDecember 12, 2019

Hong Kong still hasn't reckoned with the painful experience of the Vietnamese refugees who fled to its shores. ...

Big StoriesHistory0 Comments453 views 013 min read

Forgotten Hong Kong Icon: The Better ‘Ole, a Classic Pub 72 Years in the Making

Christopher DewolfDecember 4, 2019

A beloved Hong Kong pub has been in the same family for three generations....

A Little BreakCultureFoodPeoplePortraitsWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments823 views 010 min read

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part XI: The Bank of China Tower

Christopher DewolfNovember 27, 2019

Three generations of work by the Pei family underpins Hong Kong's most famous skyscraper....

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryPeopleUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments415 views 09 min read

Hong Kong by Foot: A New Generation of Tours is Immersed in Street Life

Christopher DewolfNovember 20, 2019

Walking tours are delving deep into Hong Kong's daily life and culture....

A Little BreakWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments706 views 08 min read

Hong Kong’s First Gin Tastes Like Ginseng and Cinnamon

Christopher DewolfNovember 15, 2019

A visit inside Hong Kong's first distillery to open in more than 40 years, where Steven Newton is making gin, vodka, whisky and rum....

CultureFood0 Comments391 views 06 min read

What’s Happening With M+? An Update on Hong Kong’s Museum of Visual Culture

Christopher DewolfNovember 6, 2019

A museum with global ambitions is finally on track to open in Hong Kong. ...

ArtInspring ItinerariesWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments886 views 012 min read

Hong Kong’s Modern Heritage, Part X: Corner Buildings

Christopher DewolfOctober 31, 2019

Well liked but disappearing quickly, Hong Kong's corner buildings embrace the street....

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryUrbanism0 Comments2101 views 17 min read

Ed van der Elsken at F11: Dive Into Hong Kong the Way it Was

Christopher DewolfOctober 23, 2019

A remarkable collection of Hong Kong photos from 1959 makes its way back home....

ArtHeritageHistoryPhotography0 Comments3120 views 06 min read

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. ...

CultureFood0 Comments963 views 012 min read

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 Comments192 views 011 min read

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. ...

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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 Comments443 views 07 min read

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 Comments928 views 011 min read

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 Comments871 views 011 min read

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....

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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 Comments1402 views 012 min read

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. ...

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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 Comments780 views 09 min read

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 Comments3289 views 09 min read

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....

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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 Comments430 views 06 min read

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 Comments895 views 011 min read

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....

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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 Comments2286 views 09 min read

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 Art0 Comments551 views 06 min read

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 Comments2790 views 08 min read

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 Comments279 views 08 min read

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....

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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 Comments1896 views 011 min read

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 Comments9670 views 012 min read

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 Comments1260 views 010 min read

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....

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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. ...

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Do You Speak Hong Kong English?

Christopher DewolfMarch 29, 2019

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

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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....

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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....

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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 Comments1725 views 011 min read

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. ...