Hong Kong’s Salty History: Rebellion, Smuggling and Shrimp Paste

Christopher DewolfSeptember 7, 2017

Salt was power in ancient China – and Hong Kong's illicit salt fields kept imperial armies on their toes....

CultureFoodHistorySmall Stories & Secret Stories0 Comments1259 views 05 min read

Why Jason Li is Paying Homage to His Mother’s Childhood in a Hong Kong Shantytown

Christopher DewolfAugust 25, 2017

A Hong Kong comic artist finds creative inspiration in his family's roots....

BooksCultureLanguage0 Comments439 views 08 min read

Designing the Lion Rock Spirit: The International Design Furniture Fair Hong Kong

Christopher DewolfAugust 17, 2017

IDFFHK is back for a second edition, showcasing high-end furniture alongside exhibitions and talks that explore the more philosophical side of design....

ArchitectureDesignInterior DesignProduct Design0 Comments434 views 06 min read

In Pictures: The Depot Where Hong Kong’s Historic Trams Are Being Rebuilt by Hand

Christopher DewolfAugust 2, 2017

Inside the Whitty Street Depot, Hong Kong's fleet of unique double-decker trams are being completely rebuilt for a new generation....

HeritageHistorySmall Stories & Secret StoriesUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments1828 views 06 min read

Escape the City at Cheung Chau’s 70-Year-Old Beach Bar

Christopher DewolfJuly 25, 2017

For three generations, the Liu family has run a store at Kwun Yam Beach. ...

A Little BreakCultureFoodWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments2365 views 05 min read

A Collection That Speaks to the Soul: Alan Chan’s Art and Design Objects

Christopher DewolfJuly 13, 2017

How a global collection blurs the boundaries between different cultures....

ArtDesignPeoplePhotographyPortraitsProduct DesignVisual Art0 Comments552 views 17 min read

Sir Murray MacLehose, the Unexpected Father of Modern Hong Kong

Christopher DewolfJune 29, 2017

How a gangly Scotsman nicknamed Jock the Sock ended up as Hong Kong's longest-serving governor – and one who laid the groundwork for many of the city's most important institutions....

HeritageHistoryPeopleUrbanism0 Comments5125 views 08 min read

Hong Kong in Vancouver – Part III: Bing Thom and James Cheng, City-Builders

Christopher DewolfJune 22, 2017

How two Hong Kong-born architects changed the face of a Canadian city. ...

ArchitectureDesignPeoplePortraits0 Comments467 views 011 min read

Hong Kong in Vancouver – Part II: The New Generation of Activists Building a Future for Chinatown

Christopher DewolfJune 15, 2017

Meet the next generation fighting to keep Vancouver's Chinatown alive....

HeritageHistoryUrbanism0 Comments459 views 010 min read

Hong Kong in Vancouver – Part I: Chinatown is Fighting For its Life

Christopher DewolfJune 7, 2017

Vancouver's Chinatown has survived riots and racist laws. How will it deal with gentrification?...

HistoryUrbanism0 Comments1508 views 012 min read

Waterworld: A Short History of Ferries, Kaitos and Walla-Wallas in Hong Kong

Christopher DewolfJune 1, 2017

Hong Kong has gotten around by ferry for more than a hundred years – but for how much longer?...

HistorySmall Stories & Secret Stories0 Comments1895 views 08 min read

Hong Kong’s Other Peak – and the City’s Overlooked History of Segregation

Christopher DewolfMay 24, 2017

Hong Kong actually has two Peaks: the famous Victoria Peak and the lesser-known Cheung Chau Peak. In the early 20th century, both were reserved for Hong Kong's European elite....

A Little BreakHistorySmall Stories & Secret StoriesWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments9704 views 06 min read

Starting from the Bottom: Paul Zimmerman Aims to Improve Hong Kong from the Ground Up

Christopher DewolfMay 17, 2017

Urban planning activist Paul Zimmerman thinks Hong Kong needs to improve its quality of life....

HistoryPeoplePortraitsUrbanism0 Comments906 views 08 min read

Private Museum, Public Heritage: The F11 Foto Museum

Christopher DewolfMay 11, 2017

When an historic building he had admired since childhood was put up for sale, former lawyer Douglas So seized the chance to open Hong Kong's first photography museum....

ArchitectureArtDesignHeritageHistoryPhotography0 Comments1321 views 06 min read

Shanghai Street in Four Scenes

Christopher DewolfMay 4, 2017

A window into one of Hong Kong’s most storied streets...

A Little BreakHistorySmall Stories & Secret StoriesUrbanismWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments2167 views 08 min read

Hong Kong is the Most Shopping Mall-Crazy City on Earth. Is That a Bad Thing?

Christopher DewolfApril 27, 2017

How Hong Kong came to have the densest collection of shopping malls in the world – and how it has affected the city's culture and urban landscape...

ArchitectureDesignUrbanism0 Comments5636 views 09 min read

The Kowloon Tramway That Never Was

Christopher DewolfApril 20, 2017

Why aren't there any trams in Kowloon?...

HistoryUrbanism0 Comments3809 views 05 min read

A Hong Kong Police Officer Breaks Through to the Community

Christopher DewolfApril 12, 2017

Since 1996, Operation Breakthrough has helped young offenders turn around their lives through sport. ...

CultureInterviewsPeopleSport0 Comments5685 views 06 min read

A Market Stall is Turning a Hong Kong Street Into a Community Space

Christopher DewolfApril 11, 2017

Kai Fong Pai Dong, the "neighbours' market stall," taps into the community spirit of Hong Kong's street markets....

A Little BreakHistoryUrbanismWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments1293 views 06 min read

How a Catholic Village in Hong Kong Was Saved From Extinction – and Won a UNESCO Award in the Process

Christopher DewolfApril 6, 2017

The tranquil island village of Yim Tin Tsai was abandoned for decades, but the efforts of a determined chief have brought it back to life....

A Little BreakCultureHeritageHistoryTraditionWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments2069 views 07 min read

The World Inside a Building: Chungking Mansions

Christopher DewolfMarch 30, 2017

A middle-class apartment block, a centre of nightlife, a seedy flophouse, a centre of global trade and a haven for asylum-seekers: the many lives of Hong Kong's Chungking Mansions. ...

HistoryUrbanism0 Comments21932 views 012 min read

The Exploding Hong Kong Building That Launched Zaha Hadid’s Career

Christopher DewolfMarch 15, 2017

Before she actually completed any buildings, Zaha Hadid was busy making them explode. When the Iraqi-born architect was first getting started in the late 1970s and early 1980s, she worked obsessively on concepts that tore apart architectural conventions. Instead of anodyne renderings, she painted her buildings as abstractions – sometimes in a state of disassembly or collapse. That […]...

ArchitectureArtDesignVisual Art0 Comments4078 views 06 min read

Haw Par Mansion and Hong Kong’s Lost Chinese Fantasyland

Christopher DewolfMarch 8, 2017

Tiger Balm Garden is gone forever, but its spirit remains. Work is underway on restoring Haw Par Mansion, the only surviving portion of a vast estate that included the renowned theme park, which was demolished in 2004. At the same time, artist Adrian Wong is finishing work on an installation based on one of the […]...

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistorySmall Stories & Secret Stories0 Comments6064 views 08 min read

When Hong Kong Was a City of Villages: Squatter Settlements and Their Legacy

Christopher DewolfMarch 3, 2017

In the 1960s, a quarter of people in Hong Kong lived in squatter villages. What happened to our own version of the favela?...

HeritageHistoryUrbanism0 Comments10558 views 010 min read

The Vertical City, Part IV: Hong Kong’s Art Scene Goes Up

Christopher DewolfFebruary 22, 2017

Architect William Lim has drawn from his experience as an artist and art collector to design a new tower dedicated to art. ...

ArchitectureArtDesignVisual Art0 Comments980 views 05 min read

The Man Who Fought for Public Education in Hong Kong: Hilton Cheong-Leen

Christopher DewolfFebruary 15, 2017

Hilton Cheong-Leen was one of the postwar civic activists who helped shape modern Hong Kong. Now 94 years old, he still takes an active interest in the city's well-being....

CultureHeritageHistoryPeoplePortraits0 Comments1108 views 07 min read

Building a Future for Hong Kong’s Last Surviving Movie Palace: The State Theatre

Christopher DewolfFebruary 8, 2017

Despite receiving the city's highest heritage grade, the 1950s-era State Theatre is still at risk of being demolished....

CinemaCultureHeritageHistory0 Comments1626 views 010 min read

Comix Homebase: Old Architecture Given New Life as Hong Kong’s Comics Hub

Christopher DewolfFebruary 1, 2017

Ten historic shophouses in Wan Chai are now home to a haven for Hong Kong's vibrant comics culture, with a library, exhibition hall and space for a packed roster of events....

BooksCultureHeritageHistory0 Comments825 views 05 min read

Anson Chan Soldiers On: How “the Conscience of Hong Kong” Blazed a Trail for Women

Christopher DewolfJanuary 26, 2017

When Anson Chan joined the civil service in 1962, the odds were stacked against women who wanted a career – so how did she become Hong Kong's most powerful woman?...

HistoryPeoplePortraits0 Comments826 views 010 min read

The Vertical City, Part III: The West Kowloon Walled City

Christopher DewolfJanuary 19, 2017

Apartments, hotels, shops and the city's tallest building – how West Kowloon's Union Square is the ultimate vertical city within a city....

ArchitectureDesignHistoryUncategorizedUrbanism0 Comments2573 views 06 min read

Hong Kong’s New Wave of Coffee: How Instant Coffee Turned Alvin Hui into a Coffee Obsessive

Christopher DewolfJanuary 11, 2017

Coffee has never been more popular in Hong Kong – thanks in part to Alvin Hui, a pioneering specialty coffee enthusiast....

CultureFoodPeoplePortraits0 Comments1832 views 06 min read

The MTR’s New Look – Community Art on the South Island Line

Christopher DewolfJanuary 4, 2017

The MTR's new South Island Line boasts an art collection – part of the MTR's ongoing effort to give Hong Kong's rapid transit system more personality....

ArtStreet Art0 Comments463 views 06 min read

Those Who Inspire Hope in Hong Kong

Christopher DewolfDecember 21, 2016

Is there hope for Hong Kong? An inspiring project led by two Frenchwomen who travel the world says yes....

InterviewsPeoplePortraits0 Comments638 views 06 min read

The Vertical City, Part II: Why Half of Hong Kong Lives in Public Housing

Christopher DewolfDecember 15, 2016

Hong Kong’s housing estates planted the seed for its verticality: nearly half the population lives in these high-rise neighbourhoods. But how did they come to be?...

ArchitectureDesignHistoryUrbanism0 Comments12693 views 010 min read

How a Rice Cooker Found Its Way Into M+ Museum’s Important New Design Collection

Christopher DewolfDecember 8, 2016

M+ Museum's inaugural design exhibition, Shifting Objectives, is a window into curator Aric Chen's efforts to build a design collection that bridges the mundane and the extraordinary....

ArtDesignInterior DesignPeoplePortraitsProduct DesignVisual Art0 Comments367 views 07 min read

Picture Hong Kong: The Vanishing Landscape of Queen’s Road West

Christopher DewolfNovember 30, 2016

The changes started years ago, but it was only when the giant cow disappeared that it became clear what was happening. In 2015, the bovine emblem of Queen’s Road West restaurant Sammy’s Kitchen was removed, an iconic piece of neon scrubbed from the street it had dominated for 40 years. The cow was taken away […]...

CultureFoodHistoryInspring ItinerariesPeopleTraditionUrbanismWhere To Go, To Play, To Rest0 Comments2160 views 07 min read

A Window Into Hong Kong’s Past: the Historic Former French Mission Building

Christopher DewolfNovember 24, 2016

The many chapters of Hong Kong's history witnesses by the Former French Mission Building, first built in 1842 and reconstructed in 1915....

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments1314 views 08 min read

Why Clockenflap is About More Than Just Music

Christopher DewolfNovember 17, 2016

Clockenflap has built up its credentials as a world-class music festival, but co-founder Jay Forster hopes to make its arts component just as relevant....

ArtInterviewsMusicPeoplePerforming ArtStreet ArtVisual Art0 Comments318 views 08 min read

Beer That Tastes Like Hong Kong: The Latest From the City’s Craft Brewers

Christopher DewolfNovember 9, 2016

There are more local breweries at this year's Beertopia craft beer festival than ever before – and some are making distinctively Hong Kong-flavoured brews. ...

CultureFood0 Comments392 views 07 min read

New Life for a Modern Landmark: The Murray Building

Christopher DewolfOctober 27, 2016

British architect Ron Phillips left behind an impressive legacy during his 14 years in Hong Kong – and now one of his star projects is being revamped into a luxury hotel....

ArchitectureDesignHeritageHistoryUrbanismUsual Suspects & Landmarks0 Comments2376 views 06 min read