Discover Old Hong Kong With Gwulo Founder David Bellis

Description

In this talk organised by the Royal Geographic Society, Gwulo‘s founder David Bellis will share photos and stories focusing on fascinating views of Kowloon and Hong Kong’s ubiquitous shoulder poles, a family’s album from the 1900s, Hong Kong’s fashions over the years, and lastly, one of Hong Kong’s most frequently photographed scenes, the view from Victoria Peak. Though it seems familiar, Bellis uses historic photos to see it in a very different light. He heads back to the 1880s to begin, then uses a sequence of photos to show the dramatic changes Hong Kong has been through. Each photo’s details leads on to a series of stories about old Hong Kong and the people who lived here.

All of the photos have been scanned at high-resolution and digitally restored. Bellis uses the high-resolution images during the presentation, so instead of showing a static PowerPoint, he can zoom in to show us the photos’ hidden details, and reveal their secrets.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Bellis first visited Hong Kong in 1989, and has lived here since 1992. In 2014, he won the SCMP’s Heritage Preservation Award, one of its “The Spirit of Hong Kong Awards”, for his work on Gwulo.com. He spends his time on history projects, and more recently, he published two collections of photos and stories about old Hong Kong, based on his talks.