We paid a visit to the Blue House located at Wan Chai for our last field trip this semester. Unlike what I usually did in the previous trips (in which I didn't really jot down many notes on my phone, I decided to give "note-taking on cellphone" a try. To my surprises, it's actually a really great way to capture moments and sounds other than just jotting down organized notes. --> In fact, it is helping me write this blog post with much greater ease. Anyway, the blue house was fused with French style. The ground floor actually used to be shops whilst the upper floors used to residential apartments. There's still a martial arts school in the area; rumor has it that it's founded by a follower of Wong Fei Hung. The first English school in Hong Kong was established here in the neighborhood too. The residents of the Blue houses found leaning over the balcony and watching funeral parades as free amusement, which is, well actually kinda creepy. Street hawkers would throw snacks like flying olives to the residents who lived at the upper floors so they wouldn't need come downstairs buy the snacks. Then, we went to the temple of the God of North.The temple itself was partly influenced by Buddhism. They even worshiped Buddha monks in the temple. There's no single metal pillar to support the whole structure as it was built with bricks only The God of North was praised as the war god, water god. People used to pray for victory and protection from floods as the area got flooded quite easily back then. After that, we went to the new Wan Chai Market. The original one got torn down a couple years ago, forcing hawkers to move into the new one even though no one really wanted to. We witnessed how a space filled with collective memories of the community could get erased so easily. What's thought to be concrete and long-lasting turns out be dust in the wind to some. It could be all very fragile and transient all of a sudden. |
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