Dissonance
- Who is the owner of old Wan Chai Market? -
What is old Wan Chai Market?
Cultural Significance
Wan Chai Market is a traditonal old Chinese wet market which contained lots of collective memory and cultural traits of generations of Wan Chai and other Hong Kong people. It was an open market for community to have gathering, exchange of goods and communication there on the particular date. Culture is the everyday practices of a group. Ethnicity emphasizes cultural traits of a group through which it expresses a sense of belonging and solidarity. (Dirlik and Prazniak, 2001) Strong social bond and relationship between the residents was then constituted. This wet market culture, a sense of human scale and local familiarity cannot be just restored in visual images.
Historical Significance
The former WanChai market
The former Wan Chai Market also located in Queen’s Road East which built in 1858 and demolished in 1937. According to an architecture essay(Chung, 2004), “former Wan Chai Market was the earliest built indoor market of Colonial style in the history of Hong Kong”. From 1880s - 1930s, because of reclamation and urban development, there were a boom in population in Wan Chai district thus lead to greater demand of market space. Therefore, WanChai market was built and replaced the former one.
WanChai market after 1937
According to an interview of local historian Tony Banham(Lai, 2004), he said “for about eight to ten hours before Hong Kong surrendered, the Wan Chai Market was at the front line of fighting, defending Central from falling into Japanese hands”. Therefore WanChai market bear important historical meaning in Hong Kong. It reminds the dark history in second world war. From 1937 to 2008, WanChai market witnessed more than 70 years of history in Hong Kong.
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Chung, A.(2004). A Study on Historical and Architectural Context of WanChai Market. Retrieved from http://www.arch.cuhk.edu.hk/server1/resch2/livearch/projects/WanchaiMarket/Wan%20Chai%20Market%20study.pdf
Lai, C. (2004, May 22). Wan Chai Market 'a key war relic. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from http://www.scmp.com/article/456589/wan-chai-market-key-war-relic
Dirlik, Arif and Roxann Prazniak. 2001. “Introduction: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Place” pp. 3 – 14, in Places and Politics in an Age of Globalization, edited by
Roxann Praniak and Arif Dirlik. NY: Rowman & Littlefield.
Wu, H.(2007, September 25). Wan Chai Market facade may stay. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from http://www.scmp.com/article/609175/wan-chai-market-facade-may-stay
Architectural Significance
According to an academic paper(Chung, 2004), there are 3 architectural significance of WanChai market:
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WanChai market is the earliest building in Hong Kong designed with the Bauhaus architectural style in 1930s, which was an internationally architectural trend in 1930s.
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It is the very first Hong Kong market building follow the Modern Movement trend to see both function and form of the building are important.
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It is one of the few earliest buildings in Hong Kong constructed by steel framing concrete, which was considered as being advanced at that period.
Besides, news (Wu, 2007)pointed out that other than the one in Phnom Penh, the WanChai market is “one of only two well preserved markets in Bauhaus style left in the world”. It is rare in style and need to be reserved.
