For better or for worse, Hong Kong waits for no one. The city moves fast, adopting trend after trend, changing its appearance so often that it’s sometimes hard to remember what it looked like yesterday.
Walking past Kowloon, big hanging neon signs shining under the night, gave the city energy and life. as if I was back in the 1980s and 1990s experiencing Hong Kong city nightlife.
As the Pearl of the Orient, the colorful neon signs used to be a characteristic urban landscape in Hong Kong. They existed as an urban symbol and witnessed social changes as part of history as well as the “Hong Kong” collective memories and identity.
Sadly, the neon signs are going extinct with the on-set of LED adoption and government regulations that started restricting the creation of signs. The city gradually loses the vitality of the night, which even dilutes the local culture. But underneath it all, there are people with intense passion for old hong kong culture to document and preserve the neon signs in order to keep the traditional neon light making skills alive.
Take advantage of some neon signs that have not been removed, and take a good picture before they disappear.
#HOMEISHONGKONG #culture
Picture 1: Unsplash Meric Dagli
Picture 2: MIGO