K(w)ai Fong
Kwai Fong, Hong Kong, 2019 - 2020
Opdrachtgever
Hong Kong Jockey Club
Partner
HKSKH Lady MacLehose Centre
Agenda
Documenting & mapping local community assets in industrial district for social cohesion & community connection
Formerly called ‘Gin Drinkers Bay’, and, less flatteringly, ‘Trash Bay’, Kwai Fong was best known as a garbage dump. In the 1960s, the bay got a facelift and with it came a new name, after the freshly completed Kwai Fong Estate. The heyday home of heroes in manufacturing, Kwai Fong has now become a modern residential district. However, it will always remain a hood of modest industrious people.
‘Kaifong’ is Cantonese for neighbourhood or neighbour, a term broadly associated with a sense of community. This project was a celebration of the Kaifong spirit. We invited long-term residents of Kwai Fong to map places that matter to them and share stories of those places with the goal of building up self-competence and a sense of belonging, especially targeting privileged communities in older urban districts. The project was part of the ‘We Connect’ programme, funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and organised in collaboration with the HKSKH Lady MacLehose Centre.
“Kwai Fong is a close-knit community where you can find everything you need with a street or two”
- Doris Fok, resident
Participants unravelled hidden historic layers and recognised their roots in the heydays of the city’s manufacturing industry. We celebrated these ‘ordinary’ features and soft fabric of the district on a map, in an app and at a pop-up street museum. This not only resulted in a renewed sense of local pride, it also created opportunities for the long-time residents of the Kwai Fong Estate to connect with a younger population and small businesses in the district.
“What really makes my day is to meet old time residents who come back to taste our food.”
- Mr. Yu, Kwun Kee Noodle
