recently heard the news that Hong Kong movie fans spontaneously planned a "Tsim Sha Tsui Movie Guided Tour" event - a return to the classic filming locations of Hong Kong movies.
Sure enough, Chungking Mansions on Nathan Road is on the list.
However, in the news media, the "dark" character of Chungking Mansions still remains standing after so many years -
"A mainland woman committed suicide by taking pills in Chungking Mansions and was arrested after being revealed to have a stun gun."
"An African woman was attacked in Chungking Mansions over a money dispute, and a South Asian couple was on the run."
...
In 2013, McGolden, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, wrote a book "The Slum at the Center of the World: Hong Kong's Chungking Mansions", from Anthropology A perspective that vindicates the name of this "misunderstood" building: "This is a border building in the core city, a city between the manufacturing hub of the developing world and the poorest bottom areas."
He put aside the media He created a simple and crude "dark" character and went deep into the building to investigate, focusing on the people in the building and their stories.
After reading this book, the veteran artist discovered that Chungking Mansions is not just about the "dark" characters, nor is it just about the magical romance captured in the Wong Kar-Wai movie " Chungking Express ".
Chungking Mansions, just like the eyes of Tony Leung , it also has the ABCD side.
Chungking Mansion, bad review!
Chungking Mansions has long been notorious in Hong Kong.. If you ask for directions on the streets of Hong Kong, "How to get to Chungking Mansions?" the first reaction of Hong Kong people may be to advise you to go elsewhere, it is too dangerous.
However, it is not surprising that Hong Kong people are prejudiced against Chungking Mansions. Many crimes have indeed occurred here. In 2013, there was a rape case that shocked both sides of the Taiwan Strait: a female college student visiting Hong Kong from Beijing was raped by a South Asian man.
△News screenshot
The high crime rate has a lot to do with the excessive complexity of the people in the building. In most developed countries, visitors from developing countries must apply for a visa before arriving, otherwise they will not be able to get on the plane. Even if they arrive at their destination, if they are found not to have applied for a visa, they will be deported immediately.
Hong Kong is special. Visitors from other developing countries can stay in Hong Kong for fourteen days, thirty days, or ninety days even if they do not have a visa. As a result, many businessmen from Asian and African countries come to Hong Kong without applying for visas in advance.
The fourteen or thirty days of tourist visa are enough for businessmen from the third world to complete transactions. Even those who come to the building as temporary workers can stay in Hong Kong for 180 days a year as long as they renew their visa once.
The simple and relaxed visa environment has resulted in a complex personnel composition in the building.
According to McGolden's personal experience, people of more than 100 nationalities come and go in Chungking Mansions every day. " Every night, about 4,000 people stay in Chungking Mansions. I met people of 129 nationalities in different hotels , from Argentina to Zimbabwe, including Bhutan, Iraq, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Madagascar , and even people from the Maldives. "
The status of tourists gives them a lot of freedom, which indirectly leads to high crime rates. Due to the mix of dragons and snakes, it is said that there are many people in Chungking Mansions and there are many surveillance cameras, which shows that the security here is indeed not reassuring.
The high crime rate is one of them. Another "big problem" of Chungking Mansions - accommodation problem is also frightening.
In the 1970s, many hippies and backpackers stayed in Chungking Mansions. Seeing business opportunities in the building, some small hotels were also organized to attract tourists with cheap room rates. Therefore, Chungking Mansions was written into "Lonely Planet" - "A magic word for finding cheap accommodation in Hong Kong - Chungking Mansions". After , it became famous in the backpacker circle.
As the saying goes, "You get what you pay for." Chungking Mansions is so cheap because its appearance is so shabby.The property ownership of Chungking Tower is not unified, and property management has been very weak for a long time. With no one looking after it, Chungking Tower has been in disrepair for many years.
Not only is the appearance broken, but fire alarms and power outages often occur.
In 1988, there was a serious fire on the 11th floor of Tower A. Because of the thick smoke, a Danish tourist climbed out of the window and fell to his death. Before that fire, the Hong Kong government had never cared about Chungking Mansions and its fire hazards.
Since then, people began to think that Chungking Mansions was a dangerous place. As a result, regulations became strict, with all hotels subject to regular fire inspections and fire alarms on every corner.
△Netizens exposed pictures of Chungking Mansions
Although safety issues have been improved a lot, what kind of good experience can the low rent give you? McGolden once joked about the living experience of Chungking Mansions. If you want to take the risk of coming to Chungking Mansions, you should be prepared for an itchy back, because the hotel beds may not be very hygienic.
△Screenshots taken by netizens on a certain travel platform
In general, in the world of travel, there really seems to be no good side in this part of Chungking Mansions. It can be said that the whole army has been wiped out. If you really want to say something good, the old artist thinks that if you are naturally brave and don't mind being messy, you can enjoy the exotic customs of spending 40 Hong Kong dollars to travel abroad, and you can also travel for 100 yuan. Multiple countries.
Some people love it so much that they can’t help themselves.
However, you can’t deny that people who love Chungking Mansions love it endlessly. Chungking Mansions was criticized because of its danger, but it also attracted countless fans because of its danger. The number one fan of
is undoubtedly Wong Kar-wai. Because he liked Chungking Mansions so much, he made a movie "Chungking Express" in 1994.
△Not all of the movie was shot in Chungking Mansions, just this part of Brigitte Lin.
A shabby building, with the blessing of Wong Kar-wai's broken story and Doyle's retro filter, Chungking Mansions has a "literary" atmosphere. From the perspective of Wong Kar-Wai's films, every object is full of emotion.
No wonder there is a saying that has a kind of building called Chungking Mansions in Wong Kar-wai's eyes.
asked why is so obsessed with Chungking Mansions? Wong Kar-wai's answer is also full of the artist's rebellious atmosphere:
"Because I grew up in the area of Chungking Mansions (Tsim Sha Tsui), I have been curious about Chungking Mansions since I was a child. It used to be a very good apartment. Many celebrities lived there, and the best nightclub in Hong Kong was in its basement.
But it gradually became a place where tourists and Indians lived. There were many gambling stalls and prostitutes. My father told me that it was absolutely not allowed. Go, so I have always been interested in this place. "
I can't go, but I want to go. The more dangerous it is, the more I want to go. This is very Wong Kar-wai. What's interesting is that he recalled that filming "Chungking Express" was actually not smooth, and it was even more difficult.
He took Brigitte Lin, Du Kefeng and other crew members to break into Chungking Mansions. During the filming process, the Indian guards in the building chased and intercepted them in various ways. The shots of Chungking Tower in the movie were basically shot secretly.
No wonder, the old artist always feels a little nervous when watching Brigitte Lin's part. It turns out that it is really that tense in reality. The second fan of
, Japanese and Europeans should be on the list.
You can’t imagine how much they like Chungking Mansions. According to research, the reasons why Japanese and Europeans like to come to Chungking Mansions are, firstly, that the building is really cheap; secondly, tourists are too rebellious.
A British man in his thirties was once interviewed: "All websites warned me not to live in Chungking Mansions, and then I knew I had to come here." is dark and naturally pink, and this is also true.
In 2017, the Japanese are still obsessed with Chungking Mansions. Japan's NHK filmed another documentary "Documentary 72 Hours of Hong Kong | Welcome to Chungking Mansions".
The documentary no longer shoots Chungking Mansions from a novel perspective. Instead, it focuses on the people living in the building and listens to them tell their life stories. Putting aside the novelty of , it is just an ordinary building where many third world people live.
"We are also human beings, we also have hearts. We did not come to Hong Kong to fight, we came to survive."
△Excerpts from the documentary
Douban netizens commented - "Watching the 42-minute version, I learned from Wong Kar-wai's "Chungking Express" , the Kowloon Walled City of Hong Kong's ethnic minorities, dangerous things are always charming , such as at night, I was moved by the Ethiopian guy who won the Hong Kong Marathon. "
It seems that this netizen was also successfully attracted by Chungking Mansions. Got fans. In the eyes of artists, is like an undeveloped treasure mine. Who doesn't love it?
Chungking Mansion - the Paradise of the Third World
Chungking Mansion is located on Nathan Road in Hong Kong. It is a building in the most prosperous area of Hong Kong that is incompatible with the surrounding scenery.
scholar Shen Xuhui said that although Chungking Mansions is located in the heart of Hong Kong, its internal operations have its own rules, and there are countless activities between legal and illegal. It seems to belong to two different worlds from Tsim Sha Tsui, and it has become a special zone within a special zone.
is indeed the case, Chungking Mansions is located in Hong Kong, but it does not belong to Hong Kong. It is a paradise for the third world.
Here are niche and wild third world restaurants .
For example, the Hong Kong "Curry King" can be seen everywhere. "Curry King", "Curry King", "Curry Yellow", these names are the favorite names of shop owners. Sure enough, even in a foreign country, they are very ambitious and strive to be the Hong Kong Curry King.
Who is Hong Kong’s “Curry King”? The old artist has not tried all the curry restaurants in Chungking Mansions, so he dare not draw a conclusion. But among the "time-honored" curry brands in Hong Kong, Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant is the oldest.
Palace Indian Restaurant opened in 1978. Many food bloggers on YouTube come to Chungking Mansions to taste the most authentic Indian food. usually choose the Palace Indian Restaurant as the location. Maybe because of this, it is more stylish than other "Curry King" restaurants. After all, this is Taj Mahal (TajMahal).
There are also delicacies from other niche countries. For example, Türkiye's KEBAB. In a KEBAB in a building, the meat drum is usually placed vertically in a cylindrical gas oven. The meat drum is automatically rotated by a motor. The gas oven faces the side of the person. There is an opening along the length of the meat drum, which can be directly fried with a knife. Cut the meat.
You can watch TV programs from niche countries here. The TV in the hotel can watch TV programs from niche countries such as Africa and India.
These niche TV channels are the only ones in Hong Kong. Some South Asians working in Hong Kong, in order to watch TV programs from their hometown, stayed one night in Chungking Mansions to miss the feeling of their hometown. This is something you cannot experience in other East Asian regions.
Here, the poor can still have a place. People in the third world, whether they open restaurants or hotels, their ultimate goal is to make money. "The strangers who rely on the underground economy of Chungking Mansions to survive often have more inspiring stories than those under the Lion Rock."
came here from a poor motherland. Living and getting rich are more important than anything else.
is like a Kenyan woman who finally achieved a class leap through "purchasing on behalf of others". Once a month or a quarter, she would choose clothes from Chungking Mansions, carry them by herself, and travel from Chungking Mansions via Bangkok to Mombasa and Nairobi, and then back to Kenya.
She has her own clothing store in Kenya. She uses the method of "purchasing on behalf of others" to earn the price difference. In Kenya, where the unemployment rate reaches 40%, she has her own house and her own private car. She used Chungking Tower to truly "make a fortune."
There are always a few people who get rich. Most people just live and slowly realize their life stage here. An Indian man works as a temporary worker in Chungking Mansion. Because he is an illegal worker, he can only earn a monthly salary of about 3,000 yuan.
But he still felt very happy, because his family's house was gradually built with his money. He plans to return to India this year and marry a wife.
△Illegal workers in the movie "What Is Home?"
Poor people cannot talk about their dreams. If they do, they will be laughed at. However, in Chungking Mansions, no one will laugh at you, because everyone is equally poor, has nothing, and is still talking about dreams.
In 1986, Huang Zhan wrote the lyrics for "Under the Lion Rock", which was about the struggling Hong Kong people in the great era. Now, this lyric sings to the strangers in Chungking Mansions, which is equally suitable.
Speaking of this, the "dark" character design - Chungking Mansions may have gained a lot of fans, and fans are ready to take risks. The old artist thinks that as a novel travel experience, Chungking Mansions is quite good.
Patients with persecutory delusions should stop early. They will definitely feel that there are horror movies everywhere. On the contrary, those tourists who go simply to seek excitement and curiosity may also find it boring.
References:
1, Wikipedia, Chungking Mansions
2, MOCHA, "Chungking Express": Wong Kar-wai's Film Aesthetics, 2016
3, (U.S.) McGolden, "Hong Kong Chungking Mansions: The Edge of the World Center", published by East China Normal University Society, 2015
4, Xu Jingxin, The transnational construction of "home" - an ethnography of the lives of South Asian and African refugees in Hong Kong, Master's thesis, 2015
5, Li Mingjie, Hong Kong Chungking Mansions and "low-end globalization" - Anthropologist Ge Interview with Professor Den Matthews, Wen Wei Po, 2016
Today's author
Wang Jingwen
Editor | Su Lizhen
Typesetting | Canned pineapple 6399
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