Tag Archives: Hong Kong

In conversation with Annie: Hong Kong

I set out my objects from St Petersburg again and sift through paraphernalia bought back from my time in Hong Kong. A train ticket from Shanghai to Jui Long, a brochure from the aviary. I recall the soft horizon and pink skies. The view from the top of The Peak across the city below and the islands beyond. The vast maze of shopping centres and well dressed locals. Clearly defined from China, this identity is emphasised with signs that forbid spitting and give instruction on how to use a Western toilet. It is a curious place between West and East, between time spent in China and Vietnam.

Re reading Annie’s journal entries my memory is jogged, we went to the races at Happy Valley, I caught up with an old school friend and had my first  conversation for three weeks. China was challenging. I focus on associations with Bexhill. Henry Young, a founder of Bexhill Museum, made a statue of Queen Victoria at his Pimlico foundry. I smile as I learn more about Victoria’s journey to Hong Kong and recall my journey looking for her.

Having recently celebrated Chinese New Year I take fortune cookies in to the museum and we celebrate the year of the sheep’s arrival. A photo of Peter the sheep is added to the wall, football mascot during World War I. 

Coins are found from the archives, mine are prettier, Hong Kong dollars now sporting more elaborate scalloped edges. Also from the archives some very small Chinese shoes. Probably a model rather than anything actually worn. There is a discussion about foot binding when the children’s workshop comes to visit. They concentrate well and enjoy their afternoon at the museum. 

Bexhill to Bexhill

Chinese shoes, Bexhill Museum (Louise Kenward, 2015)

Bexhill to Bexhill

Chinese shoes, Bexhill Museum (Louise Kenward, 2015)

Of Annie’s journal entries I am particularly drawn to the following comments on life in Hong Kong (Victoria) and the treatment of girls and boys:

“Off the town of Victoria the crowd of shipping is immense, and it became a difficult task to thread our way between the fleets of sampans and junks…The sampans are long boats, pointed at both ends, and provided with a small awning…In these sampans whole families, sometimes five generations, live and move and have their being. I never shall forget my astonishment when, going ashore very early one morning in one of these strange craft, the proprietor lifted up what I had thought was the bottom of the boat, and disclosed three or four children, packed away as tightly as herrings, while under the seats were half-a dozen people of larger growth. The young mother of the small family generally rows with the smallest baby strapped on to her back, and the next-sized one in her arms, whom she is also teaching to row. The children begin to row by themselves when they are about two years old. The boys have a gourd, intended for a life-preserver, tied round their necks as soon as they are born. The girls are left to their fate, a Chinaman thinking it rather an advantage to lose a daughter or two occasionally.” Annie Brassey from A Voyage in the Sunbeam, 1879.

I spare the young visitors this information and hope that changes to Hong Kong extend beyond architecture and prolific use of concrete. There is much more to Hong Kong than there was in 1879, and a great deal more of it too. Much has been reclaimed from the sea. Victoria harbour remains, but no longer with that name and it is now a further away from China than it was 136 years ago.

I spend my day adding to the mind map on the wall, continuing my journey from Russia. Quotes from Annie are added and I start to draw. The shoes  captivate me. Attempts at photographs do not do them justice. I am compelled to draw, to explore them further. Simple line drawings of pattern of embroidery is soothing and early attempts to create shape and form are more successful than later ones. I want to use colour but find pastels clumsy and heavy. I make a note to bring watercolour pencils next time.

In Conversation with Annie is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Victoria

Happy Valley Races, Hong Kong (Louise Kenward, 2013)

Happy Valley Races, Hong Kong (Louise Kenward, 2013)

A particularly colonial couple of days have been spent treading in Annie’s footsteps and following up a mission from Bexhill Museum. Arriving in Hong Kong the weather and landscape has become more tropical, a balmy 27 degrees and beautiful flowering plants make my time here feel more like I’m on holiday.
Annie does not write very much about her time here, it was only a brief stay of a couple of days, a visit to Government House could not be replicated unfortunately, but she does talk in some detail of her trip to the races:

“We were puzzled to imagine where, on this rocky, hilly island there could possibly be found a piece of ground flat enough for a race-course. But the mystery was solved when we reached a lovely little valley, about two miles from the town, where we found a very fair course, about the size of that at Chester, but not so dangerous. The grand stand is a picturesque object, with its thatched roof, verandahs, and sun-blinds. the interior, too, looks comfortably arranged, and certainly contains the most luxurious basket chairs one could possibly desire. There are a lawn and paddock attached, and very good temporary stables, over many of which are private stands and tiffin rooms…” (from Voyage on the Sunbeam, 1876-77).

A great fire some years ago saw off the thatched roof and the race track has been modernised over the years, but The Happy Valley Racecourse remains a key attraction of Hong Kong Island. Visiting there last night it continues to be a site with great atmosphere (albeit a somewhat altered view since Annie’s arrival) surrounded by tower blocks and skyscrapers, lights flashing and glittering in the night’s sky. Most of that which is flat ground today has in fact been reclaimed from the sea. Annie’s Hong Kong (or Victoria) was entirely mountainous, at least three main roads and streets in between have been built in the last 20 years alone, so Victoria Harbour remains, albeit a bit further out to sea than it was in 1877.
The complex social and political history of Hong Kong has left it with a mixture of British and Chinese characteristics, and many traces of colonialism remain (despite post boxes being painted green). Another link with Bexhill is the statue of Queen Victoria which was made in Pimlico by a founder of the museum, and which I was duly sent to look for on my arrival. She has had quite an eventful time having been relocated from Statue Square, painted red as an act of protest by a local artist, and finally placed at the entrance of Victoria Park, for what I hope is a more restful place to remain. Some time was spent searching the park without success, works were being done along the harbour side and I feared she had again been removed. In a final attempt I eventually resorted to showing people pictures of the statue from ‘google’ on my ipad, in asking if they knew it, and helpfully being pointed in the right direction. Delight at her discovery, this did little to make me feel I was integrating terribly well.

Queen Victoria Statue, Victoria Park, Hong Kong (Louise Kenward, 2013)

Queen Victoria Statue, Victoria Park, Hong Kong (Louise Kenward, 2013)

Hong Kong (Louise Kenward, 2013)

Hong Kong (Louise Kenward, 2013)