Syndicated from The Black Renaissance
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The prevalence of shopping malls littered across Hong Kong illustrates the city’s far-reaching consumption culture. Buoyed by the huge influx of Mainland visitors and their insatiable thirst for foreign brands, the city has become a bridge where East meets West in capitalistic celebration. Malls have become a social center and a place of pastime visited by tourists and locals alike. The city’s urban development places an inordinate emphasis on these retail centers. And thus, malls of every single price-tier, be they for affluent visitors or blue-collar workers, are found all over the city. Perhaps one would find it a shock then to know that Hong Kong’s malling phenomenon is a mere fifty years old. What is now a bustling retail hub with the most expensive retail strip in the world was once borne from humbling beginnings.
In his essay, “The Malling of Hong Kong”, Tai-Lok Lui recounts the origins of Hong Kong’s malls in a city once absent of shopping malls. There came a time when the daily purchases of local Hong Kong people were limited only to daily necessities. Interestingly, he contends that the arrival of shopping malls was initiated by demands in the tourist service sector targeted at overseas visitors. He placed particular emphasis on the opening of Ocean Terminal in the city’s expensive, tourist area of Tsim Sha Tsui as one of the key initiators of Hong Kong’s mall culture. Debuting in 1966, the building was a bastion for a new vision of Hong Kong, one that attracted foreign tourists, and became a source of curiosity and interest for locals. Other malls also started appearing at this time including Japanese department store Daimaru, which was integral to the development of the city’s other tourist area, Causeway Bay.
For the local generation of citizens who were coming of age at that time, malls were a markedly different concept. They were a modern icon, completely unlike anything found in mainland China, and a breakaway from their traditional predecessors. These early malls would become an aspirational icon of the city’s burgeoning affluence and increasing modernity. For the younger generation, these retail centers became part of that integral search and definition for a distinct ‘Hong Kong’ identity under the restrictions of a Chinese society under British colonial rule. That identity ultimately came from the advertisements and window displays that reinforced the mantra that ‘I consume, therefore I am’.
Around the time of the 1960s and 70s as well, there was a profound demographic and social shift as well that brought shopping to be a favored pastime. The city’s growing employment in the industrial and manufacturing fields, as well as the increasing base of young workers meant a higher overall discretionary income. Thus by the 1970s, the dream of what the mall could bring was targeted towards Hong Kong citizens. All forms of retail concepts started appearing, from shopping arcades, to integrated shopping centers, to retail strips. Malls started stratifying themselves into different price-tiers and aimed at different socio-economic audiences. Whether rich or poor, people from all walks of life could take part in this retail dream. Even those who were considered less wealthy such as “[p]ublic housing residents [were] no longer seen as members of poor working-class households, but rather as affluent people who can afford to consume and to lead a better life” (Luk). Moreover, as Hong Kong expanded its residential base to accommodate high densities of living, new residential developments would situate shopping malls adjacent to these apartment buildings. Hence, the rise of the mall went hand-in-hand with the city’s growing affluence and rise in standard of living. Since then, the popularity of Hong Kong’s malls has remained an uncontested favorite pastime.
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The last decade however has now been marked by a new era as the malling phenomenon has intensified. Now underneath the omniscient presence of China with Mainlanders now enjoying economic prosperity, Hong Kong has seen a huge influx of Chinese tourists. Foreign brands who are keen on entering into the Chinese market, see Hong Kong as the bridge to enter into the Chinese consciousness. This unprecedented demand from both East and West has put considerable pressure for the city. Global brands fight viciously for prime retail spice, causing property prices to spike up considerably. One recent and high-profiled shift was the evacuation of Shanghai Tang from their Central branch. In loud, brash and unapologetic fashion, Abercrombie and Fitch moved into their retail space, announcing their arrival with fanfare and a busload of their signature male models. Another example was the recent arrival of the Gap, as they opened their first flagship store in the city with over 15,000 square feet in retail space. Their move comes as the company seeks to desperately find new sources of revenue from emerging markets.
Despite this economic boom, undesirable consequences have taken affect as rent has increased dramatically. Hong Kong’s small businesses who can no longer afford rent, are starting vanish at astonishing speeds. Gentrification has become the status-quo (see my post about the Gentrification at Star Street), as exciting brands are popping up much to the demise of traditional shops. The economic development of malls, originating as a symbol of pride, modernity and renewal, has now become the city’s ruthless symbol of capitalist rule. The city is losing the spirit of its humble, traditional beginnings, as corporations stamp their territory in search of profit. In short, the individuality of Hong Kong’s identity is eroding away. Perhaps the city is now being colonized again, but this time not by a nation of naval explorers but by corporations. Hong Kong’s famed economic rise and efficiency has been accompanied by a makeover of its streets into monotonous retail clones.
Perhaps there is something to be said about Hong Kong and the hallmark presence of its malls: that from its colonial identity under British rule, the city’s sense of self always laid on that fragile balance of Eastern and Western sensibilities; somehow teetering between the cosmopolitan presence of international visitors, and the ominous presence of Mainland China. What is it then the Hong Kong spirit that is markedly and distinctively unique? The answer lies somewhere in the mall: a blessed pillar of the city’s financial growth, and a cursed bastion of capitalist colonialism.
To learn more about the origin’s of Hong Kong’s mall, please read Consuming Hong Kong, edited by Gordon Mathews and Tai-Lok Lui.
Image Source: Kudomono Flickr, Rednuht Flickr