Here are two Hong Kong photographs from my collection. They were taken by a sailor of Britain’s Royal Navy who spent a considerable amount of time in Hong Kong in the 1930s. Click to enlarge the images.
The first photograph shows a procession in a street. Two large lanterns with big characters are in front, with a boy banging a drum and two boys beating gongs. Behind them is an ornate decoration, which would no doubt have been very colourful. Can anyone come up with any suggestions as to the purpose of the procession? Could it have been a funeral? Or was it the celebration of some happy occasion?
The second photograph was taken from Queen’s Road looking up Wyndham Street. With a magnifying glass it is possible to identify the distinctive striped building of the old Dairy Farm building, now home to the Foreign Correspondents´ Club and the Fringe Club. Many flower sellers can be seen. When first established, the Hong Kong Club moved into a club house at the junction of Queen’s Road and Wyndham Street. The gentlemen members of that club for the colony’s business elite liked to wear flowers in buttonholes in their jacket lapels. The flower sellers provided fresh blooms each day. The club later moved to its present location but the flower sellers remained behind. Today there are no flower sellers actually in Wyndham Street but some can be found in nearby side streets, a colourful and fragrant reminder of old times in Hong Kong.
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©Phillip Bruce 2009
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