Interesting show at HK Central Library. Went to see after receiving an email describing Chenmiji's video work (Chenmiji of the 60s-style furniture shop fame). That video work was totally disappointing (though the asethetic of the still photos was great!), but thankfully the rest of the show presents enough amusing nuggets of HK's past.
The curatorial note (which I thought was good) talked about "shelter" and "home" (loosely translated) and how HK moved from 600k people in 1945 to a population 2m by 1949. And how people moved from simply looking for "shelters" (partly satisfied by govt housing) to a "home" (as seen in the emphasis of design, individuality, etc). What went inside a home is a record of how people live, how they deal with space (or lackof), and economic progress and social circumstances (# of family members, whether they live with their extended family or not).
Particularly interesting remark on how Taikoo Shing, Mei Foo were the ultimate "4-person household home" for that generation of families of that typical size. And now the further fragmentation of households.
So whats the next 10 years of urban development? Home ownership is getting more out of reach for many, with Yuen Long new apartments trading at 7000/sqft, and TKO trading at 4000+. Those entering the job market in 2000s indeed had a lot less opportunities. There's a lot of discussion about fairness and equality in society now. As a way forward, people talked about better endowment for kids (eg, education) which at least level the playing field - certainly a better policy than simple "wealth redistribution" and just more random one-off support with no vision?
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