Hong Kong's Declining Marine Communities

Hong Kong’s Declining Marine Communities

水 上 人 séui

seuhng

yàn

Geographic and Climatic Adaptations of a Disappearing Indigenous Boat Population Amidst Post-war Administrative Pressures

Victor Leung

15009905 BARC0011 MArch Advanced Architectural Thesis Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL Thesis Supervisor: Anna Mavrogianni Module Coordinators: Robin Wilson & Oliver Wilton May 2021 Word Count: 9,899

How has the spatial organization and inhabitation of Hong Kong’s oldest indigenous marine communities continually changed to suit the region’s climate and geography as well as greater colonial administrative changes following World War II? Can the disappearing marine adaptations of the Hong Kong boat population suggest new/re-introduced living typologies within the city and its existing legal framework amidst increasing housing pressures?

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Abstract This thesis explores the evolution of the built environment of Hong Kong’s (HK) often forgotten and now continually shrinking indigenous marine populations, particularly in the post-war period. It highlights the ways in which Colonial-led administrative policies and resettlement initiatives alongside local climate and natural geography have guided continued adaptations in the design and inhabitation of architectures and their spatial organization within these communities whilst maintaining constant connection to their surrounding waters. The study will primarily focus on three cases, the boat-filled harbor of Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter, the stilt house-lined hills of Tai O Fishing Village and the Marine Fish Culture Zone (MFCZ) of Sok Kwu Wan (SKW) on Lamma Island. The findings of these traditional case studies will be adapted into a new design framework to house the modern societal fringe of Hong Kong in a new marine community in light of a modern housing crisis and impending climate change as an alternative to the land reclamation of Lantau Tomorrow Vision (LTV), a 1,700 hectare artificial island proposed by the current Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSARG).

The thesis will first employ both English and Chinese academic texts to detail historic administrative discrimination, laissez-faire pre-war Colonial approaches and later imposed squatter lifestyles at the mercy of economic interests due to post-war administrative pushes for fishery mechanization. Then, more Chinese literature, personal observations and informal interviews will be utilized to illustrate the development of climatically-adapted houseboats and subsequent government clearance initiatives within the constant floating spatial negotiations of Aberdeen’s once self-sufficient society. Similar research methods are also used to describe the evolution of stilt houses and spatial practices that reflect boat people’s gradual rooting into the geography of Tai O. The final case study investigates the post-war mariculture economy and recent communal raft structures of Sok Kwu Wan that originally stemmed from the recycled timber of the vessels of Hong Kong’s newly anchored boat people.

Each of these communities maintain water as the protagonist of their built environment, harnessing it to mitigate the hot and humid local subtropical climate replete with annual typhoons. With these adaptations, the model community of Isle of Lunar-Sea will be proposed on the site of Lantau Tomorrow Vision. Developed in phases beginning from intertidal shores, it will house the remaining floating populations, subdivided home residents and waiting public housing applicants on spatially flexible structures that vary between floating and stilted within the seafloor. As a result, the adaptive architectures developed by Hong Kong’s Tanka can suggest a new living methodology over the water, incorporating climate and geography through means largely unconsidered in the territory today to both maintain their unique heritage and better prepare for impending future climate change.

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Table of Contents Abstract

5

1.0

Introduction

9

2.0

Literature Search

21

3.0

Administrative Attitudes

23

4.0

Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

39

5.0

Tai O Fishing Village

69

6.0

Sok Kwu Wan & Mariculture Zones

95

7.0

A New Marine Community

111

8.0

Conclusion

133

9.0

Bibliography

137

10.0

Images

143

11.0

Appendix

149

Pre-Colonial Boat Dwellers Today’s Marine Communities Thesis Outline and Study Design

Early Colonial Era Approach Post-war Boat Squatters HKSAR Government Clearances

Administrative Relationship Climate & Geography Spatial Organization

Administrative Relationship Climate & Geography Spatial Organization

Administrative Relationship Climate & Geography Spatial Organization

Site and Aims Design Principles Development and Legality Key Typologies

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1.0 Introduction

08

1.0

Introduction The imagery often associated with modern Hong Kong (HK) to outsiders rarely depicts entirely water-based populations, rather consisting skyscrapers reflecting a prominent financial center1, dense housing towers and periodically, natural landscapes comprising islands, hills and deep harbors. Even for residents, local marine communities hold diminished roles in shared knowledge, reduced to the latter within contrasting architectural identities of “Placeless” and “Merely Local,” as described by Ackbar Abbas, a prominent HK comparative literature professor. Abbas specifically cites HK’s floating population of boat people, “largely belonging to another historical era, existing now, if they exist at all, mainly on the [city’s] economic margins,” with those on “sampan boats adapted as live-work space… ‘repatriated’ to dry land to look for more conventional work and… living space.”2 Despite their existence on mental and economic peripheries, these marine communities persist at the city’s core, directly ahead of a famous skyline (Fig. 1.1), yet remain rarely considered.

Today, the city’s architectural language largely neglects the geographical or climate-related practices and negotiable spatial organization engaged within marine communities long adapted to various physical environments spanning southern China. Prior readings on HK’s post-war housing34 have also often found a dichotomy between purported Colonial administration planning intentions and enacted methods, eliciting a desire to investigate changes in marine communities within similar frames of reference.

Pre-Colonial Boat Dwellers Boat people have not only faced modern neglect, but also historical marginalization by land-dwellers and written records themselves despite foundational roles in HK, including in its etymology. British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston famously denounced the territory at its 1842 beginning as a “barren rock with nary a house upon it.”5 Despite comprising 35% of the population, perceptions of floating fishermen were reduced to intermittent arrivals on land for freshwater collection.6 (Fig. 1.2) The city’s boat dwellers largely consist of 蜑家/Tanka people, literally “egg family,” for their historically impoverished status necessitating tax payment with eggs.7 Tanka likely comprised Han Chinese mixed with

Figure 1.1 (left) Fishermen arrive in Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter with long-present houseboats behind them and Kowloon skyscrapers across the harbor.

1 “GFCI 29 Rank,” Z/Yen Group, accessed April 4, 2021. https://www.longfinance.net/programmes/financial-centrefutures/global-financial-centres-index/gfci-29-explore-data/gfci-29-rank/ 2 Ackbar Abbas, Culture and the Politics of Disappearance (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 81-82.

3 Victor Leung, “Choi Hung Estate: Stories from its First Residents” (BSc. Architecture diss., University College London, 2017).

4 Victor Leung, “Tin Ma Court: The Shift into Subsidized Home Ownership” (M. Architecture diss., University College London, 2020).

5 James Griffiths, Jason Kwok and Natalie Yubas, “Hong Kong: How a ‘barren rock’ became an Asian powerhouse,” CNN, last modified June 26, 2017. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/25/asia/hong-kong-change-1997-2017/index.html 6 黎志邦 (Lai Chi Pong), 從前有個香港仔 (There Once was an Aberdeen) (Hong Kong: WE Press, 2018), 28.

7 Estelle Dryland and Jawad Syed. “Tai O village – Vernacular fisheries management or revitalization?” International Journal of Cultural Studies 13, no. 6 (November 26, 2010): 619, SAGE journals.

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1.0 Introduction

Figure 1.2 The Island in 1837 from Sixty Diamond Jubilee Pictures of Hong Kong 1837 1897. An artist’s impression of Hong Kong island.

Tai O

Aberdeen

Sok Kwu Wan

Figure 1.3 The locations of three of Hong Kong’s oldest marine communities, Aberdeen, Tai O and Sok Kwu Wan.

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1.0 Introduction

Figure 1.4 Mean temperature and humidity per month in Hong Kong.

Figure 1.5 (left) Mean number of Tropical Cyclones per month in Hong Kong.

Figure 1.6 (right) Mean rainfall and number of rainy days per month in Hong Kong.

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1.0 the southern Yueh tribe (Neolithic inhabitant descendants),8 exiled to sea by Han Dynasty expansion (111BC).9 Boat people discrimination has been recorded since the Northern Song Dynasty (900-1127AD), banned by officials from owning land and marrying land-dwellers alongside descriptions as “slaves… thieves… and black ghosts” amongst discriminatory actions arising from their water-borne lifestyle under harsh sunlight.10 The derogatory history associated with “Tanka” in Chinese has given rise to today’s more common, 水上人/séuiseuhngyàn, literally on-water people, or boat people. Sun Yat-sen University Professor Zhang Shou-qi11 described their unique characteristics:

Introduction

(1) nomads moving with seasonal fish catchment locations; (2) maintaining loose leaderless relations, with large-scale gatherings only during deity celebrations and spiritual festivals; (3) without land or fields, sustenance relying on fish or wheat traded with land-dwellers; (4) men fished, women sculled and raised children; and (5) land-based discrimination, nomadism and livelihood restrictions ensuring poor education.12 Despite harsh treatment, boat people established safe havens within HK’s many bays and inlets, maintaining water’s central role in livelihoods.

In the Northern Song and later Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)13, boat people migrated to Tai O (Fig. 1.3) in waves, identifying its natural geography’s ability to protect from extreme climatic conditions, particularly tropical cyclones/typhoons arising from HK’s sub-tropical summers averaging 27-32°C, sometimes reaching 35°C with 80+% humidity.14 (Fig. 1.4-6) Besides a geographical refuge, it sheltered thriving salt production and smuggler’s trade. In Aberdeen, its “natural typhoon shelter”15 of safe waters similarly attracted boat people to anchor. These indigenous Tanka communities eventually accommodated other migratory southern Han Chinese groups, Hoklo and Hakka people.16 (Fig. 1.7) Of these early marine settlements, Aberdeen was dubbed “fragrant harbor” in Ming and Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) records (Fig. 1.8) due to its dominant industry, trading incense-wood across the Pearl River Delta and beyond.17 Boat people may have guided British colonialists through the region in the 1800s, mistaking the “fragrant harbor”/hēunggóng description to regard the larger northern harbor. Hongkong was thus first given its official name in 184118, solidifying the often unconsidered, 8 Mike Ingham. Hong Kong: A Cultural History. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 2.

9 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 40.

10 Ibid, 42-44.

11 張壽祺 (Zhang Shou-Qi), 蛋家人 (Tanka People). (Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book Company, 1991.)

12 Ibid, 45-46.

13 黃惠琼 (Wong Wai King), 大澳水鄉的變遷 - 風、土、人、情二三事 (Tai O: Love Stories of the Fishing Village) (Hong Kong: 黃惠琼, 2000), 20.

14 “Climate of Hong Kong,” Hong Kong Observatory, accessed April 18, 2021. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/cis/climahk. htm 15 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 54.

16 Bob Dye, Merchant prince of the Sandalwood Mountains: Afong and the Chinese in Hawaiʻi (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), 31.

17 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 33.

18 Ibid, 38.

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Figure 1.7 (right) Historical migration patterns of Hong Kong’s boat people. Tanka people shfited throughout the southern coast, including from these cities, notable pre-war ports for fisheries trade with Hong Kong.

The region of Tanka ancestors, the Yueh Tribe, is highlighted. Fujianese Hoklo and Hakka people also originated along the southern coast.

PHILIPPINES TAIWAN

1.0

TAIWAN STRAIT

Introduction

TRADITIONAL HK FISHING GROUNDS

A

Taiwan Strait Beef Loach, Catfish, Golden Threadfin Bream Yellow Croaker, White Herring, Fugu Pufferfish Blackhead Seabream, Pike, Mackerel Pomfret Fish, Japanese Smelt, Beef Loach Hainan Island

I TA

FUJIAN PROVINCE (H O K L O)

A B C D E F

OI

Approximate ex-Yueh Tribe Regions Highlighed

NT ERV

IE W EE R O UTE

B

SOUTH CHINA SEA

SHANWEI

HUIZHOU

HONG KONG SAR

GUANGDONG PROVINCE

C AB

ER

GUANGZHOU

DE

EN

SHIQI

IN

JIANGMEN

TE IE RV

WE

TAISHAN

ER TE

D

OU

YANGJIANG

E DIANBAI HAIKOU

WUCHUAN ZHANJIANG

HAINAN ISLAND

BEIHAI

GUANGXI ZHUANG AUTONOMOUS REGION

F

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1.0 Introduction

Figure 1.8 《粵大記. 廣東沿海圖》 (1595) A Ming Dynasty map of the Guangdong coast viewed south to north.

“Hong Kong” is highlighted on the left, to the aboveright of today’s Hong Kong and denoting modern-day Ap Lei Chau, the island to the south of Aberdeen Fishing Village. Tai O is highlighted on the right.

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1.0 Introduction

HONG KONG ISLAND

HONG KONG ISLAND

Figure 1.9 Aerial imagery of Aberdeen in 1924 with overlay of today’s coastline.

AP LEI CHAU ISLAND

AP LEI CHAU ISLAND

Figure 1.10 Modern satellite imagery of Aberdeen.

Figure 1.11 A subdivided flat in Hong Kong.

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1.0 Introduction

Figure 1.12 An artist’s impression of Lantau Tomorrow Vision.

HKSARG aims to construct Lantau Tomorrow Vision in the coming 20-30 years.

Figure 1.13 Public Consulation Pamphlet of Lantau Tomorrow Vision

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1.0 Introduction

intrinsic role of indigenous boat people within HK history.

Today’s Marine Communities Despite boat people often feeling “street-sick”19 over “hostile” land20, marine communities including Aberdeen, Tai O and mariculture zones face continually dwindling populations (136,000+ in 1961 to sub-2,000 today),2122 resulting from post-war governmental clearance initiatives, desires for increased land-based security and current lacking marine industry policy support. Boat people’s spatial practices and traditional ad-hoc construction methods attuned to surrounding environments continually diminished, lost to broad-brush housing estates built directly over their reclaimed waters (Fig. 1.9-10).

Amidst a modern-day housing crisis of world-leading property prices leaving 210,000+ in subdivided flats23 (Fig. 1.11), and nearly 6-year waits for government-subsidized housing,24 the current Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSARG) seeks to construct a 1,700ha. artificial island, “Lantau Tomorrow Vision” (LTV), (Fig. 1.1213) in the coming decades to alleviate the crisis by housing 1,100,000.25 Besides threatening the existing island archipelago’s biodiversity,26 the plan disregards the longstanding local heritage of marine inhabitation and remaining marine populations. Furthermore, extensive reclamation may worsen and be blighted by local 2100 climate projections, including temperatures increasing 5°C, decreased water security through reduced rainy days despite increased rainfall, and raised sea levels often exacerbated under typhoon storm surges27 (Fig. 1.14-18).

Thesis Outline and Study Design This thesis aims to first analyze the effects of administrative changes, climate and geography on spatial organization and indigenous inhabitation in HK’s traditional marine communities following World War II. Then, it will suggest new/re-introduced living typologies for marine environments within the existing legal framework amidst the city’s increasing housing pressures.

First, the thesis will employ academic journal articles and books to 19 Ibid, 80.

20 Dryland and Syed. “Tai O village” 626.

21 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 78.

22 Shirley Zhao, “Living on a boat in Hong Kong: you can’t forget to buy sugar, everything must be planned and you may need a sampan to get to shore,” South China Morning Post, October 3, 2018. https://www.scmp.com/news/hongkong/hong-kong-economy/article/2166685/living-boat-hong-kong-you-cant-forget-buy-sugar 23 Matthew Brooker, “A Property Boom Built on Invisible Slums,” last modified March 1, 2021. https://www.bloomberg. com//opinion/articles/2021-02-28/hong-kong-s-property-crisis-has-no-easy-solutions 24 “Number of Applications and Average Waiting Time for Public Rental Housing,” Hong Kong Housing Authority, accessed April 5, 2021. https://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/en/about-us/publications-and-statistics/prh-applicationsaverage-waiting-time/index.html 25 “Lantau Tomorrow Vision,” Civil Engineering and Development Department, accessed April 5, 2021. https://www. lantau.gov.hk/en/lantau-tomorrow-vision/index.html 26 Shirley Zhao, “Smelly harbours and lifeless waters? Lantau Tomorrow Vision reclamation could add to nearby ‘dead zone’, scientists warn,” South China Morning Post, December 30, 2018. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/healthenvironment/article/2179969/smelly-harbours-and-lifeless-waters-lantau 27 “Climate Projections for Hong Kong,” Hong Kong Observatory, accessed April 4, 2021. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/ climate_change/future_climate.htm

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1.0 explore the legal challenges and historical administrative pressures of squatter clearance and resettlement from both the British Colonial and modern HKSAR governments behind declines of the now-alternative lifestyle of local indigenous water-based communities. Then, it will utilize the author’s observations, drawings and literary texts to explore the climate adaptations and spatial organizations employed across three marine population case studies (Fig. 1.19): (1) Aberdeen Floating Village & typhoon shelters; (2) Tai O Fishing Village; and (3) Sok Kwu Wan (SKW) & mariculture zones.

Informal interviews were conducted within each case. In (1), one engaged with a recently retired Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter fisherman cleared from his floating home in 1973. Another involved a sampan operator ferrying people within Causeway Bay (CWB) Typhoon Shelter whilst mostly inhabiting Shau Kei Wan Typhoon Shelter. (2) includes conversations with an ex-fisherman turned tour-boat operator occupying a Tai O stilt house. (3) incorporates discussions with a SKW native’s descendant living in Aberdeen, who returned to work in the mariculture zone.

Following these case studies, the thesis will evaluate how elements of spatial practices and inhabitation derived from dwindling floating communities can contribute to proposals of alternative living typologies in HK on the “Lantau Tomorrow Vision” site, maintaining water as the protagonist of this new design framework.

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Introduction

1.0 Introduction

Figure 1.14 (left) Hong Kong future temperature projections Figure 1.15 (right) Hot nights (>28°C), very hot days (>33°C) & cold days (<12°C) in scenario of high concentration in greenhouse gases.

Figure 1.16 Hong Kong future rainfall projections

Figure 1.17 (left) Hong Kong future sea level projections.

Figure 1.18 (right) Diagram depicting storm surges during tropical cyclones/typhoons.

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GUANGZHOU

DONGGUAN

ZHONGSHAN

SHENZHEN

DELTA RIVER PEARL IAL FLOW TR INDUS

HONG KONG

D. C.

MACAU

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SITE OF LANTAU TOMORROW VISION

A.

ZHUHAI

B.

E.

2.0 Literature Search

Literature Search Literature reviewed in this thesis involved English and Chinese texts. The oldest English document was published in 1948 directly post-war, whilst the earliest Chinese publication came after 1990. The Hong Kong Public Library, academic journals JSTOR, SAGE, The University of Chicago Press and Elsevier alongside databases of The Hong Kong Institute of Architects and Hong Kong e-Legislation were interrogated. Keywords employed included Tanka, sampan, boat people/squatters, Typhoon Shelter, stilt houses, mariculture and the case study names.

Most English secondary literary sources regarding HK’s marine communities focus on Colonial administrative actions towards post-war boat squatters28 or the architectural features29 and unique inhabitation30 of Tai O from modern perspectives. Academic viewpoints on Colonial governance31 are often contextualized within the overarching post-war squatter problems and public housing solution3233 across land and water.

Little is written, however, about mariculture communities.34 Contrarily, Chinese literary sources and video content35 primarily reveal lived experiences of HK’s declining boat populations3637 and are published largely following the 1997 handover to China, aligning with a greater societal awareness of local culture that Abbas notes was then perceived as threatened.38 These sources are less academic, notably excluding University of Hong Kong Architectural Conservation Professor Lai Chi-Pong’s39 There Once was an Aberdeen40 (2018), which holistically recounts the history and fishing practices of Aberdeen’s floating community.

Literature in both languages depict Colonial policies, methods of inhabitation and spatial practice, but often do not identify connections between climate and geography across overarching marine community culture or involve personalized viewpoints of existing inhabitants.

Figure 1.19 (right) Map of Pearl River Delta. Visited Marine Communities and the general site of Lantau Tomorrow Vision are denoted.

A. Tai O Fishing Village B. Sok Kwu Wan Mariculture Zone C. Aberdeen Floating Village D. Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter E. Po Toi O Mariculture Zone

28 Christopher A. Airriess, “Spatial liminality as moral hazard and boat squatter toleration in post-World War Two Hong Kong.” Habitat International 44, (2014): 121-129, Elsevier.

29 Dennis Cheung Kin Keung, “Restoration of TAI O Stilt Houses – Living Improvement for Squatter Poor and Conservation for Heritage Area,” HKIA Journal 59, no. 3 (2010): 56-57, The Hong Kong Institute of Architects.

30 Dryland and Syed. “Tai O village” 616-636.

31 David Faure, Colonialism and the Hong Kong Mentality. (Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, The University of Hong Kong, 2003).

32 Alan Smart, The Shek Kip Mei Myth – Squatters, Fires and Colonial Rule in Hong Kong, 1950-1963. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006).

33 Manuel Castells, Lee Goh and R. Yin-Wang Kwok, The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome – Economic Development and Public Housing in Hong Kong and Singapore. (London: Pion Limited, 1990).

34 Lawrence Wai Chung Lai, “Marine fish culture and pollution: An initial Hong Kong empirical study,” Ekistics 356/357.

(September/October-November/December 1992): 349-357, JSTOR. 35 有線電視 CABLE TV & 有線新聞 CABLE News, “香港水上人生活 刮八號風球要棄船求生？香港漁業全盛時期 一日過萬斤魚穫【香港事・香港是 2017 - EP3｜香港文化】” (The Life of Hong Kong Boat People, Do Ships Need to be Abandoned in Typhoon No. 8 for Survival?), YouTube Video. 18:05. July 3, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6Ily74aD_j 36 Wong, Tai O. 37 張浩賢 (Cheung Hou Jin), 香江漁歌 (Hong Kong Fishermen Ballads). (Hong Kong: Eco-Education & Resources Centre, 2014).

38 Abbas, Culture and the Politics of Disappearance.

39 “Lai Chi Pong,” The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Architecture, accessed April 5, 2021. https://www.arch.hku. hk/staff/conservation/lai-chi-pong/ 40 Lai, 從前有個香港仔 (There Once was an Aberdeen).

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3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.1 British Hong Kong, 1842.

Ceded in Treaty of Nanking.

Notable marine communities administered, Aberdeen and Causeway Bay are denoted (from left to right).

Figure 3.2 British Hong Kong, 1860.

Ceded in Convention of Peking.

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3.0

Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.3 British Hong Kong, 1898.

99-year lease in the Convention for the Extension of the Hong Kong Territory.

Tai O, Sok Kwu Wan and Po Toi O join the territory and are highlighted (from left to right).

Colonial Hong Kong generally promoted laissez-faire, business-first administrative approaches, which were no different towards boat people, supporting industrial contribution without granting indigenous status and corresponding rights. Post-war economic policy forced many Tanka to abandon nomadism for permanent typhoon shelter anchorage, attaining legal “boat squatter” definition amidst refugee influxes. To allow land reclamation for government sale, marine populations commonly faced enforced tabulation and clearance for land-based resettlement, engendering eventual declines.

Early Colonial Approach British Hong Kong officially began in 1842, ceded “in perpetuity,” comprising only HK Island. Original governors recognized the importance of the 2,000 Tanka (35% of population), supporting fisheries as a foundational industry with little regard for the people. The territory then expanded, incorporating Kowloon (1860) and later the New Territories and Outlying Islands in a 99-year lease (1898).41 (Fig. 3.1-3) This 1898 expansion granted male descendants of native land-based villagers land to construct single homes through indigenous rights still enshrined in today’s HK Basic Law.42 Though one of HK’s oldest populations, boat people received no equivalent right, reinforcing 41 “Hong Kong profile – Timeline,” BBC News, January 9, 2018, accessed December 13, 2020. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/world-asia-pacific-16526765 42 Shirley Zhao, “Controversial small-house policy was never traditional right of indigenous male villagers in Hong Kong, landmark hearing told,” December 3, 2018. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2176204/ controversial-small-house-policy-was-never-traditional

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3.0 administrative indifferences towards marine communities. Further restrained governance notably marred funding for protective typhoon shelter infrastructure, shielding boat people from summertime typhoons.

These historically entailed 2.42 Signal 8 (63-117km/h) and 0.43 Signal 9/10 Typhoons (118+km/h) annually,43 with storm surges sometimes 2.35m above astronomical tide,44 causing countless casualties and damaged/lost vessels every few or even individual years. Particularly devastating pre-war typhoons caused 2,000+ (1874) and 10,000+ deaths (1937)45 before post-1970s improvements.

Construction of one shelter mitigating dangers for boat people surrounded 10,000 casualties of one such 1906 typhoon, with then-Governor Sir Mathew Nathan describing “appalling scenes of desolation.”46 Legislators had initiated proposals in 1903, with the Honorable Gershom Stewart stating it be first of “self-interest, for we indirectly [benefit]… to assist trade and secondly on the higher ground of our common humanity,”47 but opulent building construction preceded shelter funding discussions, until eventual erection a near-decade later.48 Commercial interests continually prevailed over humanitarianism for indigenous Tanka, both in justification and delays despite visual reminders of destruction.

Post-war Boat Squatters Following Japanese Occupation (1941-45) exoduses49, influxes of returnees and Chinese refugees escaping political unrest near-tripled HK’s population to 1,500,000 by 194850. Finding decimated housing stocks51, they filled overcrowded and insanitary “barnacle-like” sheet metal and timber squatter huts strewn across hillsides52 alongside boats flooding into overflowing marine communities.53 (Fig. 3.4-5) Officials dichotomously perceived these as “sanitary/insanitary, and thus legal/ illegal,” enabling repeated projects for widespread clearance and resettlement.54 Colonial authorities long maintained generous narratives of a widespread resettlement program into safe, sanitary public estates to alleviate the post-war housing crisis, rapidly beginning with 8 resettlement blocks (Fig. 3.6) constructed 53 days following a 1953 squatter fire leaving 55,000 43 “Classification of Tropical Cyclones,” Hong Kong Observatory, accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/ informtc/class.htm 44 “Storm Surge Records,” Hong Kong Observatory, accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/wservice/ tsheet/pms/stormsurgedb.htm?t=RANK&v=STORM_SURGE 45 “Social and Economic Impact of Tropical Cyclones,” Hong Kong Observatory, accessed April 19, 2021. https://www. hko.gov.hk/en/informtc/economice.htm 46 A. J. S. Lack, “YAUMATEI TYPHOON SHELTER, HONG KONG, 1903-1915,” Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 13, (1973): 31.

47 Ibid, 29.

48 Ibid, 40.

49 Smart, The Shek Kip Mei Myth, 40.

50 Patrick Abercrombie, Hong Kong Preliminary Planning Report, 1948 (n.p.: Crown Agents for the Colonies, 1948), 5 51 Faure, Colonialism and the HK Mentality, 101 52 J. R. Firth, “The Work of the Hong Kong Housing Authority,” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 113, no. 5103 (February 1965): 176, JSTOR. 53 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 78.

54 Smart, The Shek Kip Mei Myth, 32-33.

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Administrative Attitudes

3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.4 Squatter huts on Victoria Road extending over the sea, 1965.

Figure 3.5 Boats in Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, 1958.

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3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.6 Though the 1953 fire occurred in Shek Kip Mei, pictured is Wong Tai Sin Resettlement Estate, similar to the 1953 estate but of greater scale.

Figure 3.7 Map of new residential and industrial zones away from existing densities in coast areas in the Hong Kong Preliminary Planning Report,1948. Sir Patrick Abercrombie also notably wrote the Greater London Plan 1944.

Some areas, including predelinated typhoon shelters are also drawn over water for reclamation plans.

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3.0 Administrative Attitudes

homeless.55 Historian David Faure56, anthropologist Alan Smart57 and sociologist Manuel Castells58 dispute such “propagandist”59 philanthropic perspectives, allowing condensation of land squatter resettlement justification into 5 purposes: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

visual relief/sanitation; land sale income; economic stimulation; political legitimization; and social tension relief.60

Though boat people clearance was less broadly organized, (2) and (3) crucially justified their resettlement. (2) arose from the Crown’s total land ownership, ensuring privately auctioned land cleared of squatters dominated government revenue for post-war HK. By 1971, 1,000,000 had relocated onto 34% of previous space,61 enabling today’s dense heights. Scarce, commodified land sale and stamp duty still forms 35+% of HKSARG revenue,62 driving extreme housing prices. (3) followed industrial/residential rezoning of cleared/sold land and reclamation, initially proposed by Sir Patrick Abercrombie in 194863, predicting population overspills necessitating decentralization optimizing density.64 (Fig. 3.7) Subsequent construction transformed the government65 into both “important commercial and industrial developer and landlord.”66 Capitalistic Chinese migrants ignoring environmental standards had already enabled flourishing cheap manufacturing on illegal squatter sites,67 rendering efficient public accommodation into immigrant training ground and safety net.68 For indigenous and arriving boat nomads, Colonial administrators initiated fishery mechanization post-war, decreasing mainland Chinese food dependence69 and inducing economic recovery.70 Though highly successful, “creative destruction” replaced traditional Tanka lifestyles with capital-intensive mechanized vessels, forcing “many peasant and family-based fishing households… out of a cooperative economy.”71 The Secretary of Chinese Affairs in 1966 described mechanization affecting,

55 Firth, “The Hong Kong Housing Authority,” 177.

56 Faure, Colonialism and the Hong Kong Mentality.

57 Smart, The Shek Kip Mei Myth.

58 Castells, The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome.

59 Ibid., 1.

60 Leung, “Tin Ma Court,” 15.

61 Smart, The Shek Kip Mei Myth, 12.

62 “Public finance,” Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, last modified February 24, 2021. https://www.budget. gov.hk/2021/eng/io.html 63 Patrick Abercrombie, Hong Kong Preliminary Planning Report, 1948 (n.p.: Crown Agents for the Colonies, 1948).

64 Lawrence Wai-Chung Lai, “Reflections on the Abercrombie Report 1948: A Strategic Plan for Colonial Hong Kong,” The Town Planning Review 70, no. 1 (January 1999): 68, JSTOR. 65 The government’s Hong Kong Housing Authority constructed and managed over 5,000+ private factories and 13,000+ commercial tenancies by 1981. Today, many of these assets have been privatized into the Link Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

66 Castells, The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome, 13.

67 Smart, The Shek Kip Mei Myth, 33.

68 Castells, The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome, 114-116.

69 Airriess, “Spatial liminality,” 124.

70 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 72.

71 Airriess, “Spatial liminality,” 124.

27

3.0 “fringe dwellers… formerly boat people who now live in squatter boats… often neither land or water… [regarded as] human flotsam and jetsam, more or less neglected by the authorities for either element – except when we wish to move them.”72 Unable to fish, migratory boat families permanently anchored in increasingly congested and unsafe typhoon shelters, (Fig. 3.8) relegated to “boat squatters” in “[ambivalent] zones… between social legitimacy and formal illegitimacy.”73 Boat squatters never exceeded 5% of HK’s population,7475 likely exacerbating resettlement neglect. They equally existed on administrative fringes, occupying overlapping and thus lagged responsibilities of the Resettlement, Housing and Marine Departments.7677 Geographer Christopher Airriess highlights this stagnation through administrators’ overarching fear of “moral hazard,” 78 incentivized boat squatting through resettlement policies, arising from typhoon shelters’ liminal characteristics: (1) neither firm land or open water; (2) territorialized for reclamation generating development-reliant government revenue; (3) socially transitional for nomadic fisherfolk forced into semionshore settlement; and (4) jurisdictionally liminal due to nonexistent “Crown water,” unlike all-encompassing Crown land.79 Strategies to mitigate moral hazard of resettlement policies paralleling land squatters included first portraying policy-enabled boat squatters as “impostors” undeserving public resettlement housing, becoming ineligible in 1964.80 Secondly, highly restrictive clearance/decentralization criteria reduced government commitment. Only boats grounded in low tide faced confiscation and destruction, shifting residents to remote “resites,” hindering landward transitions by severing waterfront connectivity, livelihoods and social networks.81 Finally, administrators unsuccessfully attempted mandatory high-fee licensure of new “dwelling vessel” classifications increasing “boat squatting” cost, fearing perception of granted property rights with land squatter-like public housing entitlement and political confrontations from uncompensated boat confiscation.82 Such strategies contradicted officials’ heroic depiction of HK’s “forceful 72 Ibid.

73 Smart, Alan. “The Unbearable Discretion of Street-Level Bureaucrats – Corruption and Collusion in Hong Kong.”

Current Anthropology 59, no. 18 (April 2018): S40. The University of Chicago Press Journals.

74 Airriess, “Spatial liminality,” 124.

75 Compared to boat squatters, land squatters peaked at approximately 17% of Hong Kong population in 1981, over three times that of marine populations, leading to their more intensive resettlement strategies.

76 The Resettlement Department was responsible for resettling squatters, the Housing Department housed the homeless and the Marine Department managed port administration.

77 Ibid, 123.

78 Ibid, 124.

79 Ibid.

80 Ibid, 122.

81 Smart, “Unbearable Discretion of Street-Level Bureaucrats, S42.

82 Airriess, “Spatial liminality,” 126-7.

28

Administrative Attitudes

3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.8 Stilt houses and squatter boats in Staunton Creek, Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter, 1967.

Figure 3.9 Mariculture rafts in Sok Kwu Wan, c. 1970.

29

3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.10 Reclamation in British Hong Kong

30

3.0 Administrative Attitudes

BREAKWATER (1945)

Figure 3.11 Comparison of 1945 coastlines and breakwaters following reclamation in boat squatter-inhabited Aberdeen, Causeway Bay and Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter (top to bottom).

BREAKWATER (1945)

31

3.0 and magnificent [resettlement] programme.”83 Some fortunate administrative respite likely naturally arose through late-1960s mariculture development (Fig. 3.9) in typhoon shelters. Boat people cultured surplus fish outside houseboats but decentralized to outlying bays, scaling production. Despite illegality, cage culture reduced boat squatting enforcement costs84 and was initially unregulated. But outside this and moral hazard considerations, a 1962 Working Party recommended reclamation for development (Fig. 3.10-11) be sole reasoning for boat clearance and rehousing. Common in pre-delineated typhoon shelters85 including Cheung Sha Wan86, Yau Ma Tei87 and Mongkok88 since, reclamation worsened water quality and marine biodiversity, curtailing fishery feasibility atop mechanization costs89.

Upon reclamation site designation, involved boats received externallypainted temporary licenses post-registration, in arguably Foucauldian surveillance90 of boat livelihoods. At public housing availability, residents resettled ashore following boat forfeiture and uncompensated destruction. Land revenue generation and economic rezoning therefore solely justified Colonial clearance of boat squatters forced to anchor in unsanitary, overcrowded typhoon shelters.

Piecemeal, revenue-driven resettlement strategies continued until Governor Murray MacLehose’s term, beginning in 1973, nobly aspiring to end the “dominant disease – scarcity of housing.”91 Despite locally favorable, expensive welfare-oriented reforms, squatter policies were only solidified for political benefits. In 1979, MacLehose initiated negotiations with China for HK’s handover with Britain financially unable to sustain it.92 Like democratic reform, that Faure argues was “played as a card after negotiation [commencement]”93 to maintain HK’s British support, clear squatter policy only followed.

The all-encompassing 1982 Squatter Control Survey (SCS)94 alongside the 1980 Marine Fish Culture Ordinance (Cap. 353)95 and 1983 Shipping and Port Control (Dwelling Vessels) Regulations (Cap. 313C)96 (Fig. 3.12-14) were all passed consecutively, likely for handover 83 Ibid,” 121.

84 Lai, “Marine fish culture and pollution,” 349.

85 Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter Ex-Resident, interview by Author, personal Interview, Hong Kong, March 13, 2021.

86 Smart, “Unbearable Discretion of Street-Level Bureaucrats, S41.

87 Tze Ying Tweetie Tsang, “The Disappearing Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Boat Dweller: Case Studies of a Fishing Family and a Barge Operating Family at the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter” (MSc(Conservation) diss., The University of Hong Kong, 2019).

88 Causeway Bay/Shau Kei Wan Typhoon Shelter Resident, interview by Author, personal Interview, Hong Kong, February 6, 2021.

89 Tsang, “The Disappearing Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Boat Dweller,” 31 90 Smart, SKM Myth, 9.

91 Murray MacLehose. “The Speech of His Excellency The Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, K.C.M.G., M.B.E.” Speech, The Legislative Council, Hong Kong, October 17, 1973. https://hkhousing.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/thespeech-of-h-e-the-governor-sir-murray-maclehose-k-c-m-g-m-b-e-to-the-legislative-council-on-october-17th-1973.pdf 92 Faure, Colonialism and the HK Mentality, 83.

93 Ibid, 6.

94 Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, Policy on Clearance of Squatter Areas and Temporary Housing Areas (Hong Kong, October 24, 2000), 1-2. https://www.legco.gov. hk/yr00-01/english/panels/hg/papers/a79e01.pdf 95 Marine Fish Culture Ordinance, cap. 353 (Hong Kong, January 18, 1980). https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/ cap353?tab=m 96 SHIPPING AND PORT CONTROL (DWELLING VESSELS) REGULATIONS, cap. 313C, s. 33 (Hong Kong, April 13, 1983). https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap313C@1997-06-30T00:00:00?pmc=0&m=0&pm=1

32

Administrative Attitudes

3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.12 SAR government record of the 1982 Squatter Control Survey and 1984 Squatter Occupant Survey in Information Paper for Legislative Council Panel on Housing - Policy on Clearance of Squatter Areas and Temporary Housing Areas.

33

3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.13 Extract from Part II of the 1980 Marine Fish Culture Ordinance (Cap. 353) legislation.

34

3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.14 Extract from 1983 The Shipping and Port Control (Dwelling Vessels) Regulations (Cap. 313C) legislation.

35

3.0 negotiation political stability. Surveys tabulated all HK land squatter homes, including Tai O’s stilt houses, granting rehousing eligibility but barring new residents, with “red-letter-licenses” painted externally (Fig. 3.15) limiting building function and reconstruction alongside requiring property forfeiture upon development requirement.97 Cap. 353 licensed all mariculture rafts including Sok Kwu Wan’s, whilst Cap. 313C was unannounced, speedily licensing all boat residences without alerting new arrivals98 (Fig. 3.16). Both disallow new license introduction, removing moral hazard of further entrants. Land and boat squatter rights were finally legitimized amidst political justifications, yet marine communities only attained housing eligibility upon reclamation necessity or vessel unseaworthiness, whilst barring new adoptees of traditional boat people methods. Overcrowded boat squatters, created from indigenous Tanka

by Colonial mechanization, faced languishing rights provision, offered relief only amidst commercial and political interests, mirroring centuries of forced adaptation under multiple governments.

HKSAR Government Clearances By 1997’s handover, boat populations had dwindled from 136,000+ peaks to a near-negligible 11,000 in 199199, from land reclamation and economically unfeasible traditional lifestyles, with most households shifted ashore by Colonial administrators. HKSARG therefore rarely intervened in remaining marine populations except Tai O, discussed later.

In 2007, dwelling vessel legislation Cap. 313C, was repealed, enacting Merchant Shipping (Local Vessels) (Dwelling Vessels) Regulation (Cap. 548A)100 instead. Licenses became exclusively transferable to existing boat owners’ relatives, barring new licensees.101 Only loosely upheld, some 2,000 still choose to occupy docked yachts, officially “pleasure vessels,” again a legal gray area.102 The potential for widespread flexible marine inhabitation akin to traditional Tanka is rendered near-impossible by existing legislation.

Proposals likely face HKSARG opposition, which, following its predecessor, strongly prioritizes land revenue, most evident in LTV’s vast land reclamation. Hong Kong’s indigenous boat people, southern Chinese marine migrants, long faced administrative neglect and pressures, including pre-war business-only support, forced sedentary illegitimacy afterwards and near-impossible continuation, leaving only disparate communities continuing its heritage.

97 Tai O Resident, interview by Author, personal interview, Hong Kong, March 4, 2021.

98 Airriess, “Spatial liminality,” 127.

99 Ibid., 124.

100 MERCHANT SHIPPING (LOCAL VESSELS) (DWELLING VESSELS) REGULATION, cap. 548A, s. 89 (Hong Kong, January 2, 2007). https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap548a?xpid=ID_1438403418469_003 101 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 83.

102 Zhao, “Living on a boat in Hong Kong.”

36

Administrative Attitudes

3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Figure 3.15 Tai O stilt house with “red letter license” written.

Figure 3.16 Causeway Bay “dwelling vessel” with license number painted in white.

37

3.0 Administrative Attitudes

Mechanization of fisheries begins.

Boat people are priced out, becoming Boat Squatters, many can only anchor in Typhoon Shelters.

1950s

Shek Kip Mei fire begins on Christmas Day and 55,000 squatters left homeless.

Squatter Resettlement Program begins.

1953

Marine Population reaches 136,802.

1960

Working Party recommendation that “boat squatters occupying waters slated for development or reclamation... be offered direct resettlement.”

1962

White Paper on Review of Policies for Squatter Control, Resettlement and Government Low Cost Housing Boat Squatters percieved as housing “impostors”

1964

Clearance and reclamation initiatives for Boat Squatters are ongoing, occuring in at least 3 Typhoon Shelters, Aberdeen, Causeway Bay and Cheung Sha Wan.

1960s

Marine Population declines to 72,987.

1971

Clearance and reclamation initiatives continue, conducted in at least 2 Typhoon Shelters, Aberdeen and Yau Ma Tei.

1970s

Governor Murray MacLehose raises the issue of Hong Kong to PRC leader Deng Xiaoping on March 29.

1979

Marine Fish Culture Ordinance passed, marine culturists are now licensed.

1981

Marine Population declines to 49,707.

1981

1982 Squatter Control Survey is conducted.

Tai O residents are designated as squatters, they are given rights to public housing.

1982

The Shipping and Port Control (Dwelling Vessels) Regulations (Cap. 313C) passed, Boat squatters’ homes are licensed as dwelling vessels.

1983

Marine Population declines to 11,102.

1991 Figure 3.17 Post-war administrative events affecting the marine population.

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

4.0

Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters From Ming and Qing-era incense-wood trade forming Hong Kong’s etymology, to its ships contributing 145,000 tons of seafood alone (22% of HK’s annual consumption),103 Aberdeen houses HK’s largest and most important remaining marine community. Its harbor and southern Ap Lei Chau island had once enabled international trade with one of China’s open ports, Guangzhou,104 hosting 2,300 boat people in 1856, growing to 6,000 by 1932 pre-Japanese Occupation as Tanka increasingly called the expanding market home.105 Boat people turned shop-owners established its community as social leaders, organizing lunisolar calendar-based (Fig. 4.5) festival celebrations,.106 Post-war, the floating population exploded, reaching 56,000, then gradually depleting over three decades of administrative change.

Nonetheless, residents including the interviewee,107 an ex-fisherman long shifted ashore, now operating pleasure boats part-time, boasts of its tight-knit community, retaining close connections to “kaito” ferrymen, noodle-boat operators and transient fishermen. Despite government projects rendering traditional boat-based livelihoods near-impossible, leaving 10,500 fishermen108 almost entirely residing in land-based housing estates, longstanding residents continually adapted to Colonial initiatives, natural geography and local climate, retaining and evolving indigenous practices centered about their waters.

Administrative Relationship

Figure 4.1 Fishing vessels docked outside Aberdeen Fish Market.

Figure 4.2 Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter at sunset. Sampans and houseboats are in the foreground, with Ap Lei Chau estate public housing behind it.

Figure 4.3 Man sits in his sampan in Aberdeen, likely adapted for dwelling through the addition of draped tarp.

Figure 4.4 The floating Tin Hau Temple in Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter.

Figure 4.5 (next) The importance of the lunisolar/agricultural calendar (based on 2020).

At British Hong Kong’s outset, Aberdeen’s population was supported as a key economic driver, designated 1 of 4 official “Town Lots.”109 Administrators recognized shop-owners’ social harmonizing, forming neighborhood government liaison points, formalized post-war as the Ap Lei Chau Kaifong Welfare Association, still operating schools and organizing events (Fig. 4.6).110 This occurred alongside the harbor’s continued influxes of boat people, leaving Aberdeen subject to multiple clearance and reclamation drives, shifting many marine residents ashore.

Post-mechanization, boat people generated multiple common boat classes, including multi-type fishing/work boats, an immobile houseboat and the sampan (Fig. 4.7-8), ubiquitous across HK’s shelters. Designs of the first two symbolized post-war lifestyle changes. Fishing/work boats pre-mechanization consisted sail-operated timber vessels accommodating work and home, employing low, compact cabins housing 4 generations and their entire wealth at the sea’s mercy. Those wealthier post-mechanization purchased secondary immobile barge-like houseboats, taller and rectangular for maximized production efficiency, 103 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 205.

104 Ibid, 70.

105 Ibid, 62, 66.

106 Ibid, 64.

107 Aberdeen Resident, interview.

108 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 205.

109 Ibid., 61.

110 “鴨脷洲街坊福利會 (Ap Lei Chau Kaifong Welfare Association),” APLEICHAU PROMOTION OF TOURISM ASSOCIATION, accessed April 10, 2021. http://www.akfwa.com/org1.html

45

The 24 Solar Terms 節氣

5° 25

The start of the spring season.

Implies the coming of rain.

The start of thunder awakens insects buried in the earth.

Vernal equinox; equal parts daytime and nighttime.

Pure Brightness; weather is warming, grass is greening.

Rainfall is increasing for crop growth.

Summer is beginning.

Plant seeds are getting full but not ripe yet.

Wheat and barley are readying for harvest.

Summer Solstice; a hot summer is coming.

Days are getting hotter.

Days are hottest of the year.

The autumn season begins.

The hot summer ends.

White dew condenses at night time.

Autumn Equinox; equal parts daytime and nighttime.

Temperature lowers further and more dew appears.

White frost begins to emerge.

The end of autumn and start of winter.

Small levels of snow are beginning to appear.

Great levels of snow.

Winter Solstice; the arrival of the coldest time.

Days are getting colder.

Days are coldest of the year.

Ch un gY eun gF est i

val -

9th

Da yo

f9

th M

oon

° 0 4 2

立春 雨水 驚蟄 春分 清明 穀雨 立夏 小滿 芒種 夏至 小暑 大暑 立秋 處暑 白露 秋分 寒露 霜降 立冬 小雪 大雪 冬至 小寒 大寒

2 2 5 °

0° 15° 30° 45° 60° 75° 90° 105° 120° 135° 150° 165° 180° 195° 210° 225° 240° 255° 270° 285° 300° 315° 330° 345°

2.5 m 2.0 m 1.5 m 1.0 m 0.5 m

重 陽 節

m

300 m

m

225 m

m

150 m

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7-8

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11

7-8

10

8-9

22-23

秋分

寒露

Autumn Equin ox

白露

處 raws d With Heat

of 7th

23 22-

23 -24

19 5°

White Dew

Day - 15th Festival Ghost

大雪

AUTUMN 秋

of 8th

Heavy Snow

Snow

小雪

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ns egi

霜 降

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SUMM

6 2 1- 2 2 夏至

Summer Solstice

° 0 5 1

Key Holidays/Festivals

° 5 3 1

New Moons (1st Day)

Other Lunar Dates Hung Shing Festival Tin Hau Festival Buddha’s Birthday Tuen Ng Festival Chung Yeung Festival

46

Marine Marine Marine

Parades, dragon dances and opera performances held over 5 days.

Parades are held on land and water by boat people to celebrate the goddess of the sea.

Lanterns are lit to symbolise the Buddha’s enlightenment and many people visit the temple to pay their respects.

Also Dragonboat Festival. Dragon boats are raced throughout the city’s waterways.

Extended families sweep ancestral graves and lay out food offerings which are then eaten.

Day of 5t

Final day of the NY Festivites.

The deceased visit the living. Food offerings, incense and joss paper.

Moon worship for bounitful harvest, lanterns are placed on boats.

Spring Lantern Festival Ghost Festival Mid-Autumn Festival

stival - 5t h

Full Moons (15th Day)

h Moon 端

午節

Beginning of NY festivities, honoring elders.

Tuen Ng Fe

Lunar New Year

0

Family gathering and shared meal.

Ancestral tomb sweeping, praying and offerings.

10 5°

Winter Solstice Ching Ming Festival

1 2 0 °

Solar Terms

Day of 1st Solar Term

冬至

Day 1 - New Moon (1st)

Winter Solstice - 1st

Day 5 (5th Moon)

新 年

Day 23 (3rd Moon)

Day 8 (8th Moon)

KEY LUNAR DAYS

Day 9 (9th Moon)

-1

st

Da

yo

28 5°

f1

st

270°

Mo on

農

曆

~29.57 Days in Month

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40°C

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F rn

es

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Day 15 -Full Moon (1st, 7th, 8th)

30°C 20°C 10°C

冬至

21-22

小寒

Sev ere

大 寒

5-6

20 -21

春 立

1

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雨水

20 19-

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Corn on Ear

2

小滿

s Form Corn

Moon 洪聖

雨

Climate - Lunisolar Calendar Lunar Phase Tidal Range

0°

Precipitation

春分

Average Max. Temperature Average Min. Temperature Guides fishing seasons, locations, climate, key festivals for marine populations.

15 °

Ra in

穀

爺誕

Wh eat

21-2

5-6

Day of 2nd

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20-21

清明

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6

5

20

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Term

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47

4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

Figure 4.6 Dragon Boat Race during Tuen Ng Festival in Aberdeen, 1974.

Figure 4.7 Fishing vessel, houseboat and sampan (left to right)

48

4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

A

C G

B D

B B

E

F G

H I

J

A

Sun-drying Roof

B

Cabin

C

Bathroom (to sea)

D

Storage

E

Communal Space

F

Open Kitchen

G

Sliding Door Entrance

H

External Walkway

I

Working Deck

J

Moored Sampan

Figure 4.8 Isometric of typhoon shelter houseboat modified for cultural exhibition.

though permanently anchored. Those poorer anchored traditional fishing boats for similar function, using upper decks as production space.111 Timber stilt houses dotted along foreshores (Fig. 4.9) were also adaptations to new sedentary lifestyles.112 Mechanization allowed spatial work-life separation, ensuring ships exclusively for journeying fishermen and new, largely secure anchored vessels for vulnerable relatives.

Those now-unemployed sought increased job security, working at small factories that quickly filled Aberdeen’s cheaper shores (Fig. 4.10).113 Alongside its own benefits, fishery mechanization therefore dually increased land revenue and vitalized fresh labor for industrialization.

Despite land-based employment improving local wealth, many purchased second vessels without moving due to immense belonging to the sea,114 leaving frequent shelter reclamation (Fig. 4.11) with encouraged resettlement the primary administrative clearance methodology.115 111 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 83.

112 Ibid., 76, 85.

113 Ibid., 98.

114 Ibid., 80.

115 Causeway Bay/Shau Kei Wan Typhoon Shelter Resident, interview by Author, personal interview, Hong Kong, February 6, 2021.

49

4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

Figure 4.9 Aberdeen with stilt houses in the background, 1981.

Figure 4.10 Aberdeen today with factories-turnedoffice buildings in the background.

Figure 4.12 The tall cluster of white towers is public housing, Shek Pai Wan Estate (5,300 units), originally constructed in 1968 and since redeveloped.

50

4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

A 1966 clearance of stilt houses and 2,000 houseboats housing 3,800 in Staunton Creek involved constructing an encircling “earth bund”116 preventing new vessel entry, literally grounding boat people, cleared as now-land squatters and reclaiming industrial and residential-zoned land without trace of prior residents. Citing typhoon and fire risk from prevalent kerosene use, officials resettled the Aberdeen interviewee and his family in a 1973 initiative.117 Though bustling, unsanitary conditions occasionally enabled such casualties, governors imposed few restrictions, only resettling those rendered homeless or on reclamation targets118. Dyke construction happened only after late-1960s typhoon devastation, rendering Aberdeen harbor an official Typhoon Shelter.119 Cleared residents, including the interviewee,120 were accommodated by 6 dense tower-block estates nearby totaling near-27,000 units (Fig. 4.12), constructed 1967-87121. Repeated reclamation-driven clearance alongside limited employment ensured sub-30% of Aberdeen’s population remained in fisheries by 1978,122 matching similar floating population declines, resolving post-war sanitation, land generation and economic stimulation issues.

Now, remaining shelter residents including the Causeway Bay (CWB) interviewee, born in now-reclaimed Mongkok shelter and married to a Shau Kei Wan shelter fisherman, pays low 200HKD/year sampan license fees, dwarfed by several-thousand-HKD/annum insurance payments. No longer administratively pressured to forfeit her Shau Kei Wan houseboat, she moves between this “home” shelter and ferrying people in CWB Typhoon Shelter, intermittently sleeping on her sampan.123 (Fig. 4.13) Aberdeen’s fishermen also face little pressure, subsidized during annual fishing moratoriums for new equipment or earning additional cash as the Aberdeen interviewee recently did, forfeiting his 80-foot trawler, adopting a relaxed semi-retirement.124 Remaining floating inhabitants also use the money to permanently move ashore, with Cap. 548A rendering license transfer near-impossible, ensuring their continued slow disappearance.

Climate & Geography Nomadic boat people’s livelihoods long retained physical connections to surrounding climates and marine geography, gradually adapting to anchored homes post-war, with maintained linkages to water. Deeply understanding Southern Chinese foreshore geography, identification of 116 J. P. Hewitt, HONG KONG ANNUAL DEPARTMENTAL REPORT BY THE DIRECTOR OF MARINE J. P. HEWITT EXTRA MASTER FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 1965-66. (Hong Kong: S. Young, Government Printer at the Government Press, Java Road, 1966): 43. https://books.google.com.hk/books?id=PQAwAQAAMAAJ 117 Aberdeen Resident, interview.

118 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 90.

119 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 82.

120 Aberdeen Resident, interview.

121 “List of public housing estates in Hong Kong,” Wikipedia, last modified April 3, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_public_housing_estates_in_Hong_Kong 122 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 97.

123 Causeway Bay/Shau Kei Wan Resident, interview.

124 Aberdeen Resident, interview.

51

1970

1975

1987

2021

1952 1945

52

4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

Figure 4.11 (left) Progression of reclamation in Aberdeen.

Figure 4.13 The Causeway Bay interviewee’s sampan. At night, she sleeps in her timber cabin at the end and uses cooking equipment stored on the bench.

Causeway Bay’s Tin Hau Temple is in the background.

53

A

K D D

K

C

L

B

C

C

AP LEI CHAU

I

I

H J

E

F

A

G

J

400m

Industrial

B

Ex-Staunton Creek

C

Shipyards

D

Yacht Marina

E

Ferry Piers

F

Floating Village

G

Fish Market (FMO)

H

Original Settlements

I

Public Housing

J

Private Housing

K

Shelter Dyke

L

Floating Restaurants

K

SO

K

A

U

KW AN W

54

4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

Figure 4.14 (left) Map of Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter Figure 4.17 Hung Shing Temple, constructed 1773. This used to be at the Aberdeen waterfront with celebrations beginning on the 13th day of the 2nd lunar month.

“natural typhoon shelters” including Aberdeen’s protective deep harbor (Fig. 4.14) is their most evident adaptation. On long fishing journeys, including 2-day Hainan Island voyages Aberdeen’s resident proudly recalled, boat people recognized safe bays and inlets along never-ending coastlines for shelter during extreme weather, hoping for the best.125 The lunisolar calendar is also traditionally prevalent within livelihoods.

Lai’s book records local fishermen’s shrimp and fish catchments, in waters outside Hainan, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, organized by lunar month, water depth and wind direction.126 (Fig. 4.15-16) Lunisolar fishing seasons had dictated Tanka migration patterns, now persisting only in remaining fishermen’s shared knowledge. The calendar also dictates week-long sea deity celebrations at temples once at waterfronts for fishermen, now hidden behind reclaimed promenades. (Fig. 4.17) CWB Typhoon Shelter even hosts the world’s only floating Tin Hau Temple127, encouraging flexible marine visitation. Fishermen still arrive annually for celebration (23rd of 3rd lunar month).128 The calendar also relates to HK’s mixed tide129 (Fig. 4.18), with festivals often on new/ full moons signaling peak tidal ranges, but neither interviewees or Lai discuss deliberate connections.

Outside geography and lunisolar connections, boat people register few inhabitation modifications suiting HK’s hot and humid subtropical summers. Regarding climatic adaptations, the Aberdeen interviewee

125 Ibid.

126 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 231, 234.

127 South China Morning Post, “All at sea: Hong Kong’s unique floating Tin Hau temple faces an uncertain future,” YouTube Video, 3:25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJogBP0u_CU 128 Causeway Bay/Shau Kei Wan resident, interview.

129 “Tide Times for Hong Kong,” tide-forecast.com, accessed April 10,2021. https://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/ Hong-Kong-China/tides/latest

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4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

Figure 4.15 Shrimp catchment table provided by a fisherman from There Once was an Aberdeen. The rows are from top to bottom, Guangdong Province, Guangxi Province and Beihai & Leizhou Peninsula (Hainan Island). The columns from left to right denote location, lunar month, water depth, shrimp species and wind direction.

Figure 4.16 Fish catchment table from There Once was an Aberdeen. The columns from left to right record lunar month, abundant catchment and less abundant catchment. Each catchment type is further divided by catchment location and fish type.

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4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

New Moon 3rd Quarter Full Moon 1st Quarter Mixed Semidiurnal Tide

~2-3 Days After First Quarter Full Moon Third Quarter New Moon Mean

Figure 4.18 Hong Kong’s lunar-tidal relationship in the lunar month beginning November 2020.

A

Sun-drying space

B

Storage below deck

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External Walkway

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Navigation Window

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Nov. 22-23 Nov. 26-27 First Quarter Gibbous

Nov. 30 Full Moon

Dec. 4-5 Gibbous

Dec. 8 Dec. 11-12 Third Quarter Crescent

Dec. 15 New Moon

Dec. 18-19 Crescent

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H G Figure 4.19 Exploded isometric of a traditional fishing vessel in Sok Kwu Wan. Adults need to crouch inside the sunken cabin and its 3 bedrooms.

F

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4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

simply cited his old cabin’s 2 fans for hotter days.130 Nonetheless, once anchored in typhoon shelters post-war, floating populations noticeably altered living environments. Compared to 1.5m-high traditional vessel cabins sunken below deck to mitigate wind risk, forcing adults to crouch within,131 (Fig. 4.19-21) newly constructed/converted houseboats are 10-48m. long, akin to fishing vessels with corners squared off.132 Constructed taller in Aberdeen harbor’s reduced typhoon risk, heightened overwater cabins increased internal ventilation. Houseboats parked densely side-by-side engendered second level constructions covering original accommodations and adjacent front decks. The upper rectangular floorspace would be efficiently draped in sun-drying seafoods, whilst cooler, shaded lower decks allowed product processing, equipment maintenance, family gatherings and even reared livestock supplementing income.133 Upper decks also frequently accommodated 3 rooftop structure types, removable tarp-covered metal/timber frames, solid timber cabins and tin plate arches. (Fig. 4.22) During typhoons, the first removed risk through disassembly, maintaining ventilation, whereas the second offered structural rigidity. The third, unseen today, could dismantle or remain rigid134. Boat people’s new stationary lifestyles provided additional climatic security, allowing subsequent home expansion increasing economic production, equally benefiting the Colony.

Increased crowding, however, created poor environments as boats even periodically filled foreshores, grounded in low tide or formed into stilted

130 Aberdeen Resident, interview.

131 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 80.

132 Causeway Bay/Shau Kei Wan Resident, interview.

133 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 84.

134 Ibid., 79.

58

Figure 4.20 (left) Low interior of a traditional fishing vessel.

Figure 4.21 (right) Cabins have sliding doors to external walkway.

4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

A

A

Roof Structure Type 1

B

Roof Structure Type 2

C

Roof Structure Type 3

D

Houseboat Base

B

C

D

Figure 4.22 Types of second level extensions on houseboats.

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4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

Figure 4.23 (left) Traditional vessel kitchen with opening to water.

Figure 4.24 (right) External walkway of a traditional fishing vessel.

Figure 4.25 A houseboat with a closed sliding door at the rear that connects to an internal corridor extending through the cabin.

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overwater houses135, a living typology more akin to permanent homes maintaining marine connections. Toilets and kitchens directly opened to water below, accumulating submerged waste, with low tides and slow waters exacerbating foul smells wafted through cabins during hot, humid summers.136 Cabin bedrooms had ventilative sliding doors, unfortunately hindered by surrounding densities. These faced into internal corridors and outdoor walkways encircling the vessels, allowing easy escape from crowded interiors. Toilets and kitchens eventually shifted onto external walkways, improving internal sanitation. Sliding doors fitted at opposite ends of the cabin’s internal corridor likely mitigated poor conditions with cross-ventilation, aided by evaporative cooling from surrounding navigable waterways central to livelihoods. (Fig. 4.23-25) Despite architectural adaptations surrounding shade, ventilation and water’s natural properties alleviating summer conditions with winter adjustability (averaging 15-19°C)137, sole reliance for thermal comfort appears impractical. Many boats employ air-conditioning or fans, combatting severe heat.

Post-war mechanization heralded new static environments for boat people in geographic shelters they traditionally identified and migrated between. Houses adapted accordingly, efficiently maximized and heightened amidst reduced typhoon risk with encouraged water-driven ventilation and outdoor facilities improving sanitation. Despite current reduced populations, both typhoon shelter interviewees, flat owners, retain occupational marine connections. The CWB interviewee even prefers occupying her sampan’s timber cabin and larger family houseboat instead. Nonetheless, many initially adapted to the environment but welcomed shifts ashore for occupational and environmental security138, ensuring continued marine population declines.

Spatial Organization Aberdeen’s population expansion and subsequent administrative changes post-war converted a nomad-dominated operational hub into a nearly self-sufficient water town. HK typhoon shelters were entirely resident organized, enabling spatially negotiated hierarchies within flexible marine surroundings. Larger vessels occupied Aberdeen’s harbor center and smaller houseboats lined shores,139 forming streetscapes between dense boat-filled rows (Fig. 4.26). Similar organization persists today, as diverse boats navigate anchored dwelling vessels (Fig. 4.27).

Houseboats were near-permanent fixtures in post-war typhoon shelters, with Aberdeen’s interviewee stating, “if you lived in the bay, you lived in the bay; if you lived under the bridge, you lived under the bridge.”140 135 136 137 138 139 140

Ibid., 87.

Ibid., 84.

“Climate of Hong Kong.”

Ibid., 98.

Tsang, “The Disappearing Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Boat Dweller,” 20.

Aberdeen resident, interview.

61

Aberde

en Fish

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Ferry to Sok Kwu Wan

Kaito F

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Roaming Noodle Boat

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Hung Shing Temple

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4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

Figure 4.26 Aberdeen from above, 1969.

Figure 4.27 (previous) The many actors and their moments of spatial negotiation in Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter today.

Figure 4.28 Shipyards in Aberdeen today.

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Houseboats were so densely anchored, one could walk shore to shore across ship decks, closely connecting neighbors. Outside trawlers and houseboats, shelters also housed abundant services dedicated to boat people (Fig. 4.28-31). Aberdeen’s eastern foreshores accommodated rows of shipbuilding workshops constructing and mending resident vessels, with 2 tourist-oriented multi-story floating restaurants occupying its center. The northern HK Island edge still hosts the fishermanfinanced Fish Marketing Organization, operating several restaurants and Aberdeen Fish Market,141 processing 70% of HK’s seafood. Neighboring piers provide periodic ferries to outlying islands including Sok Kwu Wan, reinforcing Aberdeen’s central marine hub status.

On water, countless roaming sampans lined with tires for rough docking served floating residents (Fig. 4.32), creating constant spatial negotiation between returning vessels and anchored houseboats over their fluid environment. These consisted charitable floating churches, schools and stores selling goods from equipment and diesel to freshwater and rice.142 Shops were augmented by time-dependent boats operating illegal morning fish markets, midnight snack stalls for factory-employed youths, expat-oriented brothels and seedy mahjong parlors.143 Sampans also transported residents to shore, whilst larger versions, “kaitos,” ferried passengers between isolated Ap Lei Chau and HK Island.

Today, yachts and speedboats join fishing vessels and sampans, but bustling scenes of ships negotiating houseboats and floating services have diminished (Fig. 4.33-34). Both floating restaurants shuttered amidst COVID-19, whilst only 1 of 60 shipyards still constructs sampans, the rest repairing yachts. Until 2005, 15 sampans wandered Aberdeen selling diverse meals, but only 2 remain, one selling rice dishes, the other roast-meat noodles144. These remain closely connected with boat people, ordering to ships, or waiting ashore to purchase lunch.145 Ferries and kaitos still frequently traverse less dense and wider “roads,” whilst sampans and speedboats dock below high embankments selling locals fish. Spatial negotiations remain as trawlers flow through daily, with sampans and speedboats weaving through or docking, tied in constantly maintained physical rope connections between neighbors and colleagues. Along Aberdeen Fish Market, boats dock in parallel to bring stock across neighboring decks to restaurants and stalls. Touring the shelter, people are seen stepping between vessels for gathered meals in longstanding practices of neighborly connections.

Aberdeen Floating Village’s spatial organization deeply complexified amidst its population explosion with newly anchored livelihoods. From the outset, communities maintained overarching hierarchies, with many 141 “About FMO,” Fish Marketing Organization, accessed April 10, 2021. https://www.fmo.org.hk/page?path=11&id=20 142 Tsang, “The Disappearing Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Boat Dweller,” 13.

143 Lai, There Once was an Aberdeen, 87-92.

144 The noodle boat operator sells roasted meat noodles costing a cheap 28HKD/bowl. Roast meats include duck, goose, barbecued pork, chicken and more collected within a single bowl of rice noodles in fish soup. Fishermen particularly enjoy these roast meats, a large contrast to their usual fish-based meals on the water.

145 Aberdeen resident, interview.

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4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

Figure 4.29 Hong Kong’s two nowclosed floating restaurants, Jumbo and Tai Pak.

Figure 4.30 Ships docked at Aberdeen Fish Market. The Aberdeen resident states that one of his relatives operates a ship here, having just returned from a several day-long journey.

Figure 4.31 Ferry from Aberdeen to Sok Kwu Wan. 66

4.0 Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

Figure 4.32 Drawing of a conventional sampan. These are often used to carry passengers from shore to boat within typhoon shelters, but have also been converted into dwellings, floating stores, longer-distance ferries and more.

Figure 4.33 (left) The sampan of “Uncle Lau,” who roams the typhoon shelter selling “boat noodles” to people on land and fishermen in their boats for 27HKD per bowl.

As fishermen constantly eat fish, his noodles are commonly filled with various roast meats.

Figure 4.34 (right) A family of fishermen prepares fish to sell to those atop the embankment wall.

67

4.0 services allowing self-sufficiency whilst encouraging small-scale spatial interactions between varying vessels. Following 1980s population decline, Aberdeen’s vibrance reduced but general organization remained, maintaining spatially negotiable moments unique to the harbor’s many actors.

Mechanization of post-war HK fisheries forced nomadic Tanka to anchor within Aberdeen harbor, transforming it into its own city. Despite poor conditions and progressive governmental clearance initiatives, residents continually adapted, expanding homes and increasing economic efficiency and adjusting lifestyles to the now-permanent geography. Boat people self-organized in fluid systems exclusively possible over water, eventually spawning diverse floating services constantly negotiating transitory fishing vessels, forming a tight-knit community that, despite reduction, stands today.

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Aberdeen Floating Village & Typhoon Shelters

69

70

71

72

73

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5.0

Tai O Fishing Village One of Hong Kong’s most prominent marine populations, Tai O maintains a unique community contrasting Typhoon Shelters, physically rooted into geography, inhabiting stilt houses over water, instead of floating vessels. Its inhabitants likely first settled between the Han and Jin Dynasties (202BC – 420AD)146, long before other marine communities.

Tanka people erected stilt houses 200 years ago147 in its geographically protected river, sparing elderly and children the sea’s risks.148 Throughout waves of migration, the village historically hosted thriving salt trade from its strategic Pearl River Delta location, housing 30,000+, with fish so abundant they were caught below stilt houses.149 Colonial-era salt production peaked with 100+ acres of fields150, each generating 60kg in dry seasons,151 smuggled across China152 or delivered to places including Aberdeen for sun-drying processes, reflecting marine community interconnections.

Japan, however, brutally occupied Tai O,153 leaving it impoverished post-war154 as salt and fishing industries declined.155 Colonial governors engaged little then, likely due to its remoteness, but Tai O still underwent generational environmental change centered about its waters and developed spatial organizations forming an unequaled marine community, often dubbed “Venice of the East.” City-wide clearance policies and squatter surveys affected it eventually, but most administrative attention only arrived post-handover under HKSARG, leaving today’s well-preserved but aging traditional village.

Administrative Relationship

Figure 5.1 A Tai O resident speeds through the Tai O River.

Figure 5.2 Tai O viewed from western drawbridge. A fisherman rests after selling his catch from his boat to the shore.

Figure 5.3 Stilt houses lined along Tai O island in the fog, branching out from Tai O River itself.

Figure 5.4 One of Tai O’s oldest stilt house areas, reconstructed following a 2000 fire.

Ladders extend to the ground, walkable at low tide.

Joining British territory in 1898, Tai O’s key salt industry (Fig. 5.5) was formally encouraged and expanded156, paralleling Aberdeen’s fisheries.

Government services were otherwise minimal, limited to policing piracy and community liaison from 1932, formalized as Tai O Rural Services Committee in the 1950s.157 Mechanization is little discussed but perhaps enabled post-war fishery decline and subsequent poverty, during which churches provided most material support.158 Tai O’s stilt houses (Fig. 5.6), despite preceding 1898, never attained official indigenous property rights. Residents initially applied for “Crown Land Permits”159 costing 10HKD/year before stilt house construction.160 146 Cheung, Hong Kong Fishermen Ballads, 87.

147 Wong, Tai O, 69.

148 Ibid, 139.

149 Cheung, Hong Kong Fishermen Ballads, 95.

150 Colin Davidson, “Tai O Salt Production,” July 15, 2015. https://industrialhistoryhk.org/tai-salt-production/ 151 Wong, Tai O, 60.

152 Davidson, “Tai O Salt Production.”

153 Wong, Tai O, 91.

154 Ibid., 38.

155 Ken Nicholson, “Tai O Village,” in Landscapes Lost and Found: Appreciating Hong Kong’s Heritage Cultural Landscapes (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016), 60.

156 Davidson, “Tai O Salt Production.”

157 Wong, Tai O, 46-55.

158 Ibid., 142.

159 Wai Yin Karen Fong, “Living and Dying in Tai O – Sustaining the Heritage of Stilt Houses in the Fishing Village of Tai O,” (MSc(Conservation) diss., The University of Hong Kong, 2014), 14.

160 Tai O Resident, interview.

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5.0 Tai O Fishing Village

Figure 5.5 A Tai O villager works on its salt fields.

The 1982 SCS tabulated all homes, officially removing any indigenous rights and granting squatter status,161 evident in what the native Tai O interviewee called 红字牌/hùhngjihpáai,162 literally red-letter-license, painted on entrances costing 100HKD/year today, half dwelling vessel licensure. Despite small fees, these denoted building function, materials and dimensions, restricting expansion beyond tabulated areas and designated 12-foot heights.163 Material adaptations ensued, including surveyed plot maximization, bloating stilt house arrays into two-story singular homes, creating many squared-off pitched roof forms (Fig. 5.7) over potential needs-based expansions.

The 1982 exercise, restricting reconstruction and new “stilt squatters,” coincided with construction of the 500-unit Lung Tin Estate (1980)164 (Fig. 5.8), rising above Tai O’s stilt houses, “compromis[ing] heritage value”165 and clearly underlining Colonial clearance and resettlement intents.

But without Aberdeen-like reclamation initiatives, the estate remains 80% vacant.166 Younger villagers conducted urban migration, unwilling to inherit rising fishery costs,167 whilst older residents including the interviewee, a retired fisherman turned boat-tour operator, nostalgically recalling turbulent Taiwan Strait catchment journeys, remained in stilt

161 Nicholson, “Tai O Village,” 63.

162 Tai O Resident, interview.

163 Gary Yeung. “Practicing the Built Tradition in Tai O Hong Kong – The meaning of revitalizing vernacular neighborhoods in post-traditional environment.” HKIA Journal 48, no. 1 (2007): 63, The Hong Kong Institute of Architects.

164 “Estate Locator - Lung Tin Estate,” Hong Kong Housing Authority, accessed April 11, 2021. https://www. housingauthority.gov.hk/en/global-elements/estate-locator/detail.html?propId=1&id=1321348400499&dist=9 165 Dryland and Syed. “Tai O village” 627.

166 Nicholson, “Tai O Village,” 62.

167 Wong, Tai O, 71.

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5.0 Tai O Fishing Village

Figure 5.6 Tai O stilt houses viewed from Tai O River

Figure 5.7 Tai O stilt houses with similar squared-off forms to maximize dimensional restrictions.

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5.0 Tai O Fishing Village

Figure 5.8 Aerial image of Tai O with Lung Tin Estate in the distance, above the traditional stilt houses.

Figure 5.10 An elderly man accesses his fishing equipment on his speedboat, moored below the deck of an older lady’s stilt house.

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Figure 5.9 Plan from Study on Revitalization of Tai O.

houses, deeply connected to the environment.168 Post-handover, Tai O was designated a key heritage site in the 2000 HKSARG plan to reposition the island it sits on, Lantau, as an “International Leisure Island” after construction of nearby HK International Airport. A 6-hour blaze devastated Tai O soon after, destroying 90 stilt houses, leaving 600 homeless.169 Squatter statuses initially barred reconstruction, with administrators proposing redevelopment (Fig. 5.9) involving Malaysian-style longhouses, a folk museum and water resort. This faced vehement villager opposition and wider protest in HK, attracting local tourism amidst raised awareness.170 Under public pressure, reconstruction was eventually permitted, but at personal cost.

Height limits increased to 15ft. and reconstructions again expanded, meeting exact restrictions.171 Tai O’s population however has since gradually aged, declining to today’s 3,000172 retired fishermen (Fig. 5.10) and decaying stilt houses, supported only by tourists experiencing its traditional heritage.

Tai O’s long-preserved culture partly arises from absent administrative intervention, organically adapting to technological change. 1980s squatter policies enabled homes physically bloated to prescribed restrictions, altering traditional heritage, nevertheless unique in HK, slowly dwindling alongside aging residents unable to maintain village lifestyles.

Climate & Geography Like Aberdeen, Tai O’s boat people deeply understood southern Chinese geographies, identifying a shallow and fish-rich waterway at the Pearl 168 169 170 171 172

Tai O Resident, interview.

Yeung, “Practicing the Built Tradition in Tai O,” 62.

Nicholson, “Tai O Village,” 63.

Yeung, “Practicing the Built Tradition in Tai O,” 64.

Wong, Tai O, 35.

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LION HILL J

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5.0 Tai O Fishing Village

Figure 5.11 (left) Map of Tai O Fishing Village.

Figure 5.12 Lion Hill behind Tai O has many dry areas from years of villagers returning to mountain burial sites for grave-sweeping rituals.

River mouth for settlement and invoking the western island splitting the Lantau-sourced river for village etymology. Stilt houses sit along these diverging foreshores (Fig. 5.11), sheltered by surrounding mountains.

Resident Wong Wai-King’s self-published Tai O – Love Stories of the Fishing Village nostalgically retells stories grounded within these peaks (Fig. 5.12-15) including the eastern Lion Hill. Affectionately named after its shape, it still hosts dotted burial sites, even for long-emigrated descendants, amidst vegetation depleted from bi-yearly gravesweeping173. Tidal plains below were converted into salt fields protected by a Qing-era seawall, shifting the coastline from Tin Hau Temple. A common sunset viewing gathering point until losing protective functions after post-war salt field flooding, the wall often staged singing prostitutes and ballad performers174. Environmental practices also included carrying stones from the hills to domestic shrines, manifesting the Earth God “Fok Tak,” wedding river parades and Tuen Ng Festival dragon-boat races175. Before recent reclamation and reservoir construction narrowed waterways and altered water flow, tidal variations signaled leisurely river swims or walks across revealed marshland176.

Tai O’s stilt houses have a well-documented generational evolution177 reflecting villagers’ gradual rooting within the landscape, prominently engaging water within built structures (Fig. 5.16). Initially self-constructed, 6-feet-tall timber huts from broken boat parts178 rested on 6 pillars of stacked locally-sourced stones, with vaulted bamboo and palm leaf 173 174 175 176 177 178

Ibid., 171.

Ibid., 91-92.

Ibid., 110.

Ibid., 110, 138.

Yeung, “Practicing the Built Tradition in Tai O,” 62-64.

Fong, “Living and Dying in Tai O,” 12.

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Figure 5.13 The Qing-era sea wall borders flooded salt fields, now turned into reforested mangroves on its left, with the open sea on the right.

Many still walk along here to fish or watch the sunset.

Figure 5.14 Traditional wedding ceremony in Tai O, with the bridge and groom transported on an ornate boat through the village.

Figure 5.15 Archival image of villagers walking on the ground below Tai O in low tide.

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5.0 Tai O Fishing Village

Figure 5.16 Isometric drawings of the generations of Tai O stilt houses from Practicing the Build Tradition in Tai O Hong Kong.

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Figure 5.17 First generation stilt house.

Figure 5.18 Timber plank walkway between stilt houses.

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Figure 5.19 Third generation stilt house.

roofs wrapped in fishing nets during typhoons, allowing safe storage and short-term accommodation. (Fig. 5.17) Their sizes originally symbolized wealth179, but dimensions averaged 12-14ft. long.180 Constructed individually, timber plank walkways (Fig. 5.18) were interwoven between them, allowing overwater expansion.181 Sliding timber windows were employed, directly implanting traditional vessel-derived architectures on land182. Local “masters”183 constructed second generation homes post-war, building timber truss roofs and panel walls over stone plinths, enclosed in galvanized zinc/tin sheets. This cheap material palette is still used today, prioritizing replaceability, though likely contributing little to thermal performance. The light, reflective metal however deflects solar heat, with their malleability allowing bent rainwater-draining flashings.

Early generations’ unstable foundations enabled a third, introducing the sturdy, insect and water-resilient Kwun Din Wood (Eusideroxylon zwageri), sourced from southeast Asia for stilted structural framing just above high tide, leaving homes susceptible to typhoon-induced flooding.184 Often 15x12ft, their 12ft. height restrictions enabled two-story pitched roof rectangular forms (Fig. 5.19). Storage and living functions fill lower floors below sleeping cabins, connected by steep “cat ladders”185.

An open “stage” or front deck with detached kitchens and toilets extends from homes, allowing docking and low tide marshland ladder access.

Following the 2000 fire, a fourth generation arose, wrapping Kwun Din stilts in concrete plinths and further heightening to 15ft., with secondary decks constructed over original stages, maximizing floorspace as area restrictions excluded non-enclosed spaces. This architectural evolution 179 Tai O Resident, interview.

180 Yeung, “Practicing the Built Tradition in Tai O,” 62.

181 Tai O Resident, interview.

182 Fong, “Living and Dying in Tai O,” 17.

183 Tai O Resident, interview.

184 圍威喂 (Wai Wai Wai), 「大澳坤甸木之探秘 」(The Quest for Tai O Kwun Din Wood), YouTube Video, 5:26, October 12, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHR2znkTzPs 185 Dryland and Syed. “Tai O village” 624.

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Cross-Ventilation Reflected Sunlight

Evaporative Cooling

records Tai O villagers’ growing attachment to their landscape, expanding initial boat-inspired stilted forms, sourcing rigid timber for increased longevity and later maximizing administrative limitations.

In Cantonese, stilt houses are called 棚屋/pàahngūk, literally “stage house,” highlighting the front deck’s sacred importance (Fig. 5.2022), a multifunctional stage welcoming community and environmental connection, arising from traditional fishing vessel decks and symbolizing landward shifts without requiring their mobility, instead constructed outside homes, maintaining visual and physical marine linkages.

For fishermen, stages allowed fish drying, seafood preparation and equipment repair, but to all villagers, they welcomed hanging clothes, sunset viewing and neighborly meal gatherings186. Parallel stages even form shared walkways, ensuring constant resident closeness. Within houses, stages are also climatically significant. Hallways often connect front entrances directly to the stage, enabling ample water-driven crossventilation. Large canopied stages leave interiors and communal decks dark but cool in hot summers, illuminated by river reflections. Gapped timber plank floors throughout homes encourage evaporative cooling from below, also increasing humidity, unfortunately inducing aging residents’ rheumatism flare-ups.187 Like Aberdeen, climatic adaptations and evaporative cooling heavily improve thermal comfort within shaded and highly ventilated stilt houses, but cheap materials restrict thermal performance, commonly requiring air-conditioning and fans amidst intense heat.

186 Tai O Resident, interview.

187 果籽 (Apple Daily), “認識大澳人隱世生活的故事：80後女生搬入大澳打散工過低慾望生活 退休消防員退隱200年歷史 古村 大澳Cafe獲邀大改造登上Netflix #專題─果籽 香港 Apple Daily” (Getting to Know Tai O People’s Life Stories), YouTube Video, 45:10, April 22, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJRQfjp-MTg

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Figure 5.20 Stilt house section.

Reflected sunlight is more promient under designs with deeper canopies.

Figure 5.21 (right) Stilt house “stage”/front deck isometric.

5.0 Tai O Fishing Village B

A

Fourth-Gen Upper Deck

B

Clothes-drying Frame

C

Covered Deck Kitchen

D

Working/Communal Open Deck

E

Seafood Drying Frame

F

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Moored Speedboat

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Figure 5.22 Parallel front decks of stilt houses along Tai O River.

Tai O’s stilt houses strongly evidence its residents’ continually evolving method of foreshore inhabitation, from ancillary storage to primary shelter. Their front decks/stages not only form communal space but consist climatically adapted features both harnessing and accessing marine surroundings. The villages’ cultural practices reflect longstanding traditions developed to incorporate their geographical environment, beyond simple identification of natural typhoon shelters as in Aberdeen, rendering it an unparalleled HK marine community.

Spatial Organization Tai O’s increasing landward shifts to stilt houses enabled development of dense, complex community clusters, contrasting linear housing arrangements on shallower foreshores. All buildings remain deeply ingrained within the landscape, with communal buildings and spaces often positioned at key physical points.

Stilt house organization ensures water connectivity for nearly all residents. Clusters of Sun Ki Street houses (Fig. 5.23-26) rest on shallow Tai O River banks, isolated from its edge. Organized with oppositefacing stilt houses, ever-open entrance corridors converge towards a shared timber walkway, which due to landscape-oriented positioning, forms non-uniform communal spaces for household storage and casual conversation. Compositions of varying roof sizes seen above reflect progressively constructed extensions, stretching each house deeper over water, leaving space for large decks, moored boats and wide marine transport channels. From the entrances, the creaky plank walkway turns and bridges towards the river edge, lined with communal decks with different households’ assorted chairs and neighborhood kitchens for villager enjoyment. Outside stilt house stages, spatial formations 88

Figure 5.23 (right) Spatial organization of one stilt house cluster extending from Sun Ki Street.

5.0 Sun

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TAI O RIVER

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Figure 5.24 Cluster of stilt houses drawn in 5.23 highlighted in this aerial image.

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Figure 5.25 (left) An unused stilted platform with many types of chairs used as a gathering point or rest area for villagers along Sun Ki Street.

Figure 5.26 (right) Timber walkway extending from Sun Ki Street. The open building on the left is a local kitchen/restaurant.

therefore allow layered privacy in community connection, from entrance storage and bridge meetings to intermittent meal or gathering spaces.

Other clusters (Fig. 5.27-28) including ones reconstructed post-2000 fire, had similarly organized with sweeping stilt home rows along stilted walkways perpendicular to Tai Ping Street’s riverbank. Forming canals within the river delta, these water-centered spatial arrangements parallel Aberdeen’s “streetscapes.” One isolated stilt house cluster on a shallow bank connects to Sun Ki Drawbridge via a branching walkway, with parallel stages forming its path, demonstrating historical reliance on boat transport without footpath necessity.

Within public areas, temples (Fig. 5.29-30) were the first land-based constructions188, predating stilt houses, starting points for their construction. Yeung Hau Temple (1698), at the northern river mouth, allows fishermen easy mooring outside its entrance when passing through Tai O. The oldest Grade II-listed Kwan Tai Temple (1488) stands at the western river mouth, pushed inland following reclamation.

Neighbored by the Tai O Rural Services Committee, it faces a 185m.2 open “park”189 bookending the commercial Kat Hing Street, acting as village center and hosting week-long festivities and stalls. Across the river is Wing On Street’s market, originally accessible by hand-pulled ferry, later replaced by a drawbridge. Together, they form the village gateway (Fig. 5.31-32), frequently lined by catch-selling fishermen or tour-boats the interviewee periodically operates. Temples for deities including Tai Wong, Wah Kwong and Hung Shing also sit along river edges, all community landmarks accessible by both water and foot.

188 Wong, Tai O, 116-117.

189 Ibid., 134.

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Figure 5.27 Rows of stilt houses separated by canals extending from Tai Ping Street are seen on the right side of this image.

Figure 5.28 The stilt houses on the right are connected from their stages to the Sun Ki Drawbridge but were initially isolated from the river edge over the water.

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Figure 5.29 Yeung Hau Temple (1698).

Tai O River curves beyond the temple, connecting to the Pearl River Delta.

Figure 5.30 Kwan Tai Temple (1488), neighboring Tin Hau Temple (1772), different to the one at the salt field coastline, and Tai O Rural Services Committee to its right. The square is in front of these two temples.

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Figure 5.31 (left) Hand-pulled ferry connecting Wing On and Kat Hing Street. Kwan Tai Temple’s square is behind the building on the right.

Figure 5.32 (right) The ferry has been replaced by a drawbridge, with moored fishermen selling fish to locals.

Tai O’s spatial organization exhibits its historical development, from individual landscape-oriented structures ensuring marine connections to housing rows analogous to Aberdeen’s boats. Important spiritual spaces also utilize geography, elevating their importance at river mouths, gateways to the marine community within. Water is the village’s protagonist, despite landward shifts, with every decision centered about it.

Despite mutual Tanka origins and interconnected professions within “natural typhoon shelters,” administrative attitudes and geography have ensured Tai O adaptations distinct from Aberdeen. Tai O, mostly ungoverned by Colonial administrators, continues to develop closely to its geography, both in climatically attuned domestic architectures and spatial arrangements maintaining constant marine connection. Without postwar developments, Aberdeen harbor may have eventually developed similarly, but both individually adapted to external factors, creating distinct marine communities centered around their surrounding waters.

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Sok Kwu Wan & Mariculture Zones Sok Kwu Wan (Picnic Bay) sits along Lamma Island’s northeastern coast, directly facing Ap Lei Chau. Beginning as a small floating village 1,400 years ago190, many residents frequented and later migrated to HK fishermen’s resource, commerce and skills hub, Aberdeen.191 Upon 1960s policy-induced mariculture beginnings within typhoon shelters including Aberdeen, boat people shifted to 25+ bays across HK, with SKW the largest Marine Fish Culture Zone (MFCZ).192 This faced little direct administrative intervention, but was also influenced by 1980s policies. Its culturist community however, developed mariculture-specific utilizations of bay environments, spatially arranging near-identically across MFCZs. Administrative Relationship Following post-war mechanization, anchored boat people increased economic efficiency with methods including Aberdeen’s housing adaptations. Mariculturists and an interviewed SKW boat operator, descendant of village natives who moved to Aberdeen, detail HK mariculture’s 1960s origin (Fig. 6.5), where typhoon shelters’ worn-out fishing vessel timber planks were reconstructed into cages, culturing surpluses amidst poor fisheries business193. Initially 30-minute daily activities,194 eventual successes encouraged “excessive imitation and many fishermen ceased operating… vessels and switched to coastal fish culture.”195 Household cages expanded to large timber-grid rafts with timber huts above and anchored culture nets buoyed by blue PVC barrels (Fig. 6.6). Many increased income stability despite climatic challenges risking months of work. Produced entirely by boat people overcoming administrative marine community limitations, this new mariculture economy presents floating alternatives to Tai O’s centuriesold stilt houses similarly constructed of recycled boat timber.

Figure 6.1 A mariculture raft with “guard house” used for equipment storage in Sok Kwu Wan. Figure 6.2 A view over Po Toi O Marine Fish Culture Zone.

Figure 6.3 Mariculture rafts in the bay of Sok Kwu Wan. Figure 6.4 Several boats are moored at the 2000ft2 “Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village,” both a cultural experience center and functional/social node for the village’s culturists.

Economist Lawrence Lai states that pioneering culturists “infringe[d] upon the Crown’s marine rights… [potentially] regarded as a form of squatting,”196 contradicting Airriess’ discussion of absent “Crown water” rights. Nonetheless, unregulated practice remained until successful proliferation incited infiltration of violent underground societies, disrupting public activities including reclamation. Cap. 353 was thus passed in 1980,197 licensing mariculturists after tabulation exercises found 1,789 culturists operating 2,745 rafts across 50 areas totaling 25ha,198 combined into 28 MFCZs. (Fig. 6.7) Licensure uniquely allocated marine property rights (for direct fees proportional to area), opposing conventional government-auctioned industrial/commercial 190 Anneliese O’Young, “World of the Tanka fisherfolk,” South China Morning Post, October 16, 2006. https://www. scmp.com/article/567816/world-tanka-fisherfolk 191 Cheung, Hong Kong Fishermen Ballads, 33.

192 Sok Kwu Wan Worker, interview by author, personal interview, Hong Kong, January 8, 2021 193 Ibid.

194 Cheung, Hong Kong Fishermen Ballads, 69.

195 Lai, “Marine fish culture,” 349.

196 Ibid.

197 Marine Fish Culture Ordinance.

198 Ibid. 350.

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Broken Timber Planks

Spare PVC Fish Barrels

Figure 6.5 Mariculture rafts initally grew from the reused timber of dilapidated fishing vessels and use spare PVC fish barrels for buoyancy.

Figure 6.6 A large mariculture raft in Sok Kwu Wan, with Lamma Island behind it and Hong Kong Island in the distance.

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Figure 6.7 Marine Fish Culture Zone locations, from Marine Fish Culture and Pollution: An initial Hong Kong empirical study.

Sok Kwu Wan is #28.

Figure 6.8 (left) A mariculture raft in Po Toi O with its “guard house” and added canopy used for equipment storage and mooring.

Figure 6.9 (right) A mariculture raft in Po Toi O adapted for pleasure vessel mooring, with toilets installed on board.

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Figure 6.10 Mariculture rafts in the distance in Po Toi O, away from several remaining stilt houses on the shoreline.

Several seafood restaurants are positioned along this bay.

rights, maximizing administrative costs over continued illegality requiring policing, eviction and political confrontation.199 Despite being indigenous formations like other marine communities, they were immediately regarded as squatters but ignored until administrative revenue interference. Non-transferability of licenses no longer introduced since 1982200 barred new entrants, reflecting strong marine development discouragement.

Raft inhabitation is outlawed, though some occupy their huts (Fig. 6.8), known as “guardhouses,” exclusively permitting inventory storage and protection. The interviewee refused to detail the MFCZ’s inhabitant numbers201.

Today, many rafts converted to “leisure licenses,” installing toilets in unused shipping containers on uniform floors (Fig. 6.9) for weekend yacht mooring202. Many abandoned mariculture’s required labor, lacking confidence, unable to competitively scale due to restrictive licensure and zero HKSARG fisheries subsidy, unlike mariculture of neighboring regions.203 In 2013, only 30-40 culturists remained in SKW204, likely further reduced today. City-wide culturists only contribute 3% of HK’s market fish205 as locals perceive mariculture poorly, often preferring the “feel” of wild fish. Despite multiple mariculturists in neighboring Po Toi O bay, (Fig. 6.10) seafood restauranteurs strongly defended their fish as wild-caught.

Intertwined with Aberdeen’s history, SKW’s mariculture rafts organically arose from post-war policies imposed on boat people, through boat 199 Ibid.

200 Sok Kwu Wan Worker, interview.

201 Ibid.

202 Ibid.

203 Cheung, Hong Kong Fishermen Ballads, 73.

204 Doug Meigs, “Lamma Island Fish Farm.” China Daily Asia, May 17, 2013. https://www.chinadailyasia.com/focus-hk/ article-267.html 205 Sok Kwu Wan Worker, interview.

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Figure 6.11 (right) Map of Sok Kwu Wan Marine Fish Culture Zone.

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recycling common throughout marine communities, generating a new economy. Their often remote, small-scale sites left MFCZ’s largely without administrative intervention, even following Cap. 353’s enactment, providing legal licensure for reduced governance costs. Though rafts remain illegally inhabited, their populations fall amidst low local and government support, leaving them untouched but declining within legal gray zones.

Climate & Geography SKW’s narrow bay, deeply inset into Lamma and protected by northeastern Aberdeen, is similarly a long-inhabited geographic Tanka refuge (Fig. 6.11). Its mariculture rafts position themselves over 2-7m depths, only extending over 10m depths to accommodate modern 800m2 circular deep-sea cages cultivating vastly more fish.206 Smaller MFCZs including Po Toi O sit similarly in shallower protected bays.

Outside natural geography, mariculture raft design reflects several climatic evolutions. No longer constructed of waste boat timber207, large planks and recycled PVC barrels remain common today, easing repairability. Cultivation is conducted within small 3x3m grids, holding anchored nets culturing 4-500 fish,208 arrayed on larger rafts averaging 206 South China Morning Post, “Hong Kong fish farmer plans to spend rest of his life on floating farm despite industry’s decline,” YouTube Video, 5:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TreVxAmqbGo 207 Sok Kwu Wan Worker, interview.

208 基進報導 (RadicalHK.com). “收緊魚排規管 老漁民投降” (Tightening of Mariculture Regulations, Old Fishermen Surrender). YouTube Video. 5:08. February 14, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVhJ_H2QbZg

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Figure 6.12 (left) Old timber “guard house” on mariculture raft in Sok Kwu Wan. Figure 6.13 (right) Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village recently installed metal shipping containers to replace timber huts destroyed in 2016 typhoon.

6.0 Sok Kwu Wan & Mariculture Zones

15x18m. Originally timber huts, green guardhouses evolved to current fiberboard and disused containers, (Fig. 6.12-13) materials increasing structural longevity, rigidity and wind resistance. One visited raft had timber seafood preservation huts entirely swept underwater during a 2016 typhoon, now replaced by old containers.209 Tarp-covered canopies commonly extend beyond guardhouses, shading activity spaces with ample wind and cross-ventilation over open water.

Climatic adaptations minimally improve culturing conditions outside geographic location and open water’s cooling benefits however, with the interviewee simply stating “hope for the best” attitudes to climatic challenges of 6+ month cultivation processes, including excessive rain leaving fish cold, pollutant-induced red tides, ripped nets freeing cultured fish or destructive typhoons. Culturists unable to move their rafts, each net anchored to the seafloor (Fig. 6.14), can only enduringly await improved conditions without solution.210 Despite difficulties, remaining mariculturists re-invest all earnings towards equipment and fish, dedicating their lives to their marine environment, being “born from the sea… [to] eventually go back to the sea.”211 Spatial Organization Matching other MFCZs, SKW’s mariculture rafts organize in loose grids, but recent developments introduced new spatial typologies. Aside from circular deep-sea cages, a notable structure is the 2,000m2 local villagerfounded Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village (2006) (Fig. 6.15), both experiential museum sharing forgotten Tanka culture and functional mariculture raft.

It also serves as a culturist equipment storage and docking point for fishing vessels undergoing maintenance, becoming a floating central community node for aging culturists to gather whilst working and socializing212. Expanding on traditional raft structures, its shape optimally accommodates these dual cultural and productive functions, adapted to the community’s collective nature.

Despite distant gridded positions allowing ample sea-driven ventilation and navigation, individual rafts also act as communal nodes, often with docked speedboats or attached smaller rafts. Culturists moor to rafts, conversing over shared meals. Boats often weave through these grids, slowing to greet those onboard. (Fig. 6.16-17) From the shore, floating timber plank walkways wind towards the bay’s rafts, with varying boats moored to them. A large pier also welcomes periodic Aberdeen ferries, transporting land-based villagers and culturists between supermarkets, restaurants and home. (Fig. 6.18-19) Therefore, despite the MFCZ’s scattered organization, later additions and 209 Sok Kwu Wan Worker, interview.

210 Ibid.

211 South China Morning Post, “Hong Kong fish farmer plans to spend rest of his life on floating farm despite industry’s decline.”

212 O’Young, “World of the Tanka fisherfolk”

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Figure 6.14 An anchored mariculture net with fish below.

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Figure 6.15 Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village from above.

Figure 6.16 Sok Kwu Wan culturists eating on a mariculture raft.

Figure 6.17 Person on speedboat greeting mariculturist.

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Figure 6.18 (left) Timber walkways connect from the shore to some mariculture rafts.

Figure 6.19 (right) Ferries transporting passengers to Aberdeen docked in Sok Kwu Wan.

expansions have enabled SKW’s strong intertwined floating community, notably manifested in Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village, both marine community center and heritage showcase over their own familiar waters.

Though historically a fishing village, Sok Kwu Wan’s current MFCZ role and mariculture rafts within are products of post-war administrative policy and Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter itself. Following initial late-1960s booms, both minimal government intervention and subsidy has encouraged its current decline. Its remaining culturists however, utilized its safe environment and relatively shallow depths to guide mariculture, gradually altering material palettes, improving typhoon resilience and developing its marine community around their rafts, each forming communal nodes, eventually constructing one for the wider Hong Kong.

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A New Marine Community Boat people have long inhabited Hong Kong and its surrounding waters, with multiple factors forming diverse marine communities including in Aberdeen, Tai O and Sok Kwu Wan. Though their decline largely results from increasingly infeasible livelihoods and desires for greater stability, physically and economically, their methods of inhabitation continually adapted to post-war policies, climatic events and geographic conditions, harnessing surrounding waters to generate similar yet distinct spatial organizations.

Today’s HK faces smaller housing crises relative to post-war, commonly alleviated by subdivided flats, arguably invisible alternatives to bygone mountainside squatters and overflowing typhoon shelters. Inhabited by 210,000+, they commonly encounter fire and sanitation risk arising from their small subdivisions, consequent unstable electricity, lacking fire equipment and blocked passageways,213 (Fig. 7.3) not unlike preceding boat squatters but without environmental connection and spatial negotiability. Like under colonial administrators, tight, subdivided home residents may face little intervention until development necessity.

Amidst future climate change increasing HK’s temperatures up to 5°C and threatening local sea-level rise of 1+m214, low-lying land reclamation in projects including Lantau Tomorrow Vision face increasing turbulent typhoon threats and subsequent storm surges, occasionally 2m over astronomical tides.215 On sheltered waters, traditional marine communities face reduced flood risk with self-embedded climatic adaptations mitigating climate changes. Aberdeen residents enabled compact floating spatial negotiations to form nearly self-sufficient societies, whilst Tai O developed stilted architectures utilizing shade, ventilation and reflective materials to alleviate future temperatures, with each studied community also harnessing sea-driven evaporative cooling.

Figure 7.1 Isometric drawing of the founding settlement of Isle of Lunar-Sea, constructed off the coast of Sunshine Island and next to Hei Ling Chau Island.

Figure 7.2 (opposite) Nighttime visualization of view from a canal residential unit’s deck with the market anchor behind it.

In light of impending climate change and the case studies, I propose Isle of Lunar-Sea on LTV’s site, a new marine community continuing indigenous boat people’s highly adaptive heritage and spatial practices.

Incorporating traditional principles of climate and geographical adaptation alongside spatial organizations within the current legal framework, it will accommodate HK’s remaining floating populations, societally fringed subdivided home residents and future public housing applicants to create a largely self-sustaining city designed for disassembly and future climate mitigation.

213 Naomi Ng, “No way out: How Hong Kong’s subdivided flats are leaving some residents in fire traps,” South China Morning Post, May 16, 2017. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2094562/no-way-outhow-hong-kongs-subdivided-flats-are 214 “Climate Projections for Hong Kong” 215 “Storm Surge Records”

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Site and Aims Isle of Lunar-Sea’s site (Fig. 7.4) surrounds the island archipelago east of Lantau, near-equidistant to Aberdeen and Tai O. This archipelago has historically hosted various eclectic functions, including Peng Chau’s kiln factories, Kau Yi Chau’s US naval shipwreck site alongside Hei Ling Chau’s leper colony, refugee camps and proposed super-prisons.

Sunshine Island was particularly named for Shanghainese refugee Gus Borgeest’s camp. Borgeest leased the island in the 1950s for 180HKD/ year, allowing farmers escaping mainland Chinese political unrest to “regain their dignity” through productive work, winning him the 1961 Ramon Magsaysay Award.216 (Fig. 7.5)

Figure 7.3 (left) South China Morning Post graphic of a subdivided flat conversion and subsequent issues.

Figure 7.5 (right) 1962 article on Gus Borgeest and Sunshine Island.

The site is divisible into 3 geographic depths (Fig. 7.6), all below 10m deep: (1) Intertidal, island foreshores with evident tidal changes; (2) Marine Terrace, large plateaued depths; and (3) Inshore, the deepest, approximately 8m. deep.

Isle of Lunar-Sea aims to maintain Sunshine Island’s spirit, engaging HK’s marginalized in productive work and constructing a community within East Lantau’s waters, staking a visible claim within society. The masterplan will provide a model for largely self-sufficient communities 216 Ryan Kilpatrick, “Island Stories, Part III: Hong Kong’s Outcast Islands,” Zolima City Mag, August 15, 2018. https:// zolimacitymag.com/island-stories-part-iii-hong-kongs-outcast-islands/?fbclid=IwAR1q6YYicCe78Smeryn3fqV4hdhvMmQk dcGA8Tta6a6uOVM1e5BCqSiUFbw

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Figure 7.4 (next) Isle of Lunar-Sea site.

Figure 7.6 (opposite) The three geographic depth zones on the site.

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7.0 capable of duplicating or re-adapting, eventually housing the 210,000+ subdivided home residents and several thousand boat people. Designed according to the depth zones, it will remain highly mobile and adaptable, suiting future climate conditions and extreme weather.

A New Marine Community

Design Principles The key design principles to achieve these aims center about the marine community case study focuses.

Climate and Geography: (1) identifying/creating new geographic typhoon shelters; (2) utilizing depth-based conditions; (3) recycling/downcycling construction materials; (4) establishing physical and visual lunar-tidal connections; and (5) overall architectural climate reconnection, suiting 2100 climate projections.

Spatial Organization: (6) flexibly negotiable organization; and (7) marine-based spatial structure.

Development and Legality The model masterplan’s (Fig. 7.7) founding settlement begins along Sunshine Island’s harbor-like southwestern coast, protected by Hei Ling Chau 300m away, aligning with principle (1). Residential settlement designs first constructed onshore enable both tidal salt production in sunken pits and shipyards extending into Intertidal waters, maintaining ships and recycling deconstructed vessels for floating element construction. As Cap. 548A renders inhabiting floating residences, or “pleasure vessels,” legally questionable, initial island settlement allows official “dwelling” classifications for residents inhabiting them periodically.

Upon onshore building completion, the community expands towards Marine Terrace depths, allowing stilted and floating element combinations. Anchored floating columns connected by buoyed pathways form an elliptic artificial typhoon shelter. Each pathway section holds deployable sediment nets underneath, capturing Pearl River industrial flows and slowing water speeds. Stilted housing units branch outwards, connected by floating bamboo frames rising and falling, enabling tidebased programs. The shelter’s interior hosts individual mariculture, agriculture or desalination rafts. Another floating platform allows communal activities, traditional sea deity temples and arriving temporary structures, including bamboo theaters, common to lunisolar Chinese festivals.217 (Fig. 7.8-9) 217 Elizabeth Kerr, “Bamboo Theatres: A New Documentary Explores These Hong Kong Marvels,” Zolima City Mag. January 16, 2020. https://zolimacitymag.com/bamboo-theatre-new-documentary-explores-these-hong-kong-marvels/

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Further community expansion occurs Inshore, with entirely floating structures extending deeper over water from the artificial shelter. Parallel walkways form a canal-like organization, a marine passage encouraging docked commercial trading or festivities including dragon-boat races, lined by floating residential blocks. Buoyed rainwater tanks bookend each block, separated by waterways for boat arrival and departure. Two communal structures hosting ship workshops and agricultural allotments also float on both canal sides, joined above by lunar reflector-lined bridges.

Figure 7.8 (left) Bamboo Theater on Po Toi Island.

Figure 7.9 (right) Section of Bamboo Theater on Po Toi Island.

Additional free-floating elements dot the development. A floating market provides luminous “anchor” waypoints across the masterplan for returning vessels. Sprawled 20x20m “culture grids” of floating walkways also attach to each depth zone’s spatial organization, acting as launching or mooring points for free-floating residential units alongside additional agriculture, mariculture and “reclamation” rafts (Fig. 7.10).

Grids spread over water, accommodating more culturing modules, or are deconstructed during typhoons as floating crafts fill the Marine Terrace artificial shelter.

Figure 7.10 (opposite) Reclamation Modules, rafts that offer an alternative meaning to reclamation in Lantau Tomorrow Vision, proposing to reclaim resources from nature to establish belonging.

Clockwise from top left.

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Key Typologies Within the founding community, several typology designs (Fig. 7.11) suit each depth type: Sunshine Island Intertidal Zone (1) Salt Field 16m diameter sunken platform collecting seawater flowing in at high tide for solar evaporation, producing salt.

(2) Dwellings/Shipbuilding Workshop (Fig. 7.12) Residential cabins with downward openings elevated to accommodate a shipbuilding workshop and communal area below, whilst flowing water encourages evaporative cooling.

(3) Lunar Reflectors At night, reflective panels over the boardwalk outside the workshop enable lunar lighting of communal space, in turn illuminating cabins through caustics from seawater below.

Figure 7.11 (previous) Key Typologies of Isle of Lunar-Sea organized by the four depth types.

The first column consists of the Intertidal Zone, the second and third, the Marine Terrace. The fourth column contains typhologies of the Inshore Zone whilst the final column presents Freefloating Structures.

Figure 7.12 (opposite) Sunshine Island Landbased Dwelling Cabin/ Shipbuilding Workshop in the Intertidal Zone.

A. Caustics Reflection B. Walking Deeper over Water.

C. Workshop Ship Frame D. Rainwater Storage Pool E. Communal Kitchen/ Laundry

Marine Terrace Typhoon Shelter (1) Sediment Net Walkway Walkway modules allow residents to traverse the structure, whilst holding deployable, dense sediment collection nets reaching the seafloor, shaping the typhoon shelter.

(2) Communal/Festive Platform Boats moor at this platform for gatherings outside of the traditional temple, enabling community meals and events.

(3) External Tidal Residence Residential units in long stilted structures border the shelter, with tide-operated bamboo frames running perpendicularly through.

(4) Free-floating Residential Module (attaches to Culture Grid) This residential unit sits over the shelter’s central floating pathways, potentially released for free-roaming.

(5) Desalination Raft Tied to stilts, high tides fill these rafts fill with seawater for evaporative solar desalination.

(6) Temporary Festive Structure Different festive structures including bamboo theaters moor at the shelter.

Inshore Zone Canal (1) Communal Space/Shipbuilding Workshop Boats moor at both ends of the workshop for repair, whilst residents’ hydroponic allotments and a communal courtyard sit above.

(2) Floating Residential Module This module consists opposite-facing housing rows resting on a floating barge with a pathway connecting the central canal and opposite rainwater tank.

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7.0 (3) Lunar Reflector Elevated Walkway An elevated walkway lined with lunar reflectors connects workshop buildings, allowing nighttime canal illumination.

A New Marine Community

Free-floating Structures (1) “Anchor” Market Hall Mariculture nets line external walkways for fishermen to sell catches, with a moonlit gathering point inside the structure’s four corner structures, separately rising and falling with the tide.

(2) Culture Grid Floating walkways allow different buoyed culturing and residential modules to moor within.

(3) Culturist Rafts These include agriculture, mariculture and the 4 “reclamation” modules, either anchored inside artificial shelters or freeroaming.

The canal housing retains elements adapted across all residential structures throughout the masterplan. (Fig. 7.13-15) Residential flats face outwards on higher floors with deep facades for ventilation and solar shading, whilst open stages neighbor both housing rows. Stages have easily dismantlable bamboo façades, allowing the bar of flats to roll across in typhoons, improving rigidity. Below are kitchen/dining/ laundry areas over water, where returning crafts dock and communicate with residents. The communal area’s grated ceiling encourages evaporative cooling into the above residences. The floating barge base holds hydroponic trays and agricultural test pods mimicking future climates. Rainwater is collected for domestic use, channeled from rooftop drains towards the water tank and collected off the bamboo façade within balloons floating on the sea. Elements including façade design, stages capable of disassembly and submerged agricultural pods within the greater set of typologies combine to both retain legacy design characteristics of Hong Kong’s traditional marine communities, whilst further mitigating future climatic changes.

Figure 7.13 (opposite) Floating residential module exploded isometric.

A. Rainwater Drain B. Resi. Deep Facade C. Resi. Unit D. Working Deck E. Dismantlable Facade F. Floating Rainwater Pouch G. Communal Space H. Hydroponic Test Bed. I. Barge Structure.

Figure 7.14 (next) Floating residential module plan and isometric.

Figure 7.15 (page after) Floating residential module typhoon configuration progression and perspectival section.

126

A B

C

C

E

D

G

F I

H

127

Plan (6 Units/Floor)

Normal Phase Winter Solar Path

Summer Solar Path

Cross-ventilation

Evaporative Cooling

Rolled Rigidity

Typhoon Disassembly

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Conclusion Despite their intrinsic role, Hong Kong’s indigenous boat people have long faced administrative marginalization. Following population explosions and Colony-led fishery mechanization post-war, nomadic Tanka were forced to adapt to sedentary, anchored lifestyles crowded within natural typhoon shelters with little administrative aid outside clearance for reclamation. Marine communities including Aberdeen, Tai O and Sok Kwu Wan expanded and developed along their environments despite difficulties, retaining water’s dominant role in architectures and broader negotiable spatial organizations, all nostalgically recalled or still maintained by the study’s interviewees.

Outside longstanding lunisolar influence and marine geography understanding, boat people developed similar yet distinct built environments throughout HK’s bays and inlets. Tai O’s villagers erected stilted structures over their sheltered river, from primitive bamboo storage huts, to modern tin-plated, box-like homes on Kwun Din timber stilts, increasingly rooted into the landscape through inhabitation and cultural practices. Policy-enabled typhoon shelter “boat squatters” constructed immobile houseboats improving thermal comfort and maximizing economic efficiency, even fostering MFCZs through recycling broken vessels. Both stilted and floating structures share architectural adaptations encouraging shade, cross-ventilation and evaporative sea-driven cooling, mitigating HK’s subtropical climate. These marine communities developed similar spatial organizations of stilt house and houseboat “streetscapes.” Tai O established tightknit communities over neighboring stages, winding walkways and platforms whilst Aberdeen enhanced spatial negotiations of varying vessels. Even disparate mariculture rafts form communal nodes, exemplified in SKW’s Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village, both productive community center and Tanka museum. Despite this heritage, boat people received little resettlement aid or indigenous rights, in illegitimate zones at reclamation’s mercy until politically required amidst 1980s handover negotiations. Even then, only squatter rights were granted to boats and stilt houses, ever-threatened by clearance upon commercial need identification.

Figure 8.1 Fishermen return to Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter in front of skyscrapers along Hong Kong’s harbor.

Marine populations therefore continually dwindled following prolonged governmental clearance, land-based stability aspirations and growing fishery infeasibility. The upcoming Lantau Tomorrow Vision neglects consideration of longstanding marine heritage, opting to continue land revenue maximization through a 1,700ha. reclaimed island. Amidst endemic modern subdivided housing and impending climate change with raised temperatures, sea levels and typhoon storm surges threatening low-lying reclamation, the model floating city, Isle of LunarSea, introduces new living typologies integrating traditional climatic and geographic adaptations of local marine communities to prepare for water-based futures. The city has long ignored its indigenous boat people and their disappearing adaptive built heritage, favoring landbased development. Hong Kong must embed architectural and spatial 133

8.0 adaptations unique to its marine environment to mitigate future climate change and new floating communities present strong opportunities to do so.

Conclusion

Figure 8.2 Outside Tai O at sunset.

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Images

Images

1.0 – Introduction Fig. 1.1 - Author’s Own Image. Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter Boats.

Fig. 1.2 - Historical Photographs of China. “A photograph of artwork of Hong Kong Island, 1837.”

University of Bristol. Accessed March 25, 2021. https://www.hpcbristol.net/visual/na20-01 Fig. 1.3 - Google Maps. Map of Hong Kong.

Fig. 1.4 - Hong Kong Observatory. “Climate of Hong Kong.” Accessed April 18, 2021. https://www. hko.gov.hk/en/cis/climahk.htm Fig. 1.5 - Hong Kong Observatory. “Climate of Hong Kong.” Accessed April 18, 2021. https://www. hko.gov.hk/en/cis/climahk.htm Fig. 1.6 Hong Kong Observatory. “Climate of Hong Kong.” Accessed April 18, 2021. https://www. hko.gov.hk/en/cis/climahk.htm Fig. 1.7 - Author’s Own Drawing. Map of Tanka Migration and Catchment Grounds in Southern China.

Fig. 1.8 Kwok Fei. “Yuet Tai Kei.” Wikimedia. July 16, 2018. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Yuet_Tai_Kei.png Fig. 1.9 Klaus. “Aberdeen Aerial View 1924.” Gwulo. Accessed March 3, 2021. https://gwulo.com/ atom/29904 Fig. 1.10 Google Maps. Satellite image of Aberdeen.

Fig. 1.11 Cheng, Kris. “209,700 people live in subdivided flats in Hong Kong, 2016 gov’t bycensus reveals.” Hong Kong Free Press. January 19, 2018. https://hongkongfp. com/2018/01/19/209700-people-live-subdivided-flats-hong-kong-2016-govt-census-reveals/ Fig. 1.12 Chan, Oswald. “’Lantau Tomorrow Vision’ – home to 1.1m.” China Daily. October 11, 2018. https://www.chinadailyhk.com/articles/77/41/231/1539227276622.html Fig. 1.13 Civil Engineering Department. “Bridging the Future.” Accessed January 5, 2021. PDF File. https://www.lantau.gov.hk/filemanager/content/lantau-tomorrow-vision/leaflet_e1.pdf Fig. 1.14 Hong Kong Observatory. “Climate Projections for Hong Kong.” Accessed April 4, 2021. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/climate_change/future_climate.htm Fig. 1.15 Hong Kong Observatory. “Climate Projections for Hong Kong.” Accessed April 4, 2021. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/climate_change/future_climate.htm Fig. 1.16 Hong Kong Observatory. “Climate Projections for Hong Kong.” Accessed April 4, 2021. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/climate_change/future_climate.htm Fig. 1.17 Hong Kong Observatory. “Climate Projections for Hong Kong.” Accessed April 4, 2021. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/climate_change/future_climate.htm Fig. 1.18 Hong Kong Observatory. “Climate Projections for Hong Kong.” Accessed April 4, 2021. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/climate_change/future_climate.htm Fig. 1.19 - Author’s Own Drawing. Map of Pearl River Delta and Marine Communities.

3.0 – Administrative Attitudes Fig. 3.1 - Belcher, Edward. China Hong Kong Surveyed by Captn. Sir Edward Belcher. In H.M.S. Sulphur 1841. Engraving. Southampton: Boston Rare Maps. https://bostonraremaps.com/ inventory/an-iconic-hong-kong-chart/ Fig. 3.2 - Stanford, Edward. Map of Hong Kong with British Kowloon. Vancouver: Majesty Maps & Prints, 1888. https://www.majestymaps.com/product/hong-kong-1888/ Fig. 3.3 - War Office. Map of Hong Kong and of the territory leased to Great Britain under the 143

10.0 convention between great Britain and china signed at Peking on the 9th of June 1898.

Vancouver: Majesty Maps & Prints, 1909. https://www.majestymaps.com/product/1909hong-kong/ Fig. 3.4 Peter. “1965 Victoria Rd Squatters.” Gwulo. Accessed March 3, 2021. https://gwulo.com/ atom/33252 Fig. 3.5 Andrew Suddaby. “Causeway Bay.” Guwlo. Accessed March 3, 2021. https://gwulo.com/ atom/31442 Fig. 3.6 DeWolf, Christopher. “How Hong Kong developed unique design for social housing – seeds were sown in a prisoner-of-war camp.” South China Morning Post. March 7, 2020. https:// www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3065133/how-hong-kong-developed-uniquedesign-social-housing-seeds Fig. 3.7 Abercrombie, Patrick. “Plan to Illustrate Sir Patrick Abercrombie’s Report on Hong Kong.”

In Hong Kong Preliminary Planning Report, 1948, 27. n.p.: Crown Agents for the Colonies, 1948.

Fig. 3.8 Eatsee1. “1967 Staunton’s Creek.” Gwulo. Accessed March 2, 2021. https://gwulo.com/ atom/18951 Fig. 3.9 Harryhktc. “Fishing Village – Outlying Islands (?) – circa 1970.” Gwulo. Accessed March 2, 2021. https://gwulo.com/atom/17249 Fig. 3.10 Survey & Mapping Office, Lands Department. 1996. Reclamation & Development in Hong Kong. http://www.landsd.gov.hk/mapping/en/download/download/map/ar9_1e.pdf Fig. 3.11 Google Maps. Map of Aberdeen, Causeway Bay and Yau Ma Tei. Fig. 3.12 Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Policy on Clearance of Squatter Areas and Temporary Housing Areas.

Hong Kong, October 24, 2000; 1-2. https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr00-01/english/panels/hg/ papers/a79e01.pdf Fig. 3.13 Marine Fish Culture Ordinance. Cap. 353. Hong Kong, January 18, 1980. https://www. elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap353?tab=m Fig. 3.14 SHIPPING AND PORT CONTROL (DWELLING VESSELS) REGULATIONS. Cap. 313C, s. 33. Hong Kong, April 13, 1983. https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap313C@1997-0630T00:00:00?pmc=0&m=0&pm=1 Fig. 3.15 - Author’s Own Image. Tai O First Generation Stilt House.

Fig. 3.16 Author’s Own Image. Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter Dwelling Vessels.

Fig. 3.17 Author’s Own Image. Administrative Action Timeline.

4.0 – Aberdeen Fishing Village & Typhoon Shelters Fig. 4.1 Author’s Own Image. Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter Fishing Boat at Dusk.

Fig. 4.2 Author’s Own Image. Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter Houseboats at Sunset.

Fig. 4.3 Author’s Own Image. A Man in His Aberdeen Sampan, likely adapted for Dwelling Purpose.

Fig. 4.4 Author’s Own Image. Floating Tin Hau Temple in Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter.

Fig. 4.5 Author’s Own Drawing. Role of the Chinese Luni-solar Calendar.

Fig. 4.6 - Keith MacGregor. “KM-71 Aberdeen Dragon Boat races – 1974.” Accessed March 10, 2021. https://www.keithmacgregorphotography.com/km-75-aberdeen-dragon-boat Fig. 4.7 Author’s Own Image. Primary craft types in Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter.

Fig. 4.8 144

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10.0 Images

Author’s Own Drawing. Exploded isometric of Aberdeen Houseboat.

Fig. 4.9 Andrew Suddaby. “Junk in Aberdeen harbour.” Gwulo. Accessed March 13, 2021. https:// gwulo.com/atom/22490 Fig. 4.10 Author’s Own Image. Industrial Area of Aberdeen viewed from Typhoon Shelter.

Fig. 4.11 Author’s Own Drawing. Progression of Coastline Reclamation in Aberdeen.

Fig. 4.12 Author’s Own Image. Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter viewed from Ap Lei Chau.

Fig. 4.13 Author’s Own Image. Interviewee’s Sampan in Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter.

Fig. 4.14 Author’s Own Image. Hung Shing Temple in Aberdeen.

Fig. 4.15 黎志邦 (Lai Chi Pong). 從前有個香港仔 (There Once was an Aberdeen). Hong Kong: WE Press, 2018: 234.

Fig. 4.16 黎志邦 (Lai Chi Pong). 從前有個香港仔 (There Once was an Aberdeen). Hong Kong: WE Press, 2018: 231.

Fig. 4.17 Author’s Own Map. Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter.

Fig. 4.18 Author’s Own Drawing. Tidal Data of Hong Kong.

Fig. 4.19 Author’s Own Drawing. Exploded Isometric of Traditional Fishing Vessel.

Fig. 4.20 Author’s Own Image. Cabin of Traditional Fishing Vessel in Sok Kwu Wan. Fig. 4.21 Author’s Own Image. Bedroom of Traditional Fishing Vessel in Sok Kwu Wan. Fig. 4.22 Author’s Own Drawing. Types of Second Level Structures on Aberdeen Houseboats.

Fig. 4.23 Author’s Own Image. Kitchen of Traditional Fishing Vessel in Sok Kwu Wan..

Fig. 4.24 Author’s Own Image. Exterior of Traditional Fishing Vessel in Sok Kwu Wan. Fig. 4.25 Author’s Own Image. Aberdeen Houseboat.

Fig. 4.26 – AC Studio. Accessed January 20, 2021. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ acstudio/4175203523/sizes/z/ Fig. 4.27 Author’s Own Drawing. Spatial Negotiations in Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter.

Fig. 4.28 Author’s Own Image. Shipyards in Aberdeen.

Fig. 4.29 Author’s Own Image. Jumbo and Tai Pak Floating Restaurant.

Fig. 4.30 Author’s Own Image. Ships at Aberdeen Fish Market.

Fig. 4.31 Author’s Own Image. Ferry to Sok Kwu Wan. Fig. 4.32 Author’s Own Drawing. Ferrying Sampan.

Fig. 4.33 Author’s Own Image. Noodle Sampan Operator.

Fig. 4.34 Author’s Own Image. Aberdeen Fisherman Sampan and Customer.

5.0 – Tai O Fishing Village Fig. 5.1 Author’s Own Image. Speedboat Travelling through Tai O River.

Fig. 5.2 Author’s Own Image. Fisherman after selling fish by Tai O River Drawbridge.

Fig. 5.3 Author’s Own Image. Stilt Houses along Tai O Island in Fog. 145

10.0 Fig. 5.4 Author’s Own Image. Stilt Houses and Tidal Banks outside Tai Ping Street.

Fig. 5.5 Fig. 5.6 Author’s Own Image. Stilt Houses along Kat Hing Street.

Fig. 5.7 Author’s Own Image. Tai O Stilt Houses outside Sun Ki Street Drawbridge.

Fig. 5.8 Chensiyuan. “1 tai o lantau aerial photo 2015.jpg.” Wikimedia. May 6, 2015. https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1_tai_o_lantau_aerial_photo_2015.jpg Fig. 5.9 Planning Department. “Recommended Outline Development Plan.” Accessed March 1, 2021. https://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/p_study/comp_s/tai_o/a-webrecommendation/3strategy.htm Fig. 5.10 Author’s Own Image. Tai O Fisherman below Stilt House.

Fig. 5.11 Author’s Own Map. Tai O Fishing Village.

Fig. 5.12 Author’s Own Image. Tai O Stilt House and Lion Hill.

Fig. 5.13 Film Services Office. “Tai O Waterfront Promenade.” Last modified September 1, 2020. https://www.fso-createhk.gov.hk/en/locations_search_details.php?File_No=01495&search_ type=1 Fig. 5.14 Asia Pacific Daily. “香港渔村大澳的传统水上婚礼.” March 11, 2014. https://cn.apdnews.com/ lifestyle/travel/123152.html Fig. 5.15 黃惠琼 (Wong Wai King). 大澳水鄉的變遷 - 風、土、人、情二三事 (Tai O: Love Stories of the Fishing Village). Hong Kong: 黃惠琼, 2000: 138.

Fig. 5.16 Hong Kong Institute of Architects. Hong Kong Today – Culture in Vernacular Architecture.

PDF File. https://www.scribd.com/document/370388546/LS01-Culture-in-VernacularArchitecture-Teaching-Notes Fig. 5.17 Author’s Own Image. First Generation Stilt House.

Fig. 5.18 Author’s Own Image. Tai Ping Street Timber Plank Walkway.

Fig. 5.19 Author’s Own Image. Third Generation Stilt House Front Deck and Moored Boats.

Fig. 5.20 Author’s Own Drawing. Stilt House Climatic Section.

Fig. 5.21 Author’s Own Drawing. Stilt House Stage Isometric.

Fig. 5.22 Author’s Own Image. Tai O Stilt House Front Decks.

Fig. 5.23 Author’s Own Map. Sun Ki Street Cluster, Fig. 5.24 Explorest. “Tai O Fishing Village & Canal Look Down.” Accessed March 12, 2021. https:// www.explorest.com/places/hong-kong/tai-o/tai-o-fishing-village-canal-look-down Fig. 5.25 Author’s Own Image. Sun Ki Street Stilted Platform with Communal Seating.

Fig. 5.26 Author’s Own Image. Sun Ki Street Timber Plank Walkway.

Fig. 5.27 Tai O Heritage Hotel. “About Tai O.” Accessed March 26, 2021. https://www. taioheritagehotel.com/en/about-tai-o/ Fig. 5.28 Author’s Own Image. Sun Ki Street Drawbridge and Stilt Houses.

Fig. 5.29 Author’s Own Image. Yeung Hau Temple, Tai O. Fig. 5.30 Hikingtours.hk. “Visit to Tai O Fishing Village.” September 15, 2013. https://hikingtours.hk/ blog/?p=152 146

Images

10.0 Images

Fig. 5.31 Gordonvr. “Rope ferry, Tai O, Lantau, 1970s.” Gwulo. Accessed March 15, 2021. https:// gwulo.com/atom/30244 Fig. 5.32 Author’s Own Image. Tai O River Drawbridge and Fisherman.

6.0 – Sok Kwu Wan & Mariculture Zones Fig. 6.1 - Author’s Own Image. Sok Kwu Wan Mariculture Raft “Guardhouse.”

Fig. 6.2 - Author’s Own Image. Po Toi O Marine Fish Culture Zone.

Fig. 6.3 - Author’s Own Image. Sok Kwu Wan Marine Fish Culture Zone.

Fig. 6.4 Author’s Own Image. Ship Moored at Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village.

Fig. 6.5 Author’s Own Drawing. Recycling of Fishing Boat Materials into Mariculture Rafts.

Fig. 6.6 South China Morning Post. “Hong Kong fish farmer plans to spend rest of his life on floating farm despite industry’s decline.” August 15, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=TreVxAmqbGo Fig. 6.7 Lai, Lawrence Wai Chung. “Marine fish culture and pollution: An initial Hong Kong empirical study.” Ekistics 356/357 (September/October-November/December 1992): 352. JSTOR. Fig. 6.8 Author’s Own Image. Po Toi O Mariculture Raft “Guardhouse.”

Fig. 6.9 Author’s Own Image. Po Toi O Mariculture Raft adapted for a Leisure License.

Fig. 6.10 Author’s Own Image. Po Toi O Mariculture Rafts and Stilt Houses.

Fig. 6.11 Author’s Own Map. Sok Kwu Wan Marine Fish Culture Zone.

Fig. 6.12 Author’s Own Image. Timber “Guardhouse” in Sok Kwu Wan. Fig. 6.13 Author’s Own Image. Shipping Container “Guardhouse” in Sok Kwu Wan. Fig. 6.14 Author’s Own Image. Sok Kwu Wan Mariculture Raft Culture Nets.

Fig. 6.15 South China Morning Post. “Hong Kong fish farmer plans to spend rest of his life on floating farm despite industry’s decline.” August 15, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=TreVxAmqbGo Fig. 6.16 South China Morning Post. “Hong Kong fish farmer plans to spend rest of his life on floating farm despite industry’s decline.” August 15, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=TreVxAmqbGo Fig. 6.17 Author’s Own Image. Speedboat Operator greeting Sok Kwu Wan Mariculturist.

Fig. 6.18 Author’s Own Image. Timber Walkways from Sok Kwu Wan Shore.

Fig. 6.19 Author’s Own Image. Ferries to Aberdeen docked at Sok Kwu Wan. 7.0 – A New Marine Community Fig. 7.1 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – Isle of Lunar-Sea Isometric.

Fig. 7.2 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – Isle of Lunar-Sea Visualization.

Fig. 7.3 Ng, Naomi. “No way out: How Hong Kong’s subdivided flats are leaving some residents in fire traps.” South China Morning Post. May 16, 2017. https://www.scmp.com/news/hongkong/education-community/article/2094562/no-way-out-how-hong-kongs-subdivided-flatsare Fig. 7.4 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – Isle of Lunar-Sea Site.

147

10.0 Fig. 7.5 “Article about Gus Borgeest and his endeavors on “Sunshine” Island off of Hong Kong, World, June 19, 1962.” Pepperdine Libraries Digital Collections. Accessed March 3, 2021. https://pepperdine.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15093coll1/id/3273/ Fig. 7.6 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – Isle of Lunar-Sea Site Depth Zones.

Fig. 7.7 Author’s Own Drawing. Isle of Lunar-Sea Model Masterplan.

Fig. 7.8 Kerr, Elizabeth. “Bamboo Theatres: A New Documentary Explores These Hong Kong Marvels.” Zolima City Mag. January 16, 2020. https://zolimacitymag.com/bamboo-theatrenew-documentary-explores-these-hong-kong-marvels/ Fig. 7.9 “Po Toi Tin Hau Festival,” DO IT ATELIER. 2019. http://doitatelier.com/projects/po-toi-tinhau-festival/ Fig. 7.10 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – East Lantau “Reclamation” Modules.

Fig. 7.11 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – Isle of Lunar-Sea Typologies.

Fig. 7.12 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – Sunshine Island Dwelling.

Fig. 7.13 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – Canal Residence Exploded Isometric.

Fig. 7.14 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – Canal Residence Isometric and Plan.

Fig. 7.15 Author’s Own Drawing. Design Studio – Canal Residence Typhoon Configuration and Climatic Section.

8.0 – Conclusion Fig. 8.1 Author’s Own Image. Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter Fishing Boat.

Fig. 8.2 Author’s Own Image. Tai O Sunset.

148

Images

11.0 Appendix

Row 1 Sampan crosses Aberdeen harbor.

Row 2 Sampan Operator prepares a bowl of noodles; Tin Hau Temple in Causeway Bay; Ferrying Sampans in Causeway Bay. Row 3 Houseboat in Causeway Bay; Housebaots in front of the Hong Kong skyline.

Row 4 Sampans, dragon-boats and more in Aberdeen; a Kaito ferrying passengers from Hong Kong island to Ap Lei Chau.

Aberdeen/Causeway Bay Typhon Shelter 149

11.0 Appendix

Row 1 Person takes the 50-minute ferry to Lantau Island, before a 40-minute bus to Tai O; the buildings in front of Kwan Tai Temple and besides the drawbridge.

Row 2 Timber plank walkways outside Tai Ping Street; boats moored outside Sun Ki Street.

Row 3 Stilt house decks; stilt houses at low tide; Tai O, Lung Tin Estate and flooded salt fields viewed from the sea wall at sunset.

Row 4 Tai O from Sun Ki Drawbridge, Yeung Hau Temple is bookends the river branch.

Tai O Fishing Village 150

11.0 Appendix

Row 1 A Tin Hau Temple faces the waterfront in SKW, with annual dragon-boat races ahead; a culturists navigates SKW rafts.

Row 2 Mariculture rafts in SKW, sun-drying fruits by the sea in Po Toi O; mariculture rafts in Po Toi O. Row 3 Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village facing towards Aberdeen; fishing vessels moored on the 2000m2 raft.

Row 4 SKW hosts multiple seafood restaurants, some partially supplied the mariculturists.

Sok Kwu Wan/Po Toi O Mariculture Zone 151

11.0 - -

- - - -

- - - - - - - - - -

- -

Mariculture rafts self-constructed with broken timber from old boats to store extra fish Licenses given in the late 70s by Colonial government, no new licenses were ever given at that point and has since been privately passed on Mariculture only makes up 2-3% of stock sold in fish markets All mariculture communities know each other more or less Marine fish culturalists do go out to sea but don’t really fish, need to primarily manage the raft In typhoons, rafts don’t move, everything is anchored down with tons worth of anchors, things will be blown away in the wind or fishing nets will be broken Yield is bad when it rains a lot and fish are cold Fish often take 6 months to grow, some several years, but losses are somewhat frequent Tai O is quite unique in Hong Kong, only one even though originally similarly a fishing community Most mariculture people came down from china on boats many years ago Timber/tarp/metal/wood fiber huts, can’t legally live in them (hon gaang tiing/guard house) Recently old shipping containers have been used as huts as their cost is decent Many rafts now have “leisure licenses,” allowing yachts to dock Most guardhouses use ciim wai or fiberboard nowadays There are two types of mariculture licenses, one normal, one leisure (many in Sai Kung, Tai Po mariculture zones in particular) It is difficult to scale with only one person managing singular rafts, unlike going fishing offshore, which are usually operations of large teams Raft nets are usually 5m deep, some have thousands of fish Most fishermen came from China to live in typhoon shelters

Appendix

Sok Kwu Wan Worker (08/01/2021) Informal Interview Notes 152

11.0 Appendix

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - -

Lives in Shau Kei Wan/Causeway Bay typhoon shelters Used to live in Mongkok typhoon shelter Moved to Shau Kei Wan when getting married with husband Boat people in Kowloon side got pushed to register and move ashore about 30+ years ago Government doesn’t really push for anyone to move anymore A lot of people have already moved ashore The interviewee mostly gives people tours around the typhoon shelter She cooks onboard her boat with a small cooker and gas covered in towels on the sampan bench seating Insurance - few thousand a year (very expensive) Boat license - two hundred a year People in Causeway Bay have been here in the same spot (spatially) tens of years or more Yachts have docking fees, 船家/boat people don’t, they are split up in areas for each vessel class by the government.

License from government, not the Marine Department (does not specify department) “I don’t know what to cook these days, there’s nothing new to cook, and nothing ashore I want to get either” Either cooks on boat, or buys ashore She also has a flat in Shau Kei Wan, sometimes she chooses to stay there, but mostly here on the boat They have a second larger boat (houseboat) in Shau Kei Wan to live in, but sometimes if she leaves Causeway Bay really late, she will moor here and sleep in the cabin of the boat Her father (in Mongkok) bought fish and sold it, her husband (Shau Kei Wan) went out to fish for fish No one really does fisheries in these shelters anymore, just do some tourism-y things mostly Tin Hau Temple has been here many years, she goes once a year Not as many people come to the temple anymore because of restrictions, maybe COVID?

Shau Kei Wan/ Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter Resident (06/02/2021) Informal Interview Notes 153

11.0 Houses - People registered with the Colonial government to build out a plot - Originally stilt houses were built as large as you could afford, just according to the land - Houses were built along the land at first, people would then come together and build out pathways between each other lining between the houses - Self-funded constructions, size could be a status of wealth - Originally Tai O would have several masters who would build out all the houses - Stilt houses were eventually limited in size by the government - Interviewee pays 10 dollars/year license to the government - Licenses (Hong zi pai/红字牌) were registered, then the size at the time denoted, the numbers written in red denote the dimensions - But mostly houses are maintained either by self or with a contractor - Houses are on Kwun Din Wood stilts, which are very water resilient - These are from mainland or Southeast Asia, but now it’s very expensive to buy - People knew each other between all the houses, but house residents were limited to family - Sometimes houses would connect between the stages for meals and other communal activities, but not everyone would do this - Lung Tin Estate was supposedly built to house people after a fire

Appendix

Village Landmarks - In the village, there used to be quite a few shipbuilding workshops - Now most are outside Tai O - The remaining one in Tai O currently just builds small boats - House maintenance is sometimes conducted there at the workshop - Not many people come to Yeung Hau Temple anymore from other marine communities Livelihoods - Lived in Tai O his whole life - Interviewee used to be a fisherman, would go all the way to Taiwan (said this with pride and joy) - Now, no longer a fisherman, he sometimes does tourist activities as not many people fish anymore, only doing so as hobbies - Very few fishermen left in tai o, only several big boats parked outside with their fishermen living inside - People with small boats like to go to sea for leisurely fishing, but are mostly retired - Fishing boats outside (seen in the distant Pearl River Delta mouth) are probably from mainland China or Tuen Mun - Houses were initially meant to be gone up to from water, not land

Tai O Village Resident (04/03/2021) Informal Interview Notes

154

11.0 Appendix

Boat Stores - 1 teng zai fun/boat noodle-selling boat, 1 rice dish boat going around, called by phone, but rice guy is always out of rice as it takes longer to cook compared to rice noodles - Used to have 15 boat meal sellers in the 80s - A lot started closing around 2005, moving ashore - People raised entire families off boat store income - Boats used to sell noodles, congee, breakfast, fruits, housewares - These boats were all the size of sampans moving throughout the shelter The Interviewee - Interviewee was required by government to move in May 1973, due to risk of fire and typhoons - Moved to government’s Wong Chuk Hang - Started fishing work on shrimp trawlers, later went on to work on a fish trawler - He sold his boat 2 years ago to work part-time leisure boat jobs for a more relaxed lifestyle - He still knows quite a few living on fishing boats, both their house and workspace - He used to live on an 80-foot trawler that went to Hainan Island, taking two days to get there (proudly emphasizes how far this was) - Most boats in the shelter now are 60 feet long, only going to Taiwan at most - He knows a lot of people in the community, is a relative of one of the guys who helped write There Once Was an Aberdeen, they had just returned from Taiwan and was docked at the fish market on the day of interview - He also knows the people driving the “kaito” ferries - He originally didn’t like to going to school so he chose to go to sea

Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter Ex-Resident (13/03/2021)

Climate - If a typhoon is known about, they find the closest available space for natural shelter, no methods of adapting the boat to do so for these scenarios - If it’s hot, they used two fans inside their cabin room because each houses two people - Sliding doors are left open for ventilation - Can’t think of particular climatic adaptations otherwise (apart from intrinsic elements in the boat) - There’s a no fishing period in May for fish preservation - A few years ago the government gave subsidies in that period - Some people took the money and moved to land with others buying more gear, or new boat, etc.

Informal Interview Notes 155

11.0 Spatial Organization - Positions of the boats are self-determined by fishermen - “If you live under the bridge, you live under the bridge, if you live in the bay, you live in the bay” - Static houseboats are constructed in mainland China and towed to Hong Kong - In disuse, these are towed back to mainland for use as firewood there - In terms of “streets” in the water, he doesn’t know, maybe they just gradually formed in the shelter - Houseboats are not seaworthy and are specifically constructed (perhaps a climate reason for construction) - Dual work-home boats eventually separated into houseboats + work boats post-war

Appendix

Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter Ex-Resident (13/03/2021) Informal Interview Notes 156