For a city that shills for the tourist dollar like none other, Hong Kong really is missing the tourist boat by moving forward on the re-development of the Gage Street Market. The last remaining wet-market on Hong Kong Island, the multi-block area is a photographer's delight and a major draw to visitors of the City. It's one of the rare dark spots in HK where you can't find Jimmy Choo shoes for purchase, or Dolce & Gabbana fashions or the shamefully priced $100K Vertu diamond encrusted mobile phone (If buying one of these phones is not a first class ticket to Hell, I don't know what is). The Gage St Mkt is just raw veggies, fish, and chickens with their necks broken to order. 
Like anything culturally charming and not UNESCO protected, its existence is under siege from the evil property crowd who are looking to develop it into high end lofts and high rises, with a promise to preserve the current market with a modernized version. Success in my mind would be something akin to the SF Ferry Building where elements of old and new co-exist, but HK's urban development tends to lend more to the advancement of the HK$ than the preservation of cultural heritage so the benefit of the doubt is not in their corner. The developers and city officials contend that if they don't step in the market will be taken over by the gentrifying effects of high-end restaurants and boutiques. Fair point, and that is something that is already creeping into the area. As in any case where all constituencies have good points, the ones with the most power and HK$$'s will prevail. I know, that attitude is one of a pipin' hot glass of water filled empty, but the hawkers pictured on this posting don't have the means to battle the developers in court and Eminent Domain is quite popular with the Chinese government, so its left to the community activists to step up -- http://www.savethestreetmarket.com/ Its an age old story I suppose.
So why is the market worth saving? Stall after stall of hawkers selling virtually anything that swims in the sea or roots in a pen, and any part of it for that matter. They haggle with their customers, many of which have been shopping the street for seemingly ever. Orders are taken on pad and paper, chalkboard, or on trust-based loans, not on touch screened plasmas. Some of these merchants have been doing business in the same closet-sized space well before big white dudes like me were using them as a nostaligic photo opportunity. The place reeks something unholy, I'm no health inspector but it screams unsanitary, and there is a mysterious H3O fluid (Melted ice? Cat piss? Fish guts? Combination thereof?) that flows counterintuitively from the meat market on higher ground to the veggie market below it....But in a city that strives to be modern in every every ways, it is one of the few time capsules - a place where you can go and feel like people are content to live without the burden of feeling like they must constantly scratch advance their standing. For me, it is one of the places where I feel a sense of 'cultural awe.' A 5-star hotel is mildly impressive, a conference room is just another conference room, a high-rise apartment is just that -- but watching a guy in a blood-stained wife beater swing a rusty cleaver at a flopping fish with laser precision just like he's done for the past 30 years is pretty dang cool....
I'm not an activist, I'm a believer in free markets or I'd not be here, but I'm also a newcomer to HK so its sad to read about how the rising HK property market is chasing out some really charming traditional enterprises. "Silly, innocent gweilo, didn't anyone warn you that money trumps culture in HK?" I guess not well enough. Two weeks ago I read in "The Paper" (South China Morning Post) that a 75-year old third generation paper craftsman in Soho was being chased out of his business by rising rents and it prompted me to go to his small shop and buy a bunch of stuff (Paper goldfish now adorn Ingrid's nursery). And just today in the SCMP there was a story of the Man Wah Hair Dressing Company, run by Lee Kwok-Shun, an 86-year old who'd been cutting hair since the age of 14 who had to fold up shop because of rent increases. Sad to me. I'm going to try and get him hooked up with a gig at Hair Party.
I suppose my point is that its a shame to see the "Out with the old, In with the new" mentality prevail when HK's 'old' is so cool its 'new' is so lame. Alright, enough, I'll get off my soap box without breaking an ankle, being arrested by Chinese Internet thought police, or surrendering my conservative sensibilities.
This store (above) made me laugh because there were all these chickens huddled in their little cages while one of there unfortunate brethren was hanging in the window in the storefront. There is a coffee shop nearby where I sat and gave playful thought to a screenplay for the next animated Pixar film where the chickens plot their escape from the Gage St. Market......So many potential voiceovers -- Gilbert Gottfried, John Ratzenberger, Rosie Perez, and Bruce Willis (of course). I think I've got something here..
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