‘Neon City’ struggles to brush up its title
Hong Kong’s iconic neon-scape face challenges in the changing of times
When one talks about their first impression of Hong Kong, the Neon signs are an intrinsic and notorious part of the emblematic Asian City. These elaborate vivid lights have been a representation of the city’s nightlife since the 1920s (Google Arts & Culture, 2015), where they boomed exponentially with the Post-War baby boomers, throughout the 50s to the 80s (Cheng, 2009). In 1964, it was reported that there were about a million neon signs illuminating Hong Kong’s night sky (Cheng, 2009). Not only do these pink, blue, yellow, orange beams serve as an advertisement in a highly competitive market for the diverse industries (Cheng, 2009), the different characters, words, shapes, forms and symbols also serve as an art form to the city. Hong Kong’s Neon signs have inspired a few local top-filmmaker’s work, such as Wong Kar-Wai 王家衛 and Christopher Doyle 杜可風(Cheung, 2015). To depict the significance of these exuberant, vibrant and luminous glass tubes to Hong Kong, ‘Visual culture’ seems to be the recurring word among activists and scholars (Chen, 2014).
“Once illuminated, the line transforms: It mimics and abstracts, glows and flickers, and implores and distracts. Its symbols, signs and texts articulate a live-wired language of the modern city” (Chen, 2014).
Since the 1990s, production of Neon signs has seen on a decline. Many businesses choose LED as a more economical substitute. Many remaining Neon signs, like the rest of the city, are a bit ‘tired’. These days in Hong Kong, dilapidated Neon signs are not hard to find. In “Neon-rich” areas, 1 in 5 remaining signs needs some sort of maintenance by estimation: some require refurbishing or new paint; some have worn-out wires that need extra work, while some fail to work altogether.
For signs that are rusty or paint-chipped, they simply require some simple refurbishment and a new coat of paint. In spite of the inability to impress during daylight, the said flaws supposedly do not affect the signs’ elemental function — to glow in the dark. Sometimes, the disrepair causes irony, mainly because of the common practice to give the business auspicious names like “prosperity”, “fortune”, to name but a few. For example, the ‘Projecting Banner’(B. Kwok 2018, lecture, 29 Jan) of ‘Wing Wah Cha Chaan Teng’ in Sham Shui Po has a heavily-peeled look on both sides, failing to give the impression for ‘‘Wing Wah”(榮華) which translates to “splendour”.
As for those with partial short-circuited tubes, the signs require a fair level of repair work. One can suspect the signs remained unfix is largely due to the high cost of rewiring the burnt out tubes, which at times the entire circuit of the sign has to be serviced. Ever and again, signs miss a part of the Chinese character, sometimes the entire character or symbol; at times, half of the phrase has failed. In Chinese, losing a part of the character could change the context of the word, let alone missing a few character. For example, in the most intriguing manner, only the word “Shing”, alongside its English romanisation work on Kam Shing Hotel’s projecting banner. The most poetic part is, “Shing”(城) means city in Chinese. It could be said that sometimes the most unplanned banner conditions can turn into accidental art.
According to Mr Wu, a Neon maker, the origin of the glass tubes that made up the Neon signs will determine the retouched look, glass tubes from the from different origin have a colour difference; hence, that is why sometimes repaired signs occurs to be patchy and uneven in colour (Chan, 2017). Additionally, according to a staff from the Paris Cotton Singlets Company, “We’ve been here since 1971, and our neon sign has been with us the whole time. Now the sign is getting old; no one is willing to fix it. But we’re still very proud of it. Most of us have spent more than half our lives working here”(Shya, 2018). Perhaps the case is, even if the businesses are hoping to fix their signs, there might not be available technicians out there to help with the repair work.
Some signs are altogether not lit up at night, whether it is not switched on because the business has closed down, or the signs have given up shinning. For example, Kam Wah Cafe & Bakery at Prince Edward is still an operating business, but their projecting banner is not. To replace a Neon sign entirely is a very costly decision, as a reference, the infamous Neon cow sign of Sammy’s Kitchen would cost HK$250,000 to recreate (Li, 2014), therefore, it is quite uncommon for shop owners to replace their signs anew.
In addition, Hong Kong’s ‘Neon City’ title faces more complications in the 21st Century. Firstly, with scarce demand, Neon-making has become a dying craft, most craftsmen are of retirement age and younger sign makers are few and far between. It is reported that there are less than a dozen neon sign makers left in the city while no apprentices being trained for the next generation (Tse, 2015).
Furthermore, light pollution which Neon signs contribute to has been an issue that Hong Kong suffers from. Several environmental activists and university studies have been monitoring and protesting about the light pollution generated from the city’s Blade Runner style night-cap (Ng & Leung, 2017). As a result, the government has invited businesses to sign up for a voluntary Charter on External Lighting (Ng & Leung, 2017). Over 4,000 businesses and organisations have agreed to switch off external lights from 11pm to 7am as part of the agreement (Kao, 2016).
Nonetheless, with Government policies on the Unauthorised Building Works, many Neon signs are categorised as illegal and unsafe, some of them have been ordered to take down. Although the Buildings Department has no record of the number of remaining neon signs, the department acknowledges that it removes hundreds of signs a year for safety and structural reasons, or when they are abandoned or unauthorized (Tse, 2015). In 2015, a number of 1215 signs were removed (B. Kwok 2018, lecture, 29 Jan).
Nevertheless, in response to the changing of times, many art & culture practitioners have taken actions with their own means to try to save a piece of their common Visual Culture. The M+ Museum is scheduled to open in 2019 in the West Kowloon Cultural District to display some of the most iconic, demolished Neon signs of Hong Kong’s history (West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, 2018). Meanwhile, simultaneously, Mobile M+ is collecting photos online to generate an online exhibition, with a featured Neon Map and Neon Timeline (Neonsigns.hk, 2018). On the other hand, Information Design Lab under The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is conducting a detailed research on Neon signages, to function as a ‘Think Tank’ to contribute further to Information Design (Information Design Lab, 2013). Need not to mention the influx of Hong Kong Neon photos on Instagram.
Perhaps the decline in the number of Neon signs is inevitable under the circumstances, yet quality could be the key to preserve this vital part of Hong Kong’s Visual Culture. Conceivably, these handcrafted, technicoloured signs could survive in an anachronistic manner (Chen, 2016). Just as the Neon signs are an innate part of the identity to a few generations, the new generations come with their own succeeding cultural representation, which is built on the foundation of the past and present Visual-cultural climate. As of what individuals can do to help with preservation, appreciate whenever possible and be creative.
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