New photo book captures colonial Hong Kong and old Macau, from the historic to the everyday
Photojournalist Wong Kan-tai’s book depicts pre-handover life in black and white: Queen Elizabeth’s visits to Hong Kong, the infamous Kowloon Walled City, eating dim sum at a tea shop and more
Wong Kan-tai’s new photo book of black-and-white images taken in old Hong Kong and Macau has no page numbers or captions, nor is it in chronological order. Flipping the pages is a wondrous journey into the past, through a curated collection of memorable events and everyday slices of life in the two former colonies.
The book offers plenty of nostalgic moments for anyone who spent any time during the past several decades in the cities.
The photojournalist took the Hong Kong photos during British colonial times, between 1977 and the handover in 1997, hence the book’s title, The Queen’s.
“There is an undertone of ‘borrowed place, borrowed time’, no matter rich or poor, refugees from China or Vietnam, permanently settled or who sought shelter. For the older generation, many saw Hong Kong as a transient place. Sooner or later, they thought, they might move on.”
