360-year-old abandoned Hong Kong Hakka village is born again – the award-winning revitalisation of Mui Tsz Lam
- Abandoned in the 1980s, Mui Tsz Lam has been gaining recognition as a model for rejuvenation through a project led by the Chinese University of Hong Kong
- The project engaged returning villagers, university students and researchers, as well as some 120 volunteers throughout the two-year process
In 2017, when Tsang Yuk-on returned to his family home in remote Mui Tsz Lam, in northeast Hong Kong near the Shenzhen border, the village representative couldn’t help but feel sad to see his birthplace silent and deserted.
“In the old days of this Hakka village, all children attended school for half a day and helped with household chores and farming the rest of the day,” says Tsang, who is now in his 70s. “Despite the tough times, we were a very close community, and worked together to overcome challenges.”
However, fond memories of “where I belong”, as he puts it, augmented rejuvenation efforts. A result is the experimental restoration of one of Hong Kong’s abandoned Hakka villages.
The government-funded Project Plum Grove was collaboratively undertaken between 2020 and 2022 by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) School of Architecture with the help of returning villagers and other volunteers.
It won the President’s Special Prize and the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) Special Award – Architectural Installation, Curation & Exhibition Design at the 2023 HKIA annual awards, and was a finalist in two categories at the 2023 World Architecture Festival Awards.
In the late 1980s, Mui Tsz Lam (literal translation Plum Grove), established 360 years ago as part of a farming village cluster, was abandoned after the last of the villagers moved to the city, or abroad.
