Heritage Tour: Cha Kwo Ling 茶果嶺 with Historian Architect Edward Leung

The City of Hong Kong on both sides of the harbour, was built by the British since their occupation in 1841, as told by text books for schools in Hong Kong over many decades. We now know that this is not truthful history. Bustling townships and villages beneath the Kowloon Hills have taken roots since the 10^th century, serving the last emperors of the Song Dynasty. They prospered in the 19^th century as a key port for the East-West trade, as a coastal defense out-post for the Chinese dynasties, as a centre of salt and stone production and, as a handicraft industrial hub after the War. These settlements of Chinese houses, of brick/stone-walls and tiled-roofs hidden amongst urban high-rises and overwhelmed by the denser and denser network of roads and highways, the government calls “Squatter-Structures”. They were silently cleared over the past decades. Little is now left to testify the heroic history of these peoples of the early Chinese settlements. There are three remaining urban villages: Chuk Yuen, Ngau Chi Wan and Cha Kwo Ling.

The HKU Museum Society is delighted to organize a heritage tour to the largest of these villages, Cha Kwo Ling, with historian architect Edward Leung. During our visit, expert guides will take your through the village to see the remaining, inconspicuous yet historically and socially significant, temples, dwellings, workshops, shops, shrines, trees, streets and public-spaces, before they are either regrettably cleared, or, fortunately, partly kept in the process of imminent redevelopment for housing.

海彊礦場英雄村–末代城市村和她那悍衛海彊和礦場之人民 

維港兩岸的香港城市，據舊日教科書所講，是英國人自 1841年接管香港後建造的。如今，經深入研究，我們得知事實並非如此：九龍山下熙熙攘攘的鄉鎮自10世紀已經成型，為宋朝末代皇帝服務，並在19世紀作為東西方貿易的重要港口，續而繁榮起來，並成為王朝的海防基地、是產鹽或產石之場所，甚至在戰後成為為手作工業中心。這些隱藏在我們城市的高樓大廈和繁忙的道路綱絡內的村居，是中式做型，用磚或花崗石牆和瓦頂建做的聚落，被政府稱為「寮屋建構」，什至「譴例建築」，在過去幾十年來被續步悄然清拆。現僅存的有竹園、牛池灣及茶果嶺三條城中村。而這三條村現也列入清拆計劃，往後香港便面臨沒有明顯見證這些人民英雄歷史的遺跡。香港大學博物館學會在此邀請有心人士參加最後一次參觀這三條村落中最大的一條：茶果嶺村，看看這些僅存的、不起眼但存著重要歷史價值的寺廟、住宅、工作坊、商店、神襢、樹木、街道和公共空間。它們大部分已經被例入即將進行清拆項目，以便房屋發展。或者，市民對𨶹著保育歷史表態，有重要意義的地部分還能幸免剷走，保留給後代－系列能清楚解讀的香港典故。

Speaker

Edward Leung is an architect with experience in conserving historic architecture, including an award winning Adaptive Reuse design and many other restoration projects in China and Hong Kong. Apart from being the former Chairman of the Heritage Conservation Committee of Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) and the Academic Director of HKU Space Cultural Heritage Management Programme, he also regularly delivers lectures and papers on local historic architectural topics.