SOULS OF HONG KONG – Mr Li is a hawker stall owner who sells socks at Li Yuen Street East in Central. Li has been in business on Li Yuen Street East for over 30 years and has witnessed how the area, tourist and Hongkongers have changed over the years.
“The 60s and 70s were the heydays of street hawking because there were barely any shopping malls in Hong Kong. People bought almost everything, food and clothes, from street hawkers. Our business started to suffer in 1997 because locals opted to purchase goods at large shopping complexes and foreign tourists came to backpack and sightsee rather than shop. You might see a lot of mainland tourists shopping in Central, and that we’re doing fine – that’s far from the truth – most mainland tourists only buy luxury goods. It’s tough running this business now, but I still need to keep working and face the challenges that come as times changes.”
When we were speaking to Mr Li, he was drawing a sketch of his new hawker stall to comply with the uniform stall proposal, which was proposed after the fire at Fa Yuen Street in 2011, to standardise hawker stall’s make and size to enhance safety.
Souls of Hong Kong is a new Coconuts series of street portrait photography inspired by Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York. Every human has a story to tell, and we intend to share some from the millions of souls who call Hong Kong home.
Photo: Shuk-yan Li
