A night on Mong Kok’s Sai Yeung Choi Street can be a noisy riot. Twice a week, every week on the 500-meter stretch of street, there are performances from so-called singing and dancing aunties, karaoke nights, and even the odd lip-sync battle.
But for some, the noise can be too much, and officers on the street don’t seem willing to do anything to get performers to one it down a bit.
Last night, one of the shops on the street, LANEIGE, decided to take matters into their own hands and lowered a 60-square meter noise barrier in a vain attempt to block some of the noise from the streets.
According to Apple Daily, staff members at the cosmetics store said that the presence of two music performers sitting outside their shop has made making sales difficult, and that some customers cannot even bear the thought of going outside.
An experiment by Apple Daily found the barrier did not make much of a difference — their decibel reader recorded highs of 94.5db outside the barrier and 80db behind it. However, the newspaper reported that after the barrier was lowered, staff could talk to customers without raising their voices.
An officer from the Food and Environmental Health Department was later spotted taking a few photographs of the barrier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyoma5ypXKU
Not everyone is a fan. One of Sai Yeung Choi Street’s regular performers known only as “Ka-ka” told the newspaper: “I don’t think it’s noisy, you can see here I don’t have a keyboard, just a karaoke machine. The people next to me have a keyboard, drums, and a woofer… I don’t think I’m guilty.”
Another person who is also not a fan is the President of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors Vincent Ho Kui-yip. He told Apple Daily that a large-scale noise barrier is technically not legal under the Buildings Ordinance, and can pose a health and safety risk to pedestrians.
The presence of Mong Kok’s singing and dancing aunties has been a source of consternation over the years; in 2015, there were a series of protests on Sai Yeung Choi Street from localist groups against Chinese “square dancing”.
Dancing in public spaces is a hobby that emerged in China in the ’90s, and has become widespread in parks and plazas across the mainland. According to Hong Kong Free Press, an increasing number of these Chinese-style song and dance groups have appeared in Hong Kong in recent years.
Critics have also accused the authorities of imposing a double standard when it comes to street performers. Last month, Mr Wally, a Japanese singer with an acoustic guitar dressed up as Wally from the children’s Where’s Wally? books, was stopped by police while performing in Mong Kok.
Mr Wally told fans in a Facebook post that he tried to explain to officers that he has a working holiday visa. However, he said he was threatened with arrest, and police said he needed a Hong Kong ID in order to do any work. He was also fined by police during his first visit to Hong Kong in 2015 after officers told him to keep it down while he was performing on Sai Yeung Choi Street.
Buskers and street performances are not regulated by the government. However, according to the Summary Offences Ordinance, anyone performing with a musical instrument on a public street must have a permit from the Commissioner for Police.
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