Hong Kong is subject to many, many, many videos, celebrating everything from our skyline to our landscapes and cultural heritage. Jumping on the bandwagon of the city’s video obsession is the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority’s newest project, Decade, a homage to the rich historical background and development of our vibrant city.
So much has contributed to Hong Kong’s hustle and bustle and ever changing nature – the saying “A New York minute is a Hong Kong second” has never seemed truer than in Decade.
Screengrab of 1963 film Three Love Affairs, from Decade 1960: Work Hard & Play Hard
The project is an amalgamation of 10 five-minute videos featuring footage from every decade in the last century with accompaniments by 10 different musicians of various backgrounds. The segments succinctly display the sheer rapidity of change here, be it geographical or socioeconomic, with each part helpfully followed by a short paragraph on the historical changes during that specific era.
Screengrab of 1974 film China Behind from Decade 1970: Fly High & Aspire
To give you a rough idea of the scope the project covers, Decade features the earliest footage of Hong Kong as a small fishing village, as well as clips from 2002 triad blockbuster Infernal Affairs. It doesn’t get much more eclectic than that!
While Decade made its live public debut in 2013, it has only just been made available online, with an interactive feature that allows you to rearrange the music and footage according to your own interpretation.
View the video below, or go to the full site for more info and historical context:
Photos: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority
