Boat dwellers and maritime heritage in Hong Kong

Coming ashore to Yue Kwong Chuen (Fishing Lights Estate)

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5701351
AutoresLachlan Barber (0000-0002-3353-8507, independent scholar, autor de correspondencia), Po-Yin Stephanie Chung (Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China), Po Yin Chung (0000-0002-1831-1558, Hong Kong Baptist University)
Año2023
Volumen29
Número11
Páginas1250-1264
Fecha de publicación2023-11-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13527258.2023.2244918
OpenAlexW4386094448
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas25

Hong Kong’s cultural heritage and tourism offerings include several prominent symbols and legacies drawn from the waters that surround it, including dragon boat racing, Tin Hau temples honouring the Goddess of the sea, and iconic junk boats sailing on the harbour. Within the growing field of Hong Kong heritage studies, however, there has been little work addressing these and other aspects of its maritime past. This paper addresses this contradiction, of the simultaneous presence and absence of maritime heritage. It does so by considering the story of the ‘coming ashore’ (上岸) of people who lived on boats in the fishing centre of Aberdeen on the south side of Hong Kong Island. In the 1960s, many of them moved into Yue Kwong Chuen, an early public housing estate which is now being redeveloped. Drawing on archival research and oral history interviews, we consider the significance of the estate as an important example of the heritage of public housing that sheds light on the status of boat dwellers, excluded for centuries in South China, and their eventual incorporation into land-based society. The paper contributes new insights on collective memory and identity formation in Hong Kong under and after colonial rule

Archaeology · China · Colonialism · Cultural heritage · Cultural heritage management · Estate · Ethnology · Fishing · Geography · Heritage tourism · Mainland China · Political science · Tourism · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · History · Law · Socioeconomic Development in Asia