Walking on the street, if you pay attention to your surroundings, you may find a yellow light box in the middle of the road, with “I’m waiting for you” written in a black box pen; when you are about to throw away the cup of pearl milk tea, Glimpse at the trash can and tell you “try everything first”; on the overpass with people coming and going, there is another sentence “the world is not cute, but you are so cute” written crookedly. These playful and emotional words have appeared in different corners of the city from time to time in recent years. Marcus, a post-90s architecture student, opened an Instagram page “Hong Kong Street Observation” more than two years ago (@hkurbanrecord), from the initial posting of street graffiti that I shot, to now I mainly select works that resonate with everyone from more than a dozen daily contributions by netizens, and the page has accumulated more than 100,000 fans so far.
“The most positive community message board in Hong Kong”, he described himself in the introduction of the page. Strangers regard the walls and overpasses as message boards, and use graffiti as a communication medium to respond to each other, comforting and supporting each other, “Everyone interacts through handwriting. I think this kind of positive interaction is hard to see online, but You’ll see it in street art.”
Reporter: Xia Xiaoyu
From social movement to new Hong Kong under the epidemic, from back alleys to flyovers
Marcus likes to walk in the city, “I don’t know where to go, so I like to look in front of me, I like to look left and right, so it may be easier to see (graffiti).” From Mong Kok to Tsim Sha Tsui, obviously you can take the bus and subway, He prefers to walk, “I will turn to the long route, avoid the main roads of Nathan Road, for example, I will turn into the back alley of Temple Street, and sometimes I don’t know where I am.” , the early creations on the street were mostly tagging, simple graphics or repetitive signs. He said with a smile: “At the beginning, as a layman (a layman), maybe I have no culture, but in fact, I am not good-looking. Gotta understand.”
Until the social movement in 2019, people took to the streets to voice their voices and shouted slogans. At the same time, they also expressed their political demands by graffiti of various slogans and symbols. Marcus recalled, “At that time (everyone) was the most creative, so innovative, and there were fewer and fewer tails.” Later, the crowd dispersed, but there were still many political words left on the street for a while, and the content may not be offensive. , but it makes people want to stop and watch: “I only marry frontline silk in this life”, “British dad: can you not want Hong Kong people to go to Hong Kong” and so on.
After a period of post-social movement emptiness, Marcus noticed that graffiti had gradually emerged from hidden dark back alleys and hard-to-reach old building rooftops to conspicuous flyovers and street corners where people usually go to work and go to school. Painted on the walls and lampposts are more poetic and positive words “sticking to the ground”. Using his adjective, it is “some emo”, but it is more likely to arouse the resonance of this generation and make the public “circle”. Stove for heating”, or add fun to the dull day of urbanites. Most of them are written with box pens or ballpoint pens, like a mirror looking into the tunnel, someone will wish you “Happy every day”, and the stone pillars beside the pier write “When will we meet again”.
The epidemic has also become one of the popular creative themes, closely related to the real life of Hong Kong people. For example, in the early days, restaurants implemented vaccine passes. The photo of “COVID grows longer than every one of you” has been liked by nearly 20,000 people.
Entity Positive Energy Community Message Board
“Unexpectedly, there will be such a positive engaement, (everyone) will comfort each other.”
One of the interactions that left a deep impression on Marcus was a post written on the wall with a box pen, “Dick, no frd on birthday ;(“, as a result, dozens of netizens left messages to wish each other a happy birthday. “How many times do I like I like this kind of positive engagement, like (likes), but this kind of engagement is the focus of the page run.”
But what surprised him the most was that graffiti went from online to offline, truly connecting a group of strangers.
On a white wall in Kowloon Tsai, someone wrote the words “Wishing Fountain”, and there was a message in different handwriting below: “I want a girlfriend / I want to develop THX / I want to spend my high school life safely / I want to be happy”. This group of Hong Kong people who don’t know each other moved the chat room to the streets and alleys they pass through in their daily life, and responded to the handwriting with their handwriting, adding an extra warmth to a cold wall.
And in the back alley of Shek Kip Mei, someone once put down a line, “It’s so quiet here, let me commit suicide”, and another person replied nervously, “No, it’s not good, so please be quiet, enjoy yourself together!” After a long time, the person who left the original message hurriedly clarified that it was referring to the lyrics, “I’m fine! Thx for your love!” Marcus added, “I found that most of the people who wrote that live in that area. If you read the comment, you will see yourself writing that It is a joyful experience for a comment to be commented on.”
In the past three years, Hong Kong has experienced social movements, the epidemic has raged, and the social atmosphere has been sluggish. The page has been in operation for nearly three years. The reason why Marcus insists on “posting every day” is precisely these positive energy that makes people smile, “Hong Kong people are good Depress, I have a bit of a shock that people can become so romantic.”
“We’re just decorating the city”
Graffiti is often misunderstood, negatively labeled, and even equated with the destruction of urban landscapes.
Marcus believes that when the urban scene becomes monotonous with rapid development, street graffiti is only decorating and beautifying the city. He emphasized that “all street art is about expressing a certain idea, telling one’s own story, and expressing everyone’s thoughts in a humane way.” Litong Ma Guoming’s graffiti photo, asking what the meaning of the sentence is in simplified characters, “These are inside jokes that Hong Kong people should understand first, (because) they are all written by us.”
As Taiwanese writer Li Weijing wrote in the book “The Necessity of Old-School Dating”, “Only when we take a walk can we really chat.”
“Street art is also a daily way to understand Hong Kong. Keep walking, absorbing the energy of the community, and understanding more about the place I am in.” Marcus said.
Due to your privacy preferences, this content is not available.
