Sometimes in the process of worldbuilding you come across a real-world place that resonates so thoroughly with the place that you're imagining/creating that it stops you right there in your tracks, stunned. This was the case when I recently discovered the Kowloon Walled City. It was one of those moments where you are reminded once again that reality really can be stranger than fiction and you have to step up your game a bit in turn to keep up. The goalposts (to use a metaphor from an albeit much loathed sport) are constantly shifting.
By all accounts it really was the most astounding place: Kowloon's dark other, a city within and also without a city - a scorned, renegade parasite metropolis with its own rules (or rather lack of them) existing as a society of its own on the very fringes of another. Without the attentions of architects and with utter disregard toward planning regulations, by the time of its demolition in the early 90s Hak Nam (its colloquial name meaning 'City of Darkness') had become almost one gigantic building that reached up to fifteen storeys high in places, a mass of homogenised ramshackle structures packed together so tightly that sunlight barely reached the lower levels and that could be (and sometimes was) traversed almost entirely via the rooftops.
The Walled City existed, at least during the earlier half of the twentieth century, in a state of harmonious anarchy. Generations upon generations were born, lived and died in Hak Nam, businesses flourished, and although the drug trade, vice, and other organised criminal activity did too, it was in many respects a place where people lived their lives like any other. To quote Jeff Goldblum in 'Jurassic Park' - "Life finds a way".
If you're interested in finding out more about the Kowloon Walled City, I vehemently recommend 'City of Darkness', a book by Greg Girard and Ian Lambot from which the images above originate. It's a wonderful piece of photojournalism and is probably the best way to explore the city for those of us who will now never get a chance to visit it.
8 comments:
That is surreal. Thanks for sharing this!
I wish I'd had a chance to visit it while it was still standing. I'd have been about ten when it came down though, so that was never going to happen. Another one for the Time Machine list!
woah, that's incredible. nice find.
Glad you find it interesting! The book's in the uni library btw (costs around £30 to buy) and well worth reading
Wow, these photos are amazing Alex. I am immediately taken to that place and I could see how using these images would make worldbuilding easier...fantastic! I may have to post on this... : )
amazing stuff. not surprised they knocked it down though, damn!
Alexander: Pleased that it sparks your imagination! Finding out about places like this really makes me want to travel more, a definite reminder of the boundless wonders of the world that we can only really attempt to approach in fiction. Reading your post now, good stuff.
Adam: Yep. The book (which I want to heartily recommend once again as it's bloody brilliant) contains a lot of mixed feeling from the residents: some don't mind, others are of the "they'll have to come and physically throw me out" stance. If it hadn't come down then, I think it certainly would have post-handover. The Chinese government doesn't play around when it comes to this sort of thing...
Ah, I see it's your most recent post. Amazing city.
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