Neon signs bear witness to Hong Kong's prosperity and change, and you can touch its urban atmosphere, literary atmosphere and urban competitiveness. About 3,000 "unauthorized" signboards are removed in Hong Kong each year, but neon signs are still not dead.
Text/Ding Xiaojie
"Twenty or thirty years ago, I came here alone. When I drive along Nathan Road at night, what I see is almost all neon signs, the kind that are most common at night. I don't really know how to read these signs, but they seem to remind me, 'Welcome to our world!' They seemed to be telling me, 'Hey,, straighten yourself out.' You still have a lot to learn. ’”
In a recent short film called "Neon Light and Shadow", Australian Du Kefeng recalls the visual impact he received when he first arrived in Hong Kong. In the films he later collaborated with Wong Kar-wai, the sky in Hong Kong was never dark, but always swayed in a brilliant light and shadow. It's a neon complex of outsiders rooted in a city, "a dazzling, gorgeous, colorful world." It is a world that will fall on your feet if you are not careful, and it is also illusory and real. ”
Du Kefeng's short film is the "NEONSIGNS. HK Explore Neon" is a part of the exhibition. "Neon signs represent a city of change, a city where neon signs are becoming more obsolete and disappearing." In the mind of curator Chen Bokang, Hong Kong's neon culture is deeper than in the West, because they have become part of the city's life, "not only nightclubs and restaurants, but also by pharmacies, tailors, and even optical shops and hardware stores, neon signs have become an indispensable part of the city." 」
Neon signs are the story of a city and can also be said to be the predecessor of Google Maps.
"Hong Kong's streets are lined with colourful neon signs, which is by no means comparable to other cities." Born and raised in the United States, Chen Bokang first experienced Hong Kong's neon signs in 1997, a few weeks before Hong Kong's return to the motherland. "I live in a hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui overlooking Victoria Harbour, which is a beautiful sea of neon lights. Another memory of Hong Kong's neon signs is the giant Chui Wah sign in Central, which I'm sure all visitors have been there. ”
At that time, Chen Bokang did not know that the neon lights as a symbol of the city had been shining in Hong Kong for 60 years. Since Claude's Neon Company opened a factory in Hong Kong in 1932, neon signs have been everywhere. In order to restore the neon appearance of Hong Kong from multiple angles, more than 30 years later, Chen Bokang passed the "NEONSIGNS. HK Explore Neon" campaign collected more than 4,000 pictures of Hong Kong neon signs from netizens to outline the most complete map of Hong Kong at present.
Today's neon lovers can follow this map to every pilgrimage site. Most of them are concentrated in kowloon's Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok areas, "along Nathan Road and nearby streets, you can find countless neon signs with local characteristics, including nightclubs, restaurants and department stores." Another bustling section is in Wan Chai, "in addition to some old restaurants with a long history, you can also find bar signs with foreign overtones, mostly concentrated near Lockhart Road on Luab Road, which is closely related to the colonial color of Hong Kong in the past." "The streets of Central and Sheung Wan are also excellent choices," is concentrated in the mid-levels escalators in Central, where there are also many literary shops in addition to some old-fashioned shops. ”
Among the collected works, Chen Pokang saw the most iconic neon signs in Hong Kong that shone between the 1960s and 1980s: "The huge golden orange neon sign of the Chinese Palace Nightclub hangs on the street, depicting a round ball topped with a crown; the Miaoli Mall uses the sign of a huge peacock to make a sign, which is very exaggerated." It was the most glorious period of Hong Kong's neon, and the most representative was the giant neon sign built in Nathan Road in 1962 by the Japanese home appliance brand "Music Sound Brand" that almost occupied the entire façade of a building, which was complemented by the American cigarette "Eagle King" sign on the top floor - in 1970, the remodeled "Music Sound Sign" squeezed out the "Eagle King", as the world's largest neon signboard, successfully entered the Guinness World Records.
"Neon signs are the story of a city, and you can learn about the competitiveness of the city, because merchants want their neon signs to outperform others. Neon signs also distinguish between different regions, such as nightlife; it is also a way to help us find our way in the city, which can be said to be the predecessor of Google Maps; some older generations also said that neon signs symbolize the prosperity of the city. Chen Bokang said.
The meaning of neon lights has almost never changed, it is a world of flowers and flowers mixed with fish and dragons, and it is the abyss of loneliness behind prosperity.
If the neon signs in the life of the city have witnessed the change of Hong Kong's streets and alleys full of fireworks, then in the 1995 Hong Kong film "Fallen Angels", they show the mysterious and fascinating side of the city to audiences outside Hong Kong with romantic and confusing meanings.
Christoph Ribbat, a professor at the University of Paderborn in Germany, wrote it into the article "Pulsating Still: The History of Neon": "On a cold and rainy night, a young man dresses up for work. He left home and took a minibus to Lockhart Road in Wan Chai, passing through neon signs: 'Celebrity Nightclub', 'OK', 'Sharp Lips Bar', 'Broadway Seafood Restaurant', 'Diamond Palace Sauna'; and some of them he didn't have time to look closely. A variety of signboards, both Chinese characters and English characters, are accompanied by horizontal lines, straight lines, curves, small circles, semicircles, large circles, squares and outer and inner circles, adding red, green, yellow, pink, light blue and other colors to the night sky. These colors, letters, lines and symbols are reflected on the water on the ground and on the glass windows of the minibus. The face of the young man in the rearview mirror of the minibus, showing a wilt, a vain, and even a hint of innocence, while he was going to kill people. Neon signs, like the catalysts for evil that usually appear in detective novels, give outsiders a conjecture of Hong Kong: "The city seems to have multiple personalities, split into all kinds of halos." ”
"Wong Kar-wai and Toh Ke-fung's films are certainly iconic, and through their lens, Hong Kong is a city built of neon signs. But it's worth noting that you don't see real neon signs often in their films, but they're all haunting the atmosphere, reflecting on the characters and the city, even if you don't see the light source of the neon signs. From this point of view, the film shows how neon signs have penetrated hong Kong thoroughly and how to add mystery to the city. Neon signs were used as material for visual arts and film in the 20th century, providing a new way for people to "read" the city's face, Chen said.
Before Wong Kar-wai, in the 1960s movie called "The World of Susie Yellow", the neon lights shining on Lockhart Road in Wan Chai had first introduced the image of the red light district of the "Pearl of the Orient" to the world, and also made the neon city the embodiment of lust.
The same is lust, and the neon sign of the novel text is earlier. According to the Hong Kong novelist Pan Guoling, the neon sign first appeared in Hong Kong literature, which was Cao Juren's novel "Hotel" in 1954. At the beginning of the novel, it is written that in 1949, when the mainland regime changed hands, the young Teng Zhijie came to Hong Kong with his father in the south and met Huang Mingzhong, who was also a dancer who fled to Hong Kong as a dancer in the barbershop. The scene was described as follows: 'He walked out of the side door of M Barbershop and looked up, and on the vertical sign was a neon sign with the "Qinghua Dance Hall" on it. From this novel onwards, the meaning of neon lights has almost never changed, it is a world of flowers and flowers, an abyss of loneliness behind prosperity.
In 1987, the Daming faction sang sentimentally in "Tonight's Starry Night": "Flying in the lights, frustrated children, please take a look at this glorious city." Running again, I suspect in my heart, I am afraid that this brilliant city, the glory has reached this point. Chen Shaoqi's lyrics, in Pan's view, sublimate the neon metaphor to a new level, and are "writing a verdict on the uncertainty of Hong Kong's transition period."
Neon signs are like vinyl records of the city's face, although they can't compete with LEDs, but it will always have its appeal.
When Chen Bokang tried to restore the real Hong Kong neon context with various texts, he found that people were most concerned about the spirit of the people behind it. The most popular video, called "The Making of Neon Signage," was viewed 115,000 times on YouTube in just 12 minutes.
"This film not only shows the craftsmanship of making neon signs and explains the principles of neon signs, but also tells how craftsmen retain this vanished craft and make neon signs more humane." Chen Bokang also talked to calligraphers who specialized in neon signboards, which was eye-opening: "He mentioned that different types of industries use different styles of fonts, such as the bonesetting hospital and martial arts gyms, which tend to choose the Northern Wei style because of their more majestic image. He also introduced different neon sign making techniques that can produce different glyph effects. This reminds us that neon signs are a combination of art and technology, calligraphy and craftsmanship. ”
"For us, neon signs should continue to hang in their 'natural habitat': the streets." But in fact, Hong Kong's neon signs have rapidly retired over the past 10 years, and the M+ Museum in Chan's West Kowloon Cultural District has two 1970s neon signs: the rooster sign of the "Crane Bird Pavilion" in Kwun Tong and the bull-shaped neon sign of the "Sen Mei Restaurant" in Sai Ying Pan – once a landmark presence in Hong Kong, which were eventually demolished in urban planning.
Since 2006, about 3,000 "unauthorized" signboards have been removed in Hong Kong each year. “NEONSIGNS. Within the first two weeks of HK's Discovery neon launch, 8 neon signs had been removed at Nathan Road alone. "Neon signs are like vinyl records of the city, and although they can't compete with LEDs, they will always have its appeal." Enthusiasts like Chen Bokang have to accept the reality that more and more neon signs will be replaced by more energy-efficient and cheaper LEDs.
"I guess I'm a romantic and I can't understand why people complain about light pollution, it's like living in the suburbs and complaining about too many trees. I'm not saying these issues aren't serious or don't need to be addressed, but people should appreciate what makes up our city. In the past year, Chen Bokang has come into contact with many teachers who have been immersed in the production of neon signs for decades, and they all realize that the glory days of neon signs have passed, but this does not mean that it has lost its future: "Neon signs are still not dead, but they are different from the past and the current situation." They may become more specialized and adopted by artists, cafes or bars who want to create special effects, but they will never go away. ”