Material for thought
Aug 31st, 2010 by Christophe Bruchansky
Here are two pictures from the “Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art?” exhibition in Tokyo.
Aug 26th, 2010 by Christophe Bruchansky
The Hermitage is a massive residential property under construction in Kowloon (Hong Kong). I was living just next to its location, so I could see the progress of its development and I was very intrigued by the inside. Few weeks ago, I was walking in the adjacent Olympian shopping mall and I discovered that The Hermitage opened its showroom to the public. It went beyond all my expectations and was by far the craziest thing I have seen during my stay in Hong Kong, The showroom is completely out of reality, immersing visitors into a manufactured ‘dream’-like experience.
People from Hong Kong and Asia more generally associate romantic western imagery with luxury. The Hermitage gives them all that on steroids. The showroom is entirely in marble, fake gold, crystals and mirrors. Space is very expensive in Hong Kong and most of the apartments on sale are actually very small, but no trick is spared to make the flats look bigger: lights, mirrors, smaller than usual furniture. The Hermitage showroom plays a soundtrack which is a condensed version of cheesy opera music, at the moment when the princess falls in love with the prince. They also made a dream like movie introducing the property; again everything is in gold.
Associations with symbols of prestige are heavily used to promote the apartments. Real Rolls-Royces from Europe are on display in the showroom and in the huge ads flooding the Hong Kong subway. But the most surprising is the collection of authentic Russian golden accessories displayed in introduction to one of the showroom. Models of high end apartments made of crystal-like material are then presented in the same fashion than the golden artefacts, in case someone didn’t appreciate well enough there intrinsic value. Videos mix images of the property and the original Hermitage in St Petersburg, making it somehow confusing, but the point is of course not to make it all rational, we are in a dream. The property is not so central in Hong Kong but the issue has been cleverly resolved by introducing the concept of ‘golden circle’ which happens to enclose the Hermitage property and the most famous central landmarks, a wonderful marketing imagery.
Tens of clerks and estate agents stand in the many showrooms, all very polite and nice. One was explaining to a potential buyer that the Hermitage is also the biggest museum in Paris, not so right, but who cares anyway.
The showroom itself is not even in The Hermitage building, it is just a temporary site reproducing with some liberty the final product, and you can even visit reproductions of the lifts! When you visit the fake flats all decorated in a very heavy romantic style, red sections are displayed on the floor to indicate space that will actually not be part of the asset on sale, so potential buyers still get the correct information, but from a manufactured dream that can completely submerge them. It is a fake of a fake to use postmodernist terminology. I would recommend anyone to visit the showroom, you will have a great time and it is even better than Hong Kong Disneyland or casinos from Macau!
Aug 24th, 2010 by Christophe Bruchansky
New and shiny buildings are the ones that attract most of the attention in Hong Kong. But older buildings are also remarkable. The new towns in the Hong Kong New Territories (such as Fo Tan and Sha Tin) and some residential lots in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon are worthwhile a visit. They are usually from the 70s and look all more or less the same: apartment towers, multiple levels of public spaces for pedestrians, a park and a playground, a shopping mall, parking and roads at the ground level. I have seen similar examples in Western cities but most of them become urbanistic nightmares. The model seems to work much better here, maybe because of the habits of its people.
Shopping in Tai Po
Very early in the morning, the parks get invaded by old people practicing their tai chi and sometimes playing music. Then you see students getting to schools and parents to their offices. Later in the day, the public spaces get used by a mix of people: elderly, mothers living at home, workers getting a break, teenagers. In the evening, people do sport in the parks, play football, jog or simply chat. The shopping malls attract the younger crowd, not necessary to shop, also to hang around or have an afternoon snack with their friends. The towns and residential lots are always lively and feel very safe. I’m sure they also have their urbanistic problems and that life is far from being perfect here. Maybe the liveliness in public spaces is nothing but a consequence of the very small flats that families can only afford here in Hong Kong. It remains that the social cohesion and the coexistence between generations really transform the space.
One of the many small gardens between apartment buildings
Playgrounds all look the same in Hong Kong, but are always very well maintained.
The community buildings feature typically a series of local facilities: kindergartens, dry cleaners, second hand shops and so forth.
Older generations seem to play an essential role in this equilibrium; they are the ones who have the most time and incentives to appropriate the public space. Far from being inactive people without any function in society, their everyday activities seem to help maintaining a neighbourhood that is useful to the whole community. I wonder if there are others reasons why these residential lots and planned towns work somehow better than in other parts of the world.
Aug 19th, 2010 by Christophe Bruchansky
I was not so keen to visit the monastery, knowing it is a relatively recent building dating from the 50s, and is not actually a real monastery. But I was in Sha Tin anyway so I gave it a try. As its name indicates, it has more than ten thousands Buddhas statues, all different. The first impression is of very cheap statues, but more of them I saw, more I liked them.
I started to appreciate the amazing diversity of their forms and of the symbols used. It is actually a very interesting place because religious icons are not historical relics here; they are the evidences of a living religious practice.
Statues are colourful; like most centuries-old statues were at their origin.
It is fascinating to see how the craftsmen and craftswomen produce them today.
Aug 10th, 2010 by Christophe Bruchansky
Here are two fast food chains that I think are interesting in Hong Kong.
The first, Café de Coral, is from Hong Kong. It has a very distinctive board at the entrance where meal placards are hanged and moved manually by waiters dressed like flight attendants. Other smaller chains have also this system and I don’t know if Café de Coral was the first one to use it. But it still makes the experience feel different. It materializes a menu that is changing day by day, even hours by hours between the breakfast, lunch, dinner and meals being sold out. But the fact that it is updated manually makes it somehow more playful and trustworthy than a digital screen, even though the entire process flow seems to be anyway automated.
The second, Pepper Lunch from Japan, is a genius marketing concept. People are served food on hot iron plates while it still sizzles. People can then ‘cook’ there meal according to their own preferences. The plates are intriguing, make a lot of noise and are always grasping attention even in a food court full of competitors. TV screens explain customers how they can mix there food, which might be useful for newbies but more importantly reinforces the message that there is a specific way to eat a Pepper Lunch, for newbies and experts, which adds to the buzz and playfulness. One disadvantage for them though: the hot iron plates are not children friendly.
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