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<角醒>是由大角咀街坊自發成立的社區報,由2020年起,每2個月發行一次。在大時代洪流下,我們選擇從小處出發,在角落處點一盞燈。 如果你有興趣加入製作團體,請填妥以下資料,我們將於稍後聯絡你: https://forms.gle/Cp78YdYSs71bn4zu6 如果你是大角咀商戶,歡迎加入成為派發點: https://forms.gle/ZWCmSUYqwhEYiPR19

Tai Kok Tsui Awakening – English Article 001

Welcome, English language readers, to the magazine dedicated to life in Tai Kok Tsui.

Tai Kok Tsui Awakening is a publication that was introduced in November 2020 and has been focusing on delivering articles about the history and development of Tai Kok Tsui over the years. 

For example, I’m sure that many of our English-speaking community don’t know that for about 100 years between 1870’s – 1972 the area of Cosmopolitan Estate, basically from McDonalds on Tai Kok Tsui Road, back to Sham Mong Road, was basically the shoreline of Kowloon’s west and the location where the Cosmopolitan docks were situated.

These docks themselves had a rich and lively history with many amazing stories over the years, such as, in 1937 more than 100 refugees originating from Northern Europe fled from the Japanese invasion of Shanghai to Hong Kong and resided at the dock while waiting to be resettled.

Another such story is that on the 16th of January 1945 as part of a massive air raid attack on the then Japanese occupied Hong Kong, the Cosmopolitan Dock was bombed by aircraft from the United States of America.

The dock was closed in 1972 and the current Cosmopolitan housing estate was built by 1976. From that time, the land reclamation slowly enveloped the area into a larger landmass and opened the way for many projects including Olympian City shopping centre and MTR, as well as quite possibly the home you are living in.

So, if you are living in the area from Harbour Green to The Long Beach and along the promenade, and you are in your late 40’s, then you yourself are technically older than the land that you walk upon.

I myself only arrived in TKT in 2005 and by pure luck. I had relocated to Hong Kong after life in Australia had become mundane. Looking for a new surrounding and the challenge to learn and become submerged in a new culture. 

I first landed myself in Causeway Bay, a nice area with lots of international restaurants and most of the people speaking English. It was an easy entry into Hong Kong but wasn’t what I was looking for. 

I was determined to live in Kowloon and with a little searching I found a small place to call home in Tai Kok Tsui. A small subdivide opposite to the Mong Kok Fire Station, where with their lights, it was brighter in the night than it was in the day, but at HKD$1700 per month, I was happy. I had found my home.

At that time, I was the only westerner roaming the streets of TKT, and I’m sure many of the local business owners and residents thought I was lost or a weird kind of tourist that for some strange reason, liked to hang out in the industrial area. 

I could feel that some of the locals thought I was a traveller and would treat me as such, trying to double charge me and take advantage of the “Gwailo”. 

However, there were many others that welcomed me into the neighbourhood with openness, respect, and the same sense of curiosity towards me as I had towards them and the area. And to this day I still hold many of those people dear and continue to patronize their restaurants, shops, and services.

I’ve had the honour of watching some of the people in the area grow, just as they have watched me, and my family grow up alongside. 

From those days of long ago TKT has maintained to be this small, somewhat forgotten, pocket just to the side of busy Mong Kok, but has at the same time evolved into a harmonious multi-cultural hub. 

Now, if you are new to the area and are struggling to communicate and get done what you need to get done on the day to day, don’t fear, there are many shops and services in TKT that communicate in English well enough. And if by chance they don’t then there are still many who put in a good effort to communicate in other ways. 

There are good people in TKT and the community is great. Once you get settled you will find that moving here is going to become one of the best decisions that you ever made.

I’m looking forward to writing for the TKT Awakening for our English-speaking community and I hope that we can also interact with the community through our publication. 

Living in Hong Kong can be difficult and frustrating, but when you live in a great community like TKT, the experience becomes extremely enjoyable and rewarding!

By Daniel Hemsworth

CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 版权声明

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