Pushing back against a housing plan, a 73-year-old fights to preserve 1,000 tonnes of the city’s history. Read more at straitstimes.com.
HONG KONG - From the brine-soaked docks of a ferry pier to the red-painted pillars of a Buddhist temple, many an ageing wooden structure in Hong Kong has found new purpose in the hands of Mr Wong Hung-kuen.
Next month, Mr Wong will have to give up the sawmill, which his family has owned since the late 1940s. It stands in the way of the Hong Kong government's US$13 billion plan to turn a quiet stretch of villages and wetlandsfeaturing tech startups, ecotourism, housing for 2.5 million and easy access to Shenzhen, the city across the border in mainland China.
"Wood is life, even if it can't speak," Wong said."I see it as my responsibility to extend its life span and find new purpose for it."For years, major development projects like the one slowly transforming the border region - part of China's broader plan to bind Hong Kong more closely to the mainland - faced protests from environmentalists and conservationists. Activists held sit-ins at farmlands targeted for development and historic landmarks facing demolition.
Over the years, as Hong Kong grew, Chi Kee moved four times, making way for new roads and tunnels, subway stations and public housing. Hong Kong had been one of the world's leading importers of tropical wood - much of which was used wastefully, as temporary reinforcements or walkways on construction projects, a practice that the government began to discourage.
Artisans saw character in the wood and turned some of it into cafe furniture. But it was a far cry from the boom years.
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