Fieldwork 2: Soundwalk in Stanley

Soundscape Project – A trip to Stanley

You can find the soundtracks here: https://soundcloud.com/olympia-hui/sets/standley

In the soundscape fieldwork project, me and two of my groupmates went to Stanley and do a soundwalk for 1.5 hours. We wandered around the Stanley market and some nearby places. Through this project, I’ve found that I hear more sound than I usually do, some even I won’t notice normally.

Stanley is a place full of historical value. An origin place of native Hong Kong Island people, named after the former UK Prime Minister “Lord Stanley”, during 1842, it was a temporary administrative centre of the British Colonial government. More than that, St. Stephen’s College was used as a concentration camp for the whites by Japanese army during the annexation of Hong Kong. Therefore, it is said that Stanley is actually witnessing the changes in Hong Kong history.

Apart from historical value, Stanley is also famous for its cultural value. First of all, it’s the place where people usually go for a walk on the wooden path at Stanley promenade, it construct in 2006, made by wood, when walking on the path you can hear the footstep clearly, also the sound from the playground.

Back to our project, we recorded a total of 14 soundtracks during the walk. Each soundtrack represents a specific culture or natural value which we found them interesting. First of all, for the cultural aspects we recorded a track at the entrance of Stanley market of tourists speaking the language that can’t distinguish they were speaking, they spoke loudly and sounded excited in the soundtrack are more than one people continuously speaking, during our soundwalk, we met a lot of tourists from different places as can be told from their skin colors and their languages. Hong Kong always attracts people from all over the world no matter which cultural background they’re from

Secondly, we recorded the conversation in the Stanley market .Stanley market is a great variety of products (eg. paintings/portraits, clothes, furnishings, souvenirs), most of the shop owners can speak at least 3 languages, and visitors are mostly tourists (evenly distributed among Asian tourists and foreigners). The soundtrack was conducted in non-fluent English and with some Japanese from the tourist from japan, they were bargaining about the price of a painting, bargaining culture in Hong Kong local market is common, there is much cultural integration and it somehow shaped the tourism culture nowadays. The Western people hope to know more about the Chinese culture through travelling to Hong Kong and vice versa.

Thirdly, we went to the Murray House. It could be the most remarkable spot in Stanley it used to be an old building in Central. However, in 1990 it moved to Stanley due to development of central, after revitalization there are restaurants. In 2015, the LINK took over this building it became a 3-level H&M store, many people criticized that H&M does not match with this historical building. Outside the Murray House, there are a few smoking workers complaining about their jobs are tired but low salaries, because of many repairing work in Hong Kong. The other side, new couple taking photos downstairs, with historical scenery and beautiful sea views, photographer yelling upstairs. We can see a combination of the past and the modern here.

After that, we recorded a local music playing from an indie shop, they play music for attracting tourists, and selling local clothes/ accessories. The song was composed by a Hong Kong local band called supper moment, a four-member Cantopop band formed in 2006, and the song they playing call 沙燕之歌, this is a theme song of a Hong Kong Film.

Another soundtrack is not local music, In the soundtrack, you can hear relaxing music from a bar and grill playing jazz, many foreigner chatting with each other. Next to the bar, coffee shop owner preparing for their costumer, introducing the menu to them, it would be a place that couple tourists love going there.

We also recorded the sound of the children laughter, repeated footsteps, ball bouncing, adults cheering, and enjoyable sound from children playing balls. The start of the football class, coach yelling rules to the children with taught in English, and they replying the coach excitedly, high-pitched footsteps created by the friction between shoes and the ground, the reason why class in English because nearby neighborhood are mostly foreigners.

Apart from football, there are also children playground at the Stanley plaza, it took over by The LINK, and refurbished in 2011, added two slides and some climbing facilities, residents which have children living in the public estate and luxury residential nearby.

As for natural sound, we recorded the sound of waves. You can hear strong and repetitive sound with not very heavy waves. It’s a good sea view where people usually go for taking wedding photo/committee photo, somebody was fishing there and hitting the rocks. There was calm water next to the sea, a child was looking for pebbles, throwing pebbles with his mother, some birds chirping at the begging, the pebbles dropping in the water.

To conclude, Stanley is a attractive place that full of historical place with long history, combination of Chinese and Western cultures. Yet, we can still find out a lot of cultural essence in Stanley which helped construct it as a renowned tourist spot in Hong Kong.

Fieldwork 1: Soundwalk in Tsim Sha Tsui

Soundscape Project – A trip to Tsim Sha Tsui

You can find the soundtracks here: https://soundcloud.com/olympia-hui/sets/soundscape

In this soundscape fieldwork project, me and two of my groupmates went to Tsim Sha Tsui and do a soundwalk for about 2.5 hours. We wandered around the TST pier and some nearby places. Through this project, I’ve found that I hear more sound than I usually do, some even I won’t notice normally.

Tsim Sha Tsui is a place full of historical value. It was once the transportation junction of Hong Kong since the Star Ferry Pier and the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR) terminal both located at Tsim Sha Tsui. More than that, during the early 19^th century, an incident happened at Tsim Sha Tsui called the “Lin Wie Hee incident” which was one of the causes of the First Opium War. Therefore, it is said that Tsim Sha Tsui is actually witnessing the changes in Hong Kong history.

Apart from historical value, Tsim Sha Tsui is also famous for its cultural value. First of all, it’s the place where people usually go during festival time. The streets are crowded and packed with people during every festival. Lights and installations will be set up to decorate the street. Besides of festival culture, Tsim Sha Tsui is also known as the “United Nation” in Hong Kong since people can find different cultures there including the South-Asian, the British, the Korean and also the Muslim. There are different buildings representing these cultures including the Chungking Mansion, the Peninsula Hotel, the Islam Mosque and the Korean street.

Back to our project, we recorded a total of 9 soundtracks during the walk. Each soundtrack represents a specific culture or natural value which we found them interesting. First of all, for the cultural aspects, we recorded the sound of a wedding. One of the Hong Kong Marriage Registry is located at Tsim Sha Tsui, just next to the Cultural Centre, where many Hong Kong people choose to have their ceremony there because of the breath-taking sea view. From the soundtrack, we can hear the people are calling others to take a group photo. Although it’s noisy, we can still feel their excitement through their voices.

Secondly, we recorded two tracks of tourists speaking. The two soundtracks are tourists speaking English and Mandarin respectively. During our soundwalk, we met a lot of tourists from different places as can be told from their skin colours and their languages. Hong Kong always attract people from all over the world no matter which cultural background they’re from. This is because of Hong Kong’s history. Hong Kong’s culture is a combination of the Western and the Chinese since Hong Kong had been under the rule of British Colonial Government from 1841 to 1997. During this period, there are many cultural integration and it somehow shaped the tourism culture nowadays. The Western people hope to know more about the Chinese culture through travelling to Hong Kong and vice versa.

Thirdly, we went to the Star Ferry Pier. It could be the most remarkable spot in Tsim Sha Tsui. It has a very long history of development where it was built since 1898, which is about a decade ago. Before the Cross-Harbour Tunnel was built, it was the only transportation connecting Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Therefore, it had a high usage in the past. Although the number of people taking the ferries is decreasing, it is still a favourable transportation among tourists. We recorded two soundtracks that are related to the Star Ferries. The first soundtrack is the ticket vending machine. The ticket vending machine has a longer history than the octopus card. Before the invention of the Octopus card, people all used the machines to buy the tickets for taking the ferries. All you need to do is to insert required amounts of coins and the machine will give you a plastic token which is sometimes blue or brown. The second soundtrack we recorded is the sound before boarding. There are mainly two types of sound in the soundtrack, one is the electric-controlled gate and the other one is the metal chain. Both are used to secure the people waiting at the pier. We can see a combination of the past and the modern here.

After that, we recorded the sound of the movements of luggage. In the soundtrack, there is muffled sound of the moving wheels of the luggage. As we wandered around Tsim Sha Tsui, we found that there are many tourists carrying luggage, which are usually Chinese tourists. We think it’s because there are many luxurious stores located on Canton Road which attracted the grey goods traders or the rich people in China. Also, it’s related to the implementation of policy on multiple-entry permits in 2009. The problem still exists even in 2017.

Another soundtrack is the Anti-Falun Gong. In the soundtrack, you can hear noisy and repetitive speeches saying that Falun Gong is bad for people. The sound is clamorous which makes people feel very uncomfortable and annoying. The reason why they chose to promote their beliefs in Tsim Sha Tsui is that there are many mainland tourists. The Falun Gong and the Anti-Falun Gong association are both from China which they mainly target on mainland people. They see Tsim Sha Tsui as a favourable spot for them to spread their messgaes.

Last for cultural sound, we also recorded the sound of the construction work at the Avenue of Stars. The construction work creates many noise which makes people uncomfortable. The sound is loud and annoying, and also earsplitting. It reduces the number of tourists. It comes from the renewal project of the Avenue of Stars. It was built in 2004 and now the government introduced the Augmented Reality (AR) technology there to increase Hong Kong’s competitiveness and can attract more tourists.

As for natural sound, we recorded the sound of waves. You can hear strong and repetitive sound of the big waves. The Victoria Harbour is renowned for its deepness and wideness. These are favourable for goods trading which the harbor leads Hong Kong economy and tourism for the past decade. However, rapid reclamation these years reduces its advantages and attractiveness.

To conclude, the sound we recorded in this fieldwork is mostly a low-fi environment. Yet, we can still find out a lot of cultural essence in Tsim Sha Tsui which helped construct it as a renowned tourist spot in Hong Kong.