For this issue of Urban Diary, we move from Sham Shui Po to the Aberdeen coastline. We interviewed people with intimate ties to Aberdeen: former boat people, public housing residents, and artists in Wong Chuk Hang.

We can chart Aberdeen’s evolving coastline via this network of stories. James Chow Kee Chung, for instance, remembers how his brother went from selling ice and oil to managing a real estate business. Chow’s story offers an amphibious perspective of life in Aberdeen.  Roy Hui Wai Keung, on the other hand, remembers the connected spaces of Wong Chuk Hang Estate. Whenever the triad gangs planned a fight, the hawkers and neighbours would flee the area. The space of public housing witnesses the change of its communities.

Aberdeen is also known as “Little Hong Kong”, the area epitomizes the changes to recent Hong Kong. As the South Island Line nears its completion, Aberdeen will be incorporated into the new developmental network. The kaifong we interviewed have expressed both worry and delight at the changes brought forth by the MTR. Urban Diary hopes to document the nuanced dynamics of the Aberdeen community before the MTR arrives.

As a participant of “Very Aberdeen”, Urban Diary will share its collected stories along the Aberdeen Promenade on 15^th May (Sunday). You are invited to join us and share our stories between noon and six p.m. that day.

Acknowledgements
Interviews: Ray YIU
Photography: TAI Ngai Lung
Painting: Eleanor FU