Hong Kong Stories

Neighbourhood Market Stalls (37x1)

Fecha de emisión: Sept 18, 2018

While market stalls selling clothes, watches or toys should be no stranger to you, non-profit market stalls are extremely rare. There happens to be one… Located in Yau Ma Tei, this market stall called “Kai Fong Pai Dong” is open only once a week. Whenever it is open, residents of the neighbourhood will gather around the stall and have fun chatting with each other. Mostly donated by the residents or kind people, the items are sold at prices freely determined by customers, so as to provide them with an opportunity to ponder the “use value” of things. Kai Fong Pai Dong presents an array of regular activities every month, including film screenings, sweet soup gatherings and street storytelling events, all of which make it look more like a community centre that welcomes everyone than a shop. Although many people did not quite understand the intention of the members running Kai Fong Pai Dong at first, people are now gradually aware of their effort and even “complain” that one gathering a week is not enough. In the past two years, a trusting, intimate relationship within the community has been developed naturally. This kind of connection may be difficult to imagine in Hong Kong nowadays, but as long as we are serious about staying connected and pulling together our strength, a broken relationship can be mended, and a lost community can reappear.