This is of an old building in the neighbourhood. In case you wonder whether the underwear was what first caught my attention, my answer is a resounding YES. In fact the shot was taken on a footbridge which was just three metres away. How embarrassing that the tenants have to dry the underwear virtually in front of the passers-by!
The way of drying clothes like this has its history. In the colonial era (Hong Kong had undergone British colonial rule for over 100 years until 1997, in case you don't know) when I was a little boy, most locals lived in shaggy resettlement blocks. The apartments were so tiny that meals were prepared in the public corridors and washing had to be dried on bamboo sticks hanging on the walls of the blocks. Imagine the scene: motleys of washing of different sizes and shapes flapping in the wind with the bamboo sticks rattling. We nicknamed them "makwokate", or literally "buntings of all nations". Buntings on bamboo sticks are still common sights in the older residential areas.
(Grip On Reality: This photo was taken on my way to work. I was walking past trucks parking on a cul-de-sac when the ropes caught my attention. The light was right, the colour was right and the criss-crossing pattern was perfect and I held up my GX200. People passing by checked me out and wondered what could be made out of such a boring scene. To me, the fun in photography is that the photographer makes something interesting out of what is not obvious to most at the scene. The ropes tied in knots somehow reminded people I know who are in the grip of the recession) You must have also known a friend or two, or even yourself, being baffled by the spiral downturn of the economy. Bank went bankrupt and the rich was faced with a shrinking wealth. A friend of mine has just had his salary cut by over 10% and some of his colleagues started to be shed. But, wait. Was this done really for the sake of continuing the business? Or is there a factor or greed in it? I wonder whether the
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