(A Surreptitious Glance: I took this photo in Shanghai Street of Mongkok. The vacant shop had originally been rented by a small eatery for almost ten years. It survived the Asian financial crisis and the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong which hit the economy hard. Sadly, the owners didn't make it this time. The vacant shop is next to a roadside newspaper kiosk which also sells a wide array of porn magazines. After all, this is the district where prospective patrons come for sex service)
In the local business world, empty shops have been “flourishing” throughout the territory for the past few months. An increasing number of short-term shop tenancies in Mongkok, a shoppers’ Mecca in Hong Kong, may epitomise the general situation: big businesses are braking their operations.
(Telltale Sight of Depression: This vacant shop is on a side street in Mongkok. The metal gate has been posted and reposted with bills by different property agents in vain hope of renting out the shop. The rustic bike in front of it adds a sense of depression to the scene. The closing down of small local businesses is surely the telltale sight of a harder year to come)
Worse still, if you wander into Portland Street and Shanghai Street, the less busy streets in Mongkok which are de-facto red light districts, vacant shops have become a common sight. The meaning of this is that the financial tsunami is exerting a deeper impact on Hong Kong even unto small retailing businesses which do not rely on a great amount of capital.
(Sex Spots: This is the section of Dundas Street in Mongkok which leads to the junctions with Shanghai Street and Portland Street. It would be a great fun (and adventure) to shoot candid photos of the life of sex workers there. In the early morning, you can spot the more mature ladies on the street. Later in the day, the scantily clad young ladies show up around the neighbourhood)
Some friends of mine have been expecting a harder time to come in 2009. Just the other day when a big shopping mall (where the Toysrus flagship store was) put a note on its enquiry counters saying, “The Toysrus shop is temporarily closed for business”, people were not a bit surprised at whatever this might suggest for even a big chain store like it. After all, even Wedgewood, Britian's famous China maker, has just been filed for bankruptcy and conglomerations in the States are still begging for public money to survive the difficult times. Is the world, except maybe China, drifting towards a communitarian version of capitalism?
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