Precious Ghost Street

There has been a long-standing rumour that when the England Queen was the nominal Head of Hong Kong, the British officials at the helm of the colonial government were given derogatory Chinese names – the Chinese names were for the sake of governance – by the government translators based on their original ones. Surely, it was done in such a subtle way that the real decipherment was only known to the people speaking Cantonese, the local language, to a colloquial level.

John Bowring (1792-1872), with the salutation Sir if you like, was the 4th governor of Hong Kong. His translated Chinese name is Bo Ling or, literally, Precious Soul. But to the locals, or the Chinese in general, the character Ling conjures up the feelings more often related to death – in fact, Ling is more in the sense of "ghost" here.

As in the case of other British governors and senior officials, some places and streets came to be named after them; as Bowring Street after John Bowring.

What's special about Bowring Street is that it is a unique open-air market selling all kinds of clothes and clothing. The market is set in this quiet side street tucked away from the adjoining bustling Nathan Road.

Unlike other open-air markets in the territory, the one along Bowring Street has a tranquil atmosphere. No one is shouting for business. And if you click open the photos, you'll notice that the street is overwhelmingly pastel in colour which is uncommon for any outdoor market of its kind.

When strolling along the market, you'll probably be impressed that the people doing business in fact don't care about the business much. They appear to be care more about chatting and reading newspapers. It was interesting to look at how the merchandises were neatly arranged with patrons checking them out and passers-by moving past at a seemingly muted setting. Doing business in a soundless way at a market supposedly more noisy is just philosophical to me.

When you come here and go near the Nathan Road in the Jordan area, do make a trip to Bowring Street:

A final note about the photos: if you go back and check the photos again, you would hopefully have the idea that I purposely did a balance in the composition for each of them, be the balance between left and right, up and down, the centre and the edges plus corners or movements and stillness. This is as well a footnote to the post of yesterday which says that the elements in every photos should be there for a reason.