Bulletin No. 2, 2015

‘Magic Carpet’ in Tin Shui Wai Student interviewing a small grocery shop owner on video in Tin Shui Wai community engagement in urban planning. A series of workshops were also delivered for student participants to learn about the districts’ history and present, as well as common journalistic practices like interviewing and video-making. The project’s highlights are two street festivals, one for each neighbourhood, thrown for the enjoyment of the entire community around the time of the Mid-autumn Festival. They comprised an outdoor screening of the videos, as well as exhibitions. Community members watched the videos seated on a makeshift carpet on which colourful cushions were strewn. Professor Tieben nicknamed this outdoor cinema ‘Magic Carpet’ because it is an open and attractive setting that can be easily transposed to another neighbourhood. The event was extremely well received in both districts, but Professor Tieben noticed that it caused even more of a stir in Tin Shui Wai as community members were not used to this kind of attention and hence were more curious. In Tin Shui Wai, the screening took place at Tin Sau Bazaar where vendors took the opportunity to cook and share food with visitors and the project team. S ai Ying Pun has not been so abuzz with action since the late 19th century when it was a hotbed of brothels and opium dens, thanks to infrastructural changes that include the opening of the Centre Street escalator and the MTR’s West Island Line. These have triggered a spate of development in the previously quiet residential neighbourhood. Over in the New Territories, displacement has long been associated with Tin Shui Wai, a stigmatized new town sometimes dubbed Hong Kong’s ‘city of sadness’ for its many social problems stemming from its far-flung location, poor urban planning, and a large lower- class migrant population. To nur ture a sense of belonging in both communities, Prof. Hendrik Tieben of the School of Architecture and his collaborators from the School of Journalism and Communication launched the ‘Magic Carpet’ ICON project in Sai Ying Pun in 2013, and then in Tin Sui Wai in 2014. About 40 student ambassadors from the areas’ local secondary schools were recruited to study public spaces and conduct interviews with community members. They then created videos about life in the neighbourhoods, using public screenings of those 50-plus videos, exhibitions of the work process, and social media to encourage Knowledge Delivered to the Doorstep—Knowledge Transfer Project Fund 11