https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/daily/article/20190419/20659648

a9-hkg_20190419(to view the picture in more details)

English translation

When the evening lights first lit up, I followed CHEUNG Wing-lun, a medical doctor, to the Tung Chau Street Park in Shamshuipo.  Before we arrived at the entrance, a suffocating urinary smell came.  Just when we sat down on the stone bench, three big mice came out from the flower bed, fighting. I screamed.  Dr. Cheung seemed use to it, calmly and playfully he said, “Some mice are bigger than cats. I have seen a rat going through the left side of pants and came out from the right side, so don’t wear wide-leg pants.”  The sound effect of this 4D thriller in front of my eyes was the “squeaky slap” of the chess players.

Such environment is but the last Eden of more than 70 street sleepers.

Since 2 years ago, the government has gradually cleared the wooden huts erected by the street sleepers at the bottom of the Tung Chau Street flyover. The persons expelled have been scattered, and Tung Chau Street Park has become the final base of some. This low-end population is the protagonist of Dr. Cheung’s high-end lens.  Most of these people are thin and cheeky, their faces are whiter than the high walls of the adjacent newly built luxury apartments, and their confused eyes as well as their confused prospects are projected to earth, and are taken by the lens.  “After the completion of the luxury apartments now under construction, it is unsure where they will be forced to go?”, the doctor said while greeting those he knew.

“We are forced not to sleep on the streets, are we to sleep in the middle of the road? What has the government done?” Knowing that we are journalists, street sleeper A said. Last year end, the Housing Authority announced that the average waiting time for public housing applicants reached a record high of 5.5 years. “Five years? I started applying in 2005, and I am still here.” A complained.

“Public Housing? It is better to wait for niche for my ashes!”

Another street sleeper, Brother Fat, chipped in, “The only way is to wait.  But now I won’t wait to be resettled, what I apply is a niche for my ashes.”  He was not yet 50 but his hair is all white. and he leaned on two crutches. Originally a bartender, he was disabled and lost his ability to work because of his illness. His wife lived in the home of her own parents.  For the limited space there, he reluctantly slept on the streets. ” I am this young, but I have to hold two AK47s. Do you know what sort of disease is inside me?  Once it attacks I would be paralyzed on the floor!  That’s it.”  Earlier on, there was an old man in a wheelchair. One day, he was like an immovable bronze statue. They pushed him and found that the old man had no breath. “I personally called the police for him. There have been three deaths here recently.”, A said while looking at Dr. Cheung with mixed feelings. No one knows whether his end will be the same as the old man.

According to a recent international survey report, the average price of a housing unit in Hong Kong is as high as HKD9.73 million. At the same time, at least more than a thousand people do not have shelter. Some people died on computer desk inside internet cafe in the Sham Shui Po. There were Mc-refugees who died in the fast food restaurants. They were all semi-street- sleepers with jobs. “They go to work in the morning and sleep in different places at night. No one will notice that they are homeless,” the doctor said.

The street sleepers have no home, no computer, no air-conditioning, no table, and the most terrible thing is that there is no future.

Dr. Cheung, who loves photography since his school days, has been taking pictures to relieve pressure. “One can take pictures without company, and it is more flexible than playing ball games.” At his spare times as well as idle time between surgery, he carried his camera around to find subjects to take pictures.   Initially he likes to take pictures of birds and animals.  Then he realizes that Hong Kong people are not as comfortable as animals in a zoo.

From the newspaper, Dr. Cheung learnt that more than 20 street sleepers would be evicted from the pedestrian flyover in Cheung San Lane.   He considered this was a theme.  Since then, he has started taking pictures on partitioned apartments, coffin homes, roof homes, cage homes, and even homeless street sleepers. Subsequently, he enrolled in a two-year distance master degree program in the UK. The school demanded his work to be critical and creative. He believed that this theme could continue to develop. Originally for his homework, but with similar passion as a doctor, he gradually got empathy through taking pictures of them, and began to care about the grassroots’ stories.

“Tung Chau Street is different from Cheung San Lane. (The street sleepers) are drug addicts, elderly people and chronically ill patients.  Those in Cheung San Lane are younger, some Vietnamese.” Dr. Cheung gently talked, like talking about what happened to his family lately.  “I recently chatted with street sleepers outside the Henry G Leong Yau Ma Tei Community Center. They said that four of their fellow street sleepers have recently passed way, one of them was the one who was shot by the police in Kai Bo (Food Supermarket).”

As a doctor, one has to be exceptionally calm during surgery. As a photographer, one has to be passionate. “Sometimes (I have) split personality”, Dr. Cheung said.

Everyone has his own story to tell or want to tell, “Hong Kong is such an affluent society but it has an unknown side. It is a revelation by taking pictures on that for the public. Otherwise, the people at large do not know that while they are fortunate and well off, there is also a group of low-ended people whose living environment is so poor, so without dignity.”

Initially Shamshuipo was the poorest community in Hong Kong.  In recent years many luxury apartments are erected.  Cheung Wing-lun took a picture to reveal this irony of the disparity between rich and poor.  Below the construction site of a luxury apartment building, it is the miserable life of the homeless.  Dr. Cheung is most impressed by the partitioned rooms. When one opens the door to go inside, there are 20 cubicles on both sides.  When the same door is opened again on the other side and there are another 20 cubicles.  An ordinary unit of about 800 to 1,000 (sq) ft is turned into 40 cubicles, upper and lower layers in total. There is no window in the entire unit, and all cubicles are equipped with central air-conditioning. “I suppose each one is allocated 20 ft, and those who are slightly fat have to turn sideway in order to pass (the corridor), but I really admire the designer’s creativity.”

What is touching is that the occupants gently reminded the doctor not to go  near the wall because of the fleas there.  They also showed the insecticide they need to buy every month, and the cats they kept for catching mice.

Dr Cheung has also been to the Hong Kong’s famous “cage home”. “There are very few people living in cages, but there are still many coffin homes. The environment in the partitioned room can be counted as good. There are separate toilets and kitchens. A sparrow though small, all internal organs are there. The coffin home really… you can only sit but not stand.  A taller guy has to put his legs up in order to sleep.  This is really hard to bear.”

“They have worked hard for this city.”

Because the old building has been demolished to make way for redevelopment, the roof homes in Shamshuipo is greatly reduced. The doctor gets to know a family living on the top of an old tenement building. “They bought a roof home but later found out that the unit was not legal at all. The person who sold it to him was the owner of the top floor unit.  He was told to pay rent to the owners’ incorporated.  He was told to leave for he did not pay.  He did not leave and lived permanently on the stairs, preferring to walk nine storeys everyday, up and down 18 storeys in total.”

Although they are a forgotten group, many people pay heed to them. “A lot of people here may not be willing move to public housing when it is their turn.  May be the public housing is in remote area.   After giving up  three times they will have to queue afresh.  Therefore many people are shell-less snails without public housing and unable to pay rent.”

” The problem in Hong Kong is that it is densely populated and the distribution of social resources is not even. If more resources are accorded to this group of people, everyone will be happier. They have all contributed to building this city.”  Cheung Wing-lun, who appears calm, is heart on fire.

On the ground of Tung Chau Street Park, there are used syringes from time to time. The guess is that the drug addicts threw them there after use.  There is no lack of drug addicts in Dr Cheung’s photos.  “This person injects too often and many blood vessels are blocked,  so both feet are swollen,” he said as he showed me his work.

While also a syringe, what Cheung Wing-lun perceives as a doctor when he gets into contact with it in the hospital is totally different from that in front of our eyes .  At this moment, his eyes has layers of sadness.

Walking under the wall, every brick is full of bitterness. I saw the crevice on the wall  of the old tenement building rooftop, there a new seedling was growing. Like Feng Zikai’s inspirational painting “New Opportunity”, Hong Kong people is always good in undergoing adversity, but now it is not necessarily what you reap is what you sow.  I am feeble to the heavy loads, and the doctor’s photos has become very heavy too.

From June 7th to 9th, this series of photos will be exhibited at the EastPro Gallery.