Hong Kong remains an interesting subject regarding its living spaces. From Kowloon’ walled city to the Yick Cheong Building, there is a collective normalisation for small living spaces, which has created a somewhat messy urbanisation. Instead of removing old buildings and building outward, places such as Yick Cheong and Kowloon have built upward and therefore, created a unique space within, which has enabled the city to be brought inside and within close proximity to the residents. Although Kowloon walled city no longer exists, Yick Cheong’s ‘monster building’ is a leading example of how living spaces for the lower’s classes have not evolved much over the past century.1
Hong Kong is a leading example of how post-modernity has created a stark contrast between classes regarding living standards. An example of these living conditions would be government files which are constantly restricting power and water within Kowloon’s walled city, not only that but there is a consistent grab for land within Kowloon and its surrounding areas throughout the late nineteenth century and into the early twentieth which highlights an unstable environment for the occupants of Kowloon.2 This lack of stability is still relevant due to the vast amount of land being bought and owned within Hong Kong, which has created a living crisis, therefore, creating the concept of ‘ cage homes’ to become normalised for the lower classes.
The reason why these specific areas have been highlighted is to strengthen Doreen Massey’s concept on time-space, which states that space cannot be studied without understanding why time is relevant. Spaces are forever changing and evolving, and they carry a history that is a never-ending formula of stories.
‘A distinction is postulated, in other words, between different types of what would normally be called time. On the one hand, there is the time internal to a closed system, where things may change yet without really changing. On the other hand, there is genuine dynamism, Grand Historical Time.’3
Hong Kong today is the picturesque of post-modernity, but depending on class, life within Hong Kong can be diverse. The confined spaces in which Kowloon’s walled city provided to its residents and how this can be compared to the Yick Cheong’s mass structure allow an understanding that power relations are still unbalanced within Hong Kong’s class system. The social structure has changed, allowing society to evolve alongside what post-modernity has provided to the economy, but within housing spaces, the cracks within the system can be observed. Living spaces for the lower classes seem to be shrinking, whereas the economy keeps on growing. The living crisis within Hong Kong today is perhaps a ripple effect from Kowloon’s walled city, which highlights that time and space coexist as one, which enables history to be studied within a specific space. Therefore, time within space exposes the progress of change or even the lack of progress.