Storm Signal No. X

Hong Kong is a strange city for human beings. I have been here for almost three years since the COVID broke out in 2019. Every time I walk down the street, each corner of the city feels like a different movie set. Especially the sudden rise of the slopes, with their inclination angles so steep, that one has to take a mountaineering expedition, to just grab a cup of coffee. Compared with the "mountain city" Chongqing, Hong Kong is more extreme, since it’s more contemporary, even futuristic. This city, by leveling mountains and reclaiming the sea, has developed its extremely profound urban facilities. Just looking at the densely packed, jungle-like buildings and shops, you can hardly imagine that you are "climbing mountains" all the time; and the place behind you might have been a vast ocean before.

The site of my project is on Possession Street, Sheung Wan. Notably, this place was also where the British army first landed on Hong Kong Island, which signified the beginning of the city’s colonial history. In a building’s display window facing Possession Street, I built a “Tong Lau” (tenement building) model with building blocks. The wood I used for my building blocks was camphor, originally shipped from Borneo, Malaysia to be made into beams for Hong Kong’s Central Police Station complex in the 1930s.

The Central Police Station complex, located at 10 Hollywood Road of the Central district, used to consist of three grand buildings: the Central Police Station, the Central Magistracy and the Victoria Prison. As the complex went through a few rounds of renovations, its original Camphor beams were removed. Today, the complex has been renovated by the Hong Kong government and the Hong Kong Jockey Club into a museum cluster, known as Tai Kwun.

On the other hand, the removed Camphor beams turned out to be stored at Chi Kee Sawmill & Timber with a 75-year history. It was originally located on a previously deserted Japanese military site on Java Road, North Point, and eventually relocated to Sheung Shui Kwu Tung Ma Tso Lung after two more moves due to the government’s rezoning. This year, Chi Kee is once again under the pressure of the government’s forced demolition. It decided to sell its inventory of salvaged wood and wood products at low prices, hoping that the remaining wood could gain its second life rather than adding burden to landfill.

I first cut the Camphor wood removed from the former Central Police Station into a set of building blocks. With the blocks, I constructed a building model based on the prototype of “Lui Seng Chun", a famous historic Tang Lau (tenement building) built in 1931. I also made the model with an internal elastic structure, capable of shaking periodically, representing a destabilized condition under the force of typhoon. I’m particularly fond of typhoon. Every time it comes, I will run to the seaside to observe the roaring waves. Behind me, the manmade buildings are shivering, and the cityscape is turning into a mess. Torn by the violent wind, all seemingly stable structures are being twisted and deformed.

In Hong Kong, "Feng Shui" and legends are everywhere, and almost every old building contains its own strange legends. Lui Seng Chun is no exception. Located at the intersection of Lai Chi Kok Road and Tong Mei Road in Mong Kok, Kowloon district, it was designed in the Western Neoclassical style by architect W. H. Bourne, and originally owned by Lui Leung, one of the founders of the Kowloon Motor Bus Company. Its name was drawn from the Chinese idiom 妙手回春 - magical hands bring the dying back life, which means the medicine with Lui Seng Chun brand can help rejuvenate people. When I first went to visit the building, I happened to sit in a taxi whose driver lives nearby. The elderly driver told me vividly some of the building’s strange legends: There had been several demolition and renovation plans for it, but they all ended up with deadly supernatural incidents. In the end no company dared to take it over. Years later when the building was listed as a "Class 1 Historic Building" by the Hong Kong government to be preserved, still no one was willing to sign for it. Eventually a "Justice of Peace" took it. Under the guidance of Feng Shui masters, he had the building converted to what we see today – the Lui Seng Chun Building of The Hong Kong Baptist University School of Chinese Medicine. In 2022, it was declared a historical monument by the Hong Kong government.

The structure I built this time can be considered as adding a backdrop to the city Hong Kong, or adding an alternative backdrop, a legend and an unofficial history under the typhoon. Today, bizarre phenomena abound, and human society cycles again and again as such. None of us know if the moment in front of us has already occurred in the past, or if faith is still fluttering in the wind.

Postscript: It was on the very day the Lui Seng Chun in the installation work was completed, that Chi Kee Sawmill & Timber was turned into ashes by the demolition machine of the Hong Kong government.

Special thanks: I’m grateful to the curator Amber Liu for her numerous constructive suggestions throughout the project from conception to implementation. Also special thanks to Zhu Tao Studio, along with Wu Kaicong’s team at Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong for their great technical support in the design and production of the installation.

Lí Wei

Sept. 23, 2022, Hong Kong

Translation: Maurice Li

Title: Storm Signal No. X

Installation: Wood, High elastic rope, Sliding rail, Electrical and electronic machinery

Size: Variable dimensions

Creation Time: Oct. 2022

香港是座奇異的人類城市，自從2019年COVID-19大流行開始，我一直留在這裡，轉眼快三年了，每次我走在街上，都感覺這座城市的每一處角落都好像不同的電影佈景，尤其是街道上那些異軍突起的斜坡，傾斜的角度非常陡峭，出門喝個咖啡都要翻山越嶺。相對於重慶的「山城」程度，香港更甚，因為這個城市更加當代，甚至有未來感。這座靠開山填海建立起來的人類城市設施極其完備，光看林立的建築和店鋪，你難以想像你在隨時「登山」，而你身後，可能是曾經的一片汪洋。

此次項目的實施地點在香港上環的水坑口街邊，這是香港開啟殖民地歷史的起源地，當年英軍登陸的地方。我在這條街上的一棟建築的櫥窗裡實施我的方案，我做了一棟用特製的積木搭建起來的「唐樓」，製作這批積木的木料是1930年代的山樟木，來源於馬來西亞的婆羅洲，最早它們被用於香港舊中區警署建築群的房梁。

香港舊中區警署座落在中環荷李活道10號，是英國殖民地時期初期至近年的香港法治、司法及懲教綜合中心。該建築群由三組宏偉的建築物組成，即中區警署、前中央裁判司署及域多利監獄。後來，該建築群幾經修葺和改建，那些原有的山樟木房梁被拆除了下來。最終被香港政府與香港賽馬會改成了一組綜合藝術館，就是現在的「大館」。

而原來那些被拆除的山樟木房梁一直堆放在香港志記鎅木廠，該木廠至今已約有75年歷史，當年在北角渣華道開業，位置是日軍撤退後遺留的荒地（即現已清拆的北角邨附近），後來經歷兩次搬遷後又因政府發展項目，遷址到上水古洞馬草壟。今年志記鎅木廠再次受困於政府的拆遷壓力，面臨強拆，正式清拆前，木廠割愛以低價出售木材及木製品，希望剩餘的老木材得以重生，不至於成為堆填區的負擔。

我將其中一塊從原香港舊中區警署拆下來的山樟木切割製成積木，以1931年落成的唐樓「雷生春」（Lui Seng Chun）為原型，搭建了一個在「風球」中週而復始搖晃的建築。我對颱風情有獨鍾，每次遇到颱風天，我就會跑到海邊，看那片憤怒咆哮的汪洋，而在我身後，人類的建築在颱風中瑟瑟發抖，景象一片狼藉。在狂風的撕扯下，一切看似穩定的結構都變得扭曲了起來。

香港，「風水」與傳說無處不在，幾乎每一棟老建築都有關於自身的詭異「傳說」。「雷生春」也不例外，「雷生春」位於九龍旺角荔枝角道及塘尾道交界，是具有古典義大利建築特色的唐樓，由建築師布爾（W. H. Bourne）設計，業權原本由九龍巴士創辦人之一雷亮（又名雷鴻維）持有。建築物的名字源於對聯「雷雨功深揚灑露，生民仰望藥回春」，寓意「雷生春」的藥品能夠妙手回春。我當時去現場考察這棟建築的時候，恰巧坐上一位居住在那附近的司機的車，年長的的士司機給我繪聲繪色的講述了一些詭異傳說，「雷生春」在歷經幾次拆改過程中總發生靈異事件，乃至沒有任何一家公司敢於接手，多年之後，該建築被香港政府列為「一級歷史建築 」得以保存，但由於怪事連連，相關部門無人願意簽收，後由一位「太平紳士」出面簽收，再經由風水大師指點，幾經周折，才有了我們今天所看到的「香港浸會大學中醫藥堂——雷生春堂」。該建築於2022年被香港政府列為法定古蹟。

這次我搭建的積木建築就算是給香港這個城市增添一個佈景吧，也增添颱風吹襲下的另類佈景、傳說和野史。如今光怪陸離的現象比比皆是，人類社會也是這樣週而復始的。我們誰也不知道，面前的某一刻，在過去的歷史中是否曾經重疊過；也不知道，信仰是否還在風中飄揚。

後記：就在作品中的「雷生春」搭建完成的那天，志記鎅木廠被香港政府的拆遷機器化為了齏粉。

特殊鳴謝：策展人劉琥珀在整個項目從構思到實施過程中，給予了諸多建設性提議，本人深表感激。也特别鸣谢香港大學建築系朱濤工作室以及吴开聪团队在裝置的設計深化和製作上，給予了技術上的大力支持。

黎薇

香港  2022/9/23

Storm Signal No. X

裝置：木，高彈力繩，滑軌，電機及電子設備

尺寸：尺寸可變

創作年代：2022年10月