Hong Kong specialty 'Neon signs that protrude on the road' are quietly trying to disappear

By familyft

One of Hong Kong's iconic landscapes that can be seen in television and movies, etc. "The neon sign shining shining from the building sticking out to the road" is about to survive. While returning to China and incorporating it into China, the scenery that conveyed the most impressive appearance of Hong Kong may be lost in the future.

Feeling nostalgic for Hong Kong's neon | 1843
https://www.1843magazine.com/dispatches/feeling-nostalgic-for-hong-kongs-neon

The signboard of neon that protruded on the road is one of the landscape that is often seen in the center of Hong Kong, alongside a pencil building that is elongated like a pencil and a scaffold for bamboo construction work. In the common sense of recent years it is a scene that can be seen only in Hong Kong, although it is world wide but it looks like a thin steel frame that can not be thought of in the near future to project from the building to the road.

By Mike Carney

At night, neon shone gleaming like this and attracted many people.

By TZA

However, such a sight is about to change dramatically. In the following movies, craftsmen who have made neon signs for more than 30 years tell the current situation.

Meet Hong Kong's neon sign maker - YouTube


Wu Chi-Kai, a 50-year-old neon craftsman, talks about the current state of Hong Kong's neon sign.

Wu first said that he was not interested in neon signs, but said he entered this world at the age of 17.

From the 1970s to the 1980s Hong Kong, which was under British rule, reached the peak of economic growth.

The neon sign in the town has progressed enormously, as it matches with the growing movement of money. In "Nathan Road" penetrating the central city of Hong Kong, neon signs extending from the building were installed one after another so as to cover the road.

At that time, the most popular sign in the world was a gleaming neon sign.

Mr. Wu said that not only advertising neon signs were involved.

It is said that Mr. Wu was in charge of the illuminating of the celestial sphere installed at the top of the complex commercial facility " Langham Place " completed in 2004.

Also, a triangle-shaped electric decoration set up on the wall of the building "Bank of China", the first building in Hong Kong Island, was made by Wu in a neon tube.

But as the times go ahead, traditional neon signs are about to lose their way. Due to the policy of the executive branch, huge signs that have been brought out of the building are regulated and those that are old are being removed one after another.

The signboard on the road that used to color Nathan Road has grown quite adult.

Thanks to that influence, neon sign craftsmen in Hong Kong are also steadily decreasing. Neon sign craftworkers say that it was around 20 people in the heyday, until only ten people are counted.

But still Mr. Wu says he is not changing his optimistic view. Although signs in the streets are decreasing, as long as there are still people who need it, it seems that they believe that the work of neon sign craftsmen is not lost.