How a 1960s block of towers filled with deal makers and refugees came to define the changing city.
Already a subscriber?In 2010, Mukthar walked through the doors of Chungking Mansions hoping to turn his life around. He had just arrived in Hong Kong from Somalia, a refugee and entrepreneur, with $US6000 in his pocket and most of his life ahead of him. Few places would give a visa to a Somali, but Hong Kong was more open to African and Asian immigrants.
For Mukthar, such glamour would have to wait. Over the next four months, he made Chungking his home, sipping Turkish coffee for five or six hours each day as he watched the comings and goings. In the early mornings, the corridors teemed with fresh arrivals in search of breakfast or a friendly face, eager to hear someone else speaking Arabic, English or Swahili. He took business cards where he could, always looking for the connection that would get him started.
The story of Chungking Mansions begins with a Chinese-Filipino businessman, Jaime Tiampo, who came to Hong Kong in the 1930s as life got tougher for people of Chinese descent in Manila. He and his wife bought the site in Tsim Sha Tsui and developed it into a shopping centre called Chungking Arcade. Within Tiampo’s family, there are two different versions of what happened next, according to his granddaughter Ming, an art historian in Canada.
Mukthar spent four years in Chungking, determined to make the most of it. Many people in Chungking are looking for a deal. Some pan out, but most don’t. Many in Chungking subsist on little. But Mukthar got lucky quickly. The end, when it came, was swift. By 2014, Mukthar’s business relationships were breaking down. He was shocked to discover one colleague had had an affair with another’s wife. A strict Muslim, Mukthar thought “This was very disgusting.” More pressingly, he saw the potential repercussions. The wronged husband “will be very angry, he will report us to immigration, that is why I decided to leave”.
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