Tang, Siu Wa

English

Iowa Research Online

University of Iowa 
International Writing Program Archive of Residents' Work 
10-4-2014 
A Sense of Place 
Siu Wa Tang 
Panel: A Sense of Place II 
Rights 
Copyright © 2014 Siu Wa Tang 
Recommended Citation 
Tang, Siu Wa, "A Sense of Place" (2014). International Writing Program Archive of Residents' Work. 525. 
https://ir.uiowa.edu/iwp_archive/525 
Hosted by Iowa Research Online. For more information please contact: lib-ir@uiowa.edu. 
A SENSE OF PLACE 
A Sense of Place 
By Tang Siu-wa (Hong Kong) 
 
According to Tim Cresswell, Place is a meaningful location, to which specific people are 
attached in some way. Place is somewhere me or you made meaningful. You have to invest 
meaning into it, endow it with value. A place is subjective and emotional. 
 
Hong Kong is a Place. Hong Kong is famous for its commercial developments, high-speed 
pace, for being a shopping paradise, etc. But for me, as a writer and an amateur activist, I can 
hardly regard those symbolic spaces that represent Hong Kong’s commercial success as my 
own Place, because I don’t live there. Those spaces are too expensive and too cool for me. 
Instead, there are so many hidden stories and corners of Hong Kong that are overshadowed 
by its economic achievement. 
 
I can identify with only certain locations in Hong Kong. My Places in Hong Kong are often 
small, inexpensive, and have active cultural communities. For example, some bookshops – 
like Prairie Lights here that hold cultural events every week, selling mainly books of 
literature, philosophy and social movements – are my Places. I live in YauMaTei, which is an 
old district and rent is low. There is also an art cinema nearby, where I meet with friends. The 
view from my house is poor from most Westerners’ perspectives. I can barely see trees and 
grass, there are hardware shops downstairs and the streets at night are famous for being 
populated by prostitutes. Neon lights flash all night; my streets never sleep. It is noisy, dusty, 
messy, restless, dangerous. 
 
But I feel safe there. Many of my friends live nearby – they are also young activists and poor 
intellectuals. We drink beer and smoke, discuss cultural and social topics all night, plan secret 
actions, gossip about colleagues. Sometimes we do this after a big social action, sometimes 
before an important cultural event. Even when I lose my keys or wallet, I can always have a 
good night’s sleep at a friend’s house, and there are always plenty of choices for that. Even 
the street market vendor woman, whom I call sister Kai, gives me free vegetables to feed 
myself. These Places are too close and hold too much emotion for me to write a proper 
conclusion about them. I am testing the connotations of the concept “Place”, in my life. It is a 
long process, especially for someone from Hong Kong. 
  
The meaning of Place has to be learnt. And the people of Hong Kong usually learn how 
important a Place is to them just before it begins to disappear. And many of my Places do. 
For example, I have participated in social movements and been confronted by police while 
attempting to preserve public spaces such as the Queen’s pier. My Places are those locations 
A SENSE OF PLACE 
where activists gather to protest against the government. We often fail to preserve them, 
but the movements push us to know and love Hong Kong very much. I link more symbolic 
Places with my emotions, for example those where former writers lived and wrote about, 
causing their perspectives to envelop the community and all the streets and trees and 
strangers to become familiar. 
 
It is common to say that the process of globalization will end sense of Place, but this seems 
to be the opposite in Hong Kong. There, the end is just the beginning. Literature is 
marginalized in Hong Kong, writers seem to have no Place. But things are changing now. The 
term HongKonger is searching for meaning. And we writers are thinking about how to 
connect ourselves to Hong Kong, to create our Place. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Iowa City Book Festival (www.iowacitybookfestival.org) and the International Writing 
Program (www.iwp.uiowa.edu). October 2014 


A Sense of Place

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A Sense of Place

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