Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Neighbourhoods for the City
- 2 The Political Economy of Cities in Pacific Asia
- 3 The Logic of Comparisons in Multi-Sited Research Designs
- 4 Sungmisan: The Power of Village Social Enterprises
- 5 Mahakan: Neighbourhood Heritage Curation Attempts
- 6 Tangbu: Saving the Old Sugar Warehouses
- 7 Langham Place: Mega Project-Led Inner-City Regeneration
- 8 Tampines Central: Government-Resident Partnerships at Work
- 9 Neighbourhood Action, Metropolitan Politics, and City Building
- Index
- Publications / Asian Cities
7 - Langham Place: Mega Project-Led Inner-City Regeneration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Neighbourhoods for the City
- 2 The Political Economy of Cities in Pacific Asia
- 3 The Logic of Comparisons in Multi-Sited Research Designs
- 4 Sungmisan: The Power of Village Social Enterprises
- 5 Mahakan: Neighbourhood Heritage Curation Attempts
- 6 Tangbu: Saving the Old Sugar Warehouses
- 7 Langham Place: Mega Project-Led Inner-City Regeneration
- 8 Tampines Central: Government-Resident Partnerships at Work
- 9 Neighbourhood Action, Metropolitan Politics, and City Building
- Index
- Publications / Asian Cities
Summary
Abstract
Langham Place (Hong Kong) stands out among the five cases as a mega project and as an inner-city regeneration project. Besides the residents, three other small business groups were relocated to make way for Langham Place: small bus operators, cooked-food sellers, and bird traders. The chapter documents the long and drawn-out negotiation process by these groups. Langham Place is also noteworthy for the attempt to interview these groups ten years after the mega project was built. This set of interviews was undertaken in order to gain perspective on whether the needs of the community are being ignored with new uses entering into old areas. The research documented the insertion of the community annex (Mong Kok Complex) into Langham Place, the post-resettlement outcomes of the affected small businesses, and the social change that the mega project has brought into the area.
Keywords: Hong Kong, redevelopment, regeneration, resettlement, mega project, inner city, urban change
The Significance of Langham Place
While the preceding field sites – Sungmisan, Mahakan, and Tangbu – are low density city neighbourhoods, Langham Place, by contrast, is a high-rise, high density, mixed-used development located in Kowloon. Kowloon, in turn, has been characterized as “the busiest place in the world” by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2011), with an average density of 130,000 persons per square kilometre. Belinda Yuen (2009), in her Hong Kong entry to the Encyclopaedia of Urban studies, reported the Mong Kok density at 116,531. At upwards of 100,000 persons per square kilometre, any attempt at redevelopment brings with it challenges of resettlement but, at the same time, new possibilities are introduced to an old, established area.
During a sabbatical visit to Hong Kong, my hosts introduced me to Lam Kit, who was in the final stages of writing his thesis. They thought it would be a good idea to visit one of his field sites. And so, on 24 November 2006, Lam Kit and I visited Langham Place. A month or so before Christmas, the decorations were up and, on a Friday, the crowds were there in the early evening. At the time of our visit, Langham Place had been open for business for barely two years and was keen to welcome shoppers during the festive period.
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- Information
- Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia , pp. 155 - 178Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019