The Central Market's Central Role in Hong Kong History

Along the busy Queen’s Road Central stands a market that has a long history serving the daily needs of Central residents since the beginning of Hong Kong as a British colony. First opened in 1842, the year after the British formally began their colonial administration of Hong Kong, the Central Market has gone through a few constructed buildings as a market place. Despite it being a marketplace for the early merchants and farmers of Hong Kong, the Central Market stood for a historical significance far beyond being a place of business for the Chinese community living in the “Chinese section” of Victoria City. The Central Market was a perfect microcosm that reflected the complicated relationships between the colonial government of Hong Kong, the business communities (both Chinese and foreign) that represented the money, and the lives of the common shopkeepers that simply wanted to make a living. The Central Market had witnessed more than a century of changes in this location of Hong Kong’s business district. Having gone through a few phases of reinvention, it finally ceased in its historic role as a wet market in 2003. In 2002, the Hong Kong Government had put the market on the Land Application List for 2004. That meant that the original plan for this space was the demolishment of the market building for new uses. For years, the Central Market lied vacant awaiting the final determination of its fate. In 2005, a group of stakeholders, including architects, district councils and some important persons in the society, called upon the government to preserve the Central Market. They cited the reason that the Central Market was the only surviving building in Hong Kong that represented the Bauhaus architectural style. There was a bit of controversy then, but in 2009, the government finally included the Central Market into its heritage preservation program, “Conserving Central.” #hongkong #hongkonghistory #hongkonheritage #marketplace #centralmarket #victoriacity #central #bauhaus #architecture