On my trip home to Hong Kong in 2022, I found a photograph of my grandma cooking on a roof, wearing a shirt she made herself. I later learned that she had lived on a roof in hong kong during her teenage years in the early 60s, on 宝灵街 [Bowring St] and 廟街 [Temple St] in 油麻地 [Yau Ma Tei district]. They called it 天台屋 [rooftop homes], which was common back then for landlords to rent out their rooftops for cheap. They were usually made out of tarp and bamboo. In the picture. The photo was taken by her great uncle’s son, who worked an office job at the time and could afford a camera.
I asked my grandma if the building still exists to which she said yes, that she had passed by it a recently a couple years ago. One day before I was going to leave HK to go back to New York, we decided to go visit the building. The door to the stairwell was open so we were able to just walk in and go up to the roof. When we got up to the roof she was showing me where they used to sleep, and cook and pointed down to the street which blocks she’d walk down to use the bathroom.
I later found Portraits from Above Hong Kong by Rufina Wu [Artist/architect] . The book had already sold out, but after exchanging several messages with Rufina over Instagram, she sent me the exhibition catalog of this research and work on Hong Kong rooftop settlements. I hope to learn more stories about these Hong Kong roof homes.
Staged snapshot photos in old kodak family photo albums
