Vince Chong Straits Times 31 Jan 08;
AFTER years of being threatened with demolition, the King Yin Lane mansion in an upmarket district of Hong Kong was finally saved last week.
Built in the 1930s in a mixed pre-war and Chinese Renaissance style, it was the location of many a movie and television series, including the 1955 Hollywood film Love Is A Many Splendored Thing and the 1980s period drama Yesterday's Glitter, which starred Lisa Wang.
The owners have agreed to surrender the mansion to the government in exchange for a nearby parcel of land of similar size, and it can now be restored.
The government move to save an old building through a land swop was unprecedented, but it was one more sign that heritage conservation is finally receiving attention.
For architects, activists and those unhappy at Hong Kong's disappearing old landmarks, the preservation of the mansion is a reason to cheer.
The free-wheeling economy, where prime land is among the most expensive in the world, has often been accused of turning a blind eye to preserving the old.
But recent years have seen growing awareness of the need to preserve the past.
One sign has been the rising demand for places in the only architectural heritage conservation course in China, taught at Hong Kong University (HKU).
'It has taken some time for people in Hong Kong to stand up for their heritage, but it is never too late,' said Ms Cecilia Chu, a visiting scholar helping to lecture at the course, which accepts only 20 postgraduate students, out of many more applications and enquiries.
A doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, she was part of a successful 2003 campaign that stopped a HK$50 million (S$9 million) upgrading plan of outlying Lamma Island.
Better known as movie star Chow Yun Fat's birthplace, the island exudes a laid-back village charm that activists said would be ruined by the government's plan to modernise its rustic pier area, complete with shops.
While the Lamma Island effort succeeded, those who care lament the loss of such landmarks as Hong Kong's colonial General Post Office, demolished in 1976 to make way for the subway and a nondescript office building.
Many insist that the GPO here was far grander than its Singapore counterpart, which was restored and reborn as the resplendent Fullerton Hotel.
In 2004, the Hong Kong Democratic Foundation (HKDF) political think-tank joined conservation activists in appealing to the government to do more to save heritage buildings before it became too late.
HKDF chairman Alan Lung said in a letter to the government that Asian cities such as Singapore and Macau, which shared Hong Kong's space constraints, had managed to preserve entire districts.
'In all too many cases, a very narrow, short-term view of economic benefit has been taken, and much of our rich heritage has already been demolished,' he said.
In December 2006, the tussle between heritage conservation and economic development came to a head when the government decided to demolish the historic Star Ferry pier and its landmark clock tower.
Protesters chained themselves to the pier, refused to leave the demolition site, and had to be pulled away kicking and screaming by police officers.
Though the pier was demolished last year, the protesters had made their point, drawing attention to a place that had been used for decades by thousands travelling via ferries daily between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.
'It was the one incident that everyone could finally identify with,' recalled Ms Chu.
Analysts noted that the government appeared to realise then that it could no longer put off tackling the conservation issue.
Last July it set up a Development Bureau to better coordinate major infrastructure projects, signalling change after the Star Ferry debacle. The bureau is expected to strike a balance between heritage conservation and development.
The bureau has just launched the heritage commissioner's office to better tackle the issue, and officials are also planning to partner non-government organisations to revitalise historic public buildings.
Another change is that heritage impact assessments are now required before development projects can start.
Three years since penning his letter, Mr Lung now says the government - through Development Secretary Carrie Lam and her team - has done well to prove its commitment to heritage conservation.
'They're doing a lot more now than was ever done,' he told The Straits Times.
However, Mrs Lam has made no bones about the difficulty of saving old buildings.
'I suppose very few places are like Hong Kong in having the sort of development pressure we have here,' she said in a speech at the HKDF annual dinner last month.
This is because some buildings, like the King Yin Lane mansion site, are in prime areas where high-class luxury apartments command prices that run in the millions.
'I have to say that this is really a subject that is very new to the government,' the minister said. 'We are still learning and I, in particular, am going up a very sharp learning curve.'
Professor Lee Ho Yin, the Singaporean head of the HKU heritage conservation course, is encouraged by the change he has noticed in the city's administration.
'There is, at last, clear direction and principle on heritage conservation, like revitalising old buildings into spaces that are relevant in daily life, such as shops or restaurants,' he told The Straits Times. 'Things can only get better from now on.'
