The Fall of Department Stores and the Rise of Shopping Malls in Hong Kong

[IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. The following thesis was written in the year 2010. In the subsequent years, new sources of information were found, and some information used in this thesis was found inaccurate and incorrect.

2. The Chinese version of the same topic (百貨公司之死與商場之崛起), written in 2012, was more updated, though conveying not exactly the same amount of information.

3. Some images in the original thesis were taken away from the following one.

4. The research has been extended to the social media, and the two facebook pages related are: https://www.facebook.com/ShoppingMalls.hk;

https://www.facebook.com/DepartmentStores.hk. ]

 

Name:	Ho, S. H. (何尚衡) (Alfred)
Course:	Architectural History Thesis
Assignment:	History Thesis Writing
Studio:	Urban Asymmetry (Amsterdam), Delft School of Design, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology
Graduation Track:	Architecture
Submission to:	Cor Wagenaar
Date:	22-11-2010

Table of Contents

 

Chapter	1	Introduction
	1.1	Background and Objective
	1.2	The Definition of the Department Store and Shopping Mall
	1.3	A Brief History of the Department Stores and Shopping Malls in Hong Kong
Chapter	2	Consumer Culture and Consumption Sites in Hong Kong
	2.1	A Journey to the Department Stores
	2.2	The Genesis and Transformation of the Shopping Malls
	2.3	Change of Consumer Culture leading to the Decline of the Department Stores
	2.4	Chapter Summary
Chapter	3	Department Stores, Shopping Malls and Urban Development
	3.1	Chapter Overview
	3.2	Centralization and Decentralization of the Department Stores
	3.3	The Shopping Malls and the Development of the New Towns
	3.4	The Shopping Malls and the Infrastructure
	3.5	The Shopping Malls, Department Stores and Communities
	3.6	Mallification of the City
Chapter	4	Conclusion
	4.1	The Decline of the Department Stores and the Rise of the Shopping Malls

Bibliography

1

Introduction

 

1.1   Background and Objective

Why were department stores declining while shopping malls flourishing in the last few decades of Hong Kong when the two consumption sites are so alike in nature and share so many similarities? From fall of the stores and the rise of malls, we not only see the changes in the retailing and consuming industry, but also are able to learn the swifts in the economy structure, society composition, culture and politics. Department stores and shopping malls are two prominent architectural models after modernity. By analyzing their formation and transformation, we are able to get a good image of the relationship between architecture and the above mentioned issues. We shall also look at the interior design, spatial planning, management and strategic locations of the stores and the malls to understand how the economic, social, cultural and political forces have been reflected and expressed physically and spatially in the recent history of Hong Kong.

Although the sovereignty of Hong Kong was returned from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China on 1 July 1997, the socialist system of China would not be practiced in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong could keep its previous capitalist economic and political systems for 50 years, under the ‘One country, two systems’ (一國兩制) principle agreed by the two countries in the Sino-British Joint Declaration (中英聯合聲明), stipulated by the Hong Kong Basic Law (香港基本法). Therefore, the huge political change did not influence the economy structure and retailing industry directly. There is still a clear distinction between Hong Kong and mainland China in the business models, governance and rule of law.

The modern shopping mall was invented by Victor Gruen in a suburban community in the United States of America in 1956,[1] and the early development of Hong Kong shopping malls appeared to follow the US style.[2] For these reasons, the topology and characteristics of the shopping malls discussed in this writing are based on the US ones, though modifications and deviations are found in the later examples in Hong Kong.

There have been far more department stores and shopping malls in Hong Kong than I include in this thesis. The samples of the stores and malls that I choose to illustrate, and to build arguments and statements upon are mainly taken or derived from the information I gathered in the libraries of Hong Kong and on the Internet as specified in the bibliography. The other samples are selected based on my own experience and understanding of the city, as a person who was born and bred there.

 

1.2   The Definition of the Department Store and Shopping Mall

The definition of the department store and the shopping mall vary across different cultures and societies. In this thesis, they are defined in the contexts of Hong Kong, yet no less universal, based on the history of their origins and development.

The origins of the department store can be traced back to the Parisian Galeries de Bois, an embryonic form of an arcade, in 1784. It consisted of two rickety, wooden galleries with small stores, which sold all kinds of knickknacks. It was the first time in France that different sets of specialities were grouped under one roof.[3] [Figure 1]

Department store is an extended, concentrated shop under one management, whose branches are represented in one building, selling a wide range of commodity. The use of glass in the shop windows to expose commodity to the shoppers in the

   Figure 1: The interior view of Galeries de Bois in 1825

(Source: Seline Borking, The Fascinating History of Shopping Malls (Den Haag: MAB Groep B.V., 1998), p. 22. Originally published in B. Marrey, Les grands magasins des origins à 1939 (Paris: Picard, 1979), p. 15))

streets, and to let daylight go in for illumination and to create open, capacious interiors were crucial characteristics of the early examples in Europe. Their exterior facades were usually well articulated to attract visitors.[4] In Hong Kong, the department stores usually do not have elaborate facades, but with signboards hanging outside the stores for advertisement and to draw attention [Figure 2]; and

    Figure 2: The exterior and interior views of the Wing On Department Store (永安百貨) in Central (中環) in August 2010

they usually do not have central, dominant interior space like atrium and glass dome, but with central customer check-out area on each floor or on the main floor. The shops in the department stores usually do not have their own shop front and entrance, and the staff are usually required to dress in the uniforms of the operating company. Escalators are provided for the visitors to travel from one floor to another.

The first modern shopping mall with indoor climate control was Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, a suburban community in the United States of America, invented by Victor Gruen in 1956.[5] [Figure 3 and 4] It was designed based on his earlier experience of Northland Center in Detroit in Michigan, one of the first modern

shopping centers in another suburban community in the America. [Figure 5 and 6]

Figure 3 (top): The plan and the section through the Garden Court of Southdale Center in 1956

(Source: Barry Maitland, Shopping Malls (London: Construction Press, 1985), p. 11.)

Figure 4 (above): The top view of Southdale Center in 2009 (Source: Google Maps)

Figure 5 (left): The aerial view of Northland Center

Figure 6 (right): The plan of Northland Center in 1954

(Source: Seline Borking, The Fascinating History of Shopping Malls (Den Haag: MAB Groep B.V., 1998), p. 40 and 39 respectively. Originally in Victor Gruen, Centers for the Urban Environment: Survival of the Cities (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1973), p. 30 and 28 respectively.)

Shopping mall, or shopping centre[6], is a collection of retail units concentrated in a highly controlled interior environment under one management. In some literature, shopping mall is considered very similar to a department store.[7] But they differ from each other in scale, circulation and spatial layout in Hong Kong [Figure 7]. The shopping malls in Hong Kong are much bigger in size than the department stores, that the stores and supermarkets are usually the anchor stores of the malls nowadays. The shops in a mall have their own shop front and entrance for the circulation, while those in the department store can be approached in all directions from the walking paths. Spatially, the shops in a mall have very clear demarcation of their borders, and they could have different opening hours as long as the mall is open, unlike those in the department stores. The shops in a mall also have more freedom to design their own interiors and in the choices of their commodities, which are both commonly standardized in many department stores.

    Figure 7: The interior views of the New Town Plaza (新城市廣場) in Sha Tin (沙田) in August 2010

1.3   A Brief History of the Department Stores and Shopping Malls in Hong Kong

The first department store of Hong Kong, the Sincere Company (先施公司)[8], dates back to 1900, the time when Hong Kong was the British colony.[9] After the opening of the other three big department stores, which were collectively called ‘The Big Four Companies (四大公司)’, namely the Wing On Company (永安公司)[10], the Dah Sun Company (大新公司) and the Chung Hwa Department Store (中華百貨公司) in the year 1907, 1911 and 1932 respectively,[11] the Hong Kong retail industry was formed,[12] amidst the severe worldwide economic depression in the 1930s and the Hong Kong financial market crisis in 1935.

In 1938, the first department store selling national products (Chinese made products), the China Products Co. (中國國貨公司), was founded in Hong Kong.[13] This kind of department store is called the national products department store (國貨公司). In the 1940s, more and more small and middle department stores were opened by Chinese entrepreneurs, with the interruption of the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong (香港日治時期) during World War II. After the ‘liberation’ of the mainland China in 1949 by the Communist Party of China, and the elimination of capitalism and ‘capitalist-roaders’, the China Products Co. was transformed into a state-run socialist institution of the new China.[14] Some companies targeting the mainland market were either sapped, for example the Dah Sun Company, or closed, like the Chung Hwa Department Store.[15] In the early 1950s, embargoes were imposed by the United States and some other capitalist countries on China, Hong Kong and Macau during the Korean War, causing devastating consequence in the economy and society of Hong Kong. Since some daily necessities were listed prohibited items, there was a serious slump in the Hong Kong retailing industry.[16] In the late 1950s, the national products department stores[17] started to boom, with the opening of the most well-known one Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporium Limited (裕華國產百貨有限公司) in 1959. The development reached its climax in the 1960s which was recognized as the ‘Golden Age of the National Products’.[18]

In the 1960s, the first Japanese department store in Hong Kong, The Daimaru, Inc. (株式會社大丸), and the first shopping mall in the city, Ocean Terminal (海運大廈), were opened (in November 1960 and on 22 March 1966 respectively). Ocean Terminal was the first shopping mall in Asia, prior to the pioneers of the shopping malls in Japan – Izumiya Co., Ltd. (株式會社泉屋) and the Daiei, Inc. (株式會社大榮).[19] Daimaru was the only Japanese department store in Hong Kong[20] until the second one, Isetan Co., Ltd. (株式會社伊勢丹), and the third one, Matsuzakaya Co., Ltd. (株式會社松坂屋), arrived in September 1973 and April 1974 respectively.[21]

In the 1970s, the national products department stores began to decline, despite the soaring economy of Hong Kong, partly because of the competitive market and their poor management.[22] Yet, their business survived until the 1980s due to a significant swift in the policy of the People’s Republic of China implemented in December 1978 – The Chinese Economy Reform or ‘Reform and Opening’ (改革開放) which ‘opened China up to the outside world’. A lot of people in Hong Kong then went back to mainland China to visit their family members or relatives, usually with gifts or souvenirs purchased in the national products department stores in Hong Kong.[23] This trend kept the businesses of the national products department stores running as the old days, but it lasted for only a few years until around 1983.

1980s was a disastrous decade for the national products department stores in Hong Kong, and at the same time the most fast-growing decade for the Japanese ones. The number of the national products department stores plummeted from 84 (with 184 main and branch stores) in 1984 to 48 (with 66 main and branch stores) in 1987,[24] while twelve more Japanese department stores were opened in the urban centre (Hong Kong Island and Kowloon) and the new towns (or satellite cities).[25] It was also the decade when shopping malls started to emerge in different parts of the city: The Landmark (置地廣場) (1980) in Central (the financial centre), Cityplaza (太古城中心) (1982) in Taikoo Shing (a new town on the Hong Kong Island), New Town Plaza (新城市廣場) (1984) in Shatin (a new town in the New Territories) and Pacific Place (太古廣場) (1989) in Admiralty (a business district with offices, hotels, government buildings and the High Court).

In the 1990s, fewer department stores were opened while shopping malls mushroomed in all parts of Hong Kong. The most popular malls built in this period included the Times Square (時代廣場) in Causeway Bay (1994), Grand Century Place (新世紀廣場) in Mong Kok (1997) and Festival Walk (又一城) in Kowloon Tong (1998).

Hardly hit by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis happened soon after the handover of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China on 1 July 1997, many parent companies of the Japanese department stores suffered a colossal loss, and had to close down their businesses in Hong Kong. Among these stores were Yaohan (八百伴), Matsuzakaya (松坂屋) and Daimaru (大丸) which closed in 1997, August and December of 1998 respectively.[26] The crisis also caused a deep impact on the local and national products department stores.

After the year 2000, not many department stores were left. They either moved to the periphery of the city for lower rent or moved into the shopping malls and became the anchor stores.[27] Unlike the department stores, the shopping malls continued to flourish.

In 2003, Hong Kong’s recovering economy went to another low point, due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)(沙士). The tourism and retailing industry suffered severely. On 29 June 2003, the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)(內地與香港關於建立更緊密經貿關係的安排) was signed.[28] After a month, on 28 July 2003, the Individual Visit Scheme (港澳個人遊計劃) was launched by the central government of China to boost the economy of Hong Kong and Macau.[29] The two measures brought immediate benefits to the stagnant economy of Hong Kong, especially for the tourism and retailing industry. A lot of Mainland travelers, with great purchasing power, visit Hong Kong during their holidays thereafter. Nevertheless, old department stores did not benefit from the policies as much as shopping malls did, and they continued to close down. For example two branches of one of the oldest department stores in Hong Kong - Wing On (永安百貨) were closed in February 2004, the last department store of Chinese Resources (華潤百貨), a state-owned enterprise, was closed on 8 April 2005, and four branches of the big Japanese department store JUSCO (吉之島/佳世客) were closed from 2004 to 2010. In the meantime, shopping malls continue to grow and expand, with almost one new mall being built per year: IFC Mall (2003) in Central, Langham Place (朗豪坊) (2004) in Mong Kok, APM (2005) in Kwun Tong, MegaBox (2007) in Kowloon Bay, and Elements (圓方) (2007), K11 (2009) and iSQUARE (國際廣場) (2009) in Tsim Sha Tsui.[30]

2

Consumer Culture and Consumption Sites

in Hong Kong

 

2.1        A Journey to the Department Stores

Going to department stores was a serious journey in the past. People would reserve a day, bring a larger sum of money for something more precious and expensive than they usually found in a grocery store, dress up properly and go with family, relatives or friends.[31] It is a not a casual or daily event before the 1970s. Since department stores were only opened in the commercial districts in the urban centre before the 1980s, people living in other parts of the city had to spend a lot of time in travelling to the stores. People had very clear ideas about what kind of products should be purchased in which stores beforehand, for example they would buy UK-made woolen sweater in Wing On, Italy-made glasses for drinks in Sincere,[32] and big commodities in Dah Dah Department Store (大大百貨公司).

Department Stores were the places where Hong Kong people first contacted the modern style of retailing and consumption customs. The stores established a reliable retailing and consumption system in which the customer rights are protected. For instance, the fixed price merchandise practice was established first by Sincere in 1900,[33] and the credit, return and payment policies were established throughout the development of the department stores in later times. The retailing and consuming system were developed gradually for decades, based on western models as well as traditional Chinese business practices and cultural values. Department stores were the cradle of the contemporary consumer culture.[34]

In the 1980s, going to department stores become a leisure trip, highly influenced by the Japanese department stores prevailing in Hong Kong in this decade. It was the time when shopping became an experience rather than a journey for buying necessities. The Japanese brought to Hong Kong a new culture of consumption, with unprecedented enterprise culture, marketing strategies and shopping experience. Shopping in department stores started to become part of the social life of the Hong Kong people. In some newly developed satellite towns, the stores were almost the ‘community centres’ and ‘leisure centres’ to the residents.[35] For example, a lot of residents living in Tuen Mun (屯門), a new town in the New Territories, were at a loss and could not find a new place for meeting and gathering, especially the elderly and the housewives, after the closure of Yaohan in Hong Kong in 1997. A professor of Japanese Studies in The University of Hong Kong (HKU) pointed out that the Yaohan echoed some characteristics of the traditional Chinese market, which made it different from other department stores. Firstly, it provided a lot of benches which created the places for encounter. Secondly, inside the department stores there were a lot of temporary stores in which the salespersons or products promoters would yell for attention, which was a typical scene in a traditional Chinese market. Lastly, there were a lot of products and cooking demonstrations which attracted a lot of onlookers, which were like street performances.[36] The department stores in the satellite cities substituted the malfunctioning public space planned by the government, though driven by economic incentive.

The change in the attitude and purpose of visiting department stores is one of the reasons why the national products department stores diminished in the 80s. If the Japanese department stores represented shopping for leisure, the national products ones represented to purchase out of necessities: buying goods to meet basic needs as well as for cultural and psychological gratification. Before the early 1970s, shopping and consumption, beyond the purchase of daily necessities, were associated with a lifestyle beyond the reach of ordinary people.[37]

 

2.2        The Genesis and Transformation of the Shopping Malls

The first shopping mall of Hong Kong, Ocean Terminal (海運大廈), built on a huge pier in Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀), was opened on 22 March 1966. It was built to satisfy primarily the shopping desires of the affluent foreigners coming from abroad, rather than the locals.[38] This intention can be seen in the original tenant mixture of the mall – camera, jewellery and luxury-goods shops.[39] Nevertheless, the mall was perceived as more than just another venue of high consumption. For the locals, it was a place for having a taste of modern and Western ways of life. Its modern atmosphere was found liberating.[40] Tai-lok Lui, a well-known sociologist of Hong Kong, saw the construction of the mall the origin of the ‘malling’ process in Hong Kong. The subsequent localization of the shopping mall culture was an outcome of growing affluence among the local people and the development of a local consumption culture since the 1970s.[41]

The ‘malling’ process continued with the addition of The Landmark, Cityplaza and The New Town Plaza in the 1980s. Together with the arrival and prevail of the Japanese department stores at that time, these consumption sites contributed to Hong Kong’s transition towards a consumer society.[42] People shopped for leisure, and began to construct their own identity by consumption.

In the 1990s, the maturing consumer culture was switching from leisure consumption to lifestyle consumption. Commodities were purchased in pursuit of one’s own identity in the society and to express oneself in front of the others by acquiring different products. Don Slater says in his book ‘Consumer Culture and Modernity’ that ‘consumer culture is the privileged medium for negotiating identity and status within a post-traditional society.’[43] In the modern world, people rely a lot on appearances – ‘the images we construct on the surfaces of our bodies, our living spaces, our manners and our voices’ - which become ‘a crucial way of knowing and identifying ourselves and each other.’ Since goods can signify social identity and consumer culture is essentially about the negotiation of status and identity, consumer goods become very important to the way in which we make up our social appearances, our social networks and our structures of social value.[44]

Shopping malls started to included entertainment facilities and services, as a response to the leisure consumption formed in the previous decade, and tried to attract more visitors by holding various activities inside the malls, an early form of proposing certain lifestyles. The Dragon Centre (西九龍中心) opened in Sham Shui Po in 1994 and the Festival Walk opened in Kowloon Tong in 1998 were good examples. Dragon Centre targeted at the youngsters in Hong Kong as well as the local inhabitants of the old Sham Shui Po district with a lot of middle and low income people. The construction of the first indoor roller coaster in Hong Kong, which was hung from the roof on the ninth floor, and the skating rink were feature to attract adolescents, while the selection of shops covering a rich provision of daily necessities with low prices appealed to the local inhabitants of the neighbourhood. The mall provided both shopping experience and necessities products. In recent years, the mall adjusted its positioning and carried out some reforms which made it different from the past. The Festival Walk also has a skating rink and even cinemas, but, on the contrary, it positions itself for middle and higher class consumers. The shops in the mall are more exclusive and sell more expensive products, which are more about having a certain kind of lifestyle rather than just fulfilling basic needs in life.

After the 2000s, the consumer culture has been heading towards the culture consumption. Due to the increasing affluence of the society and the rising of the education level, more people try to establish their social appearance, way of living and identity with culture. In postmodern society, the value of goods depends more on their cultural value (‘sign-value’) than on their functional or economic one, and more commodities take the form of signs and representations instead of material goods.[45] At the same time, some shopping malls started to promote themselves and reinforce their positions in the retailing market by branding. It included promoting the names or brands of their malls in mass media and associating certain lifestyle and social status with the malls by advertising and marketing. Besides doing so, some malls built after the year 2000 would try to catch the attention of the society and their target groups by having iconic forms, facades, interior spaces or decorations in their design. The shopping malls started to have ‘concepts’. For example, Langham Place opened in 2004 has a huge atrium in which there are long escalators called ‘Xpresscalators’ transferring visitors from the 4^th floor to the 8^th and then to the 12^th floor. On the 13^th floor, there is an architectural feature on the ceiling called ‘Digital Sky’ on which computerized images are projected. The MegaBox opened in 2007 is a huge ‘box’ which has a very eye-catching circular atrium that can be seen from the outside of the mall. The Elements opened in the same year is divided into 5 zones – Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth – with the concept of the five elements of Nature in traditional Chinese culture. Each zone has a distinctive interior design and a collection of art works which respond to the element that the zone belongs to. For instance, the Wood Zone uses a lot of wooden finishes for the interior design and has a series of art works which are made of tree branches.

We can see from the above examples that the shopping malls in the last decade have been increasingly associating themselves with ‘culture’, probably due to the change in the consumer culture towards culture consumption. This trend of shopping malls employing cultural elements to establish their positioning or branding has been confirmed by the completion of K11, which claims to be the first art mall in the world, in 2009.

 

2.3        Change of Consumer Culture leading to the Decline of the Department Stores

The sites of consumption are closely related to the consumer culture. We have just seen how the shopping malls have been adapting to the changes in the consumer culture in the last few decades. Not able to notice and adjust themselves according to these changes could lead to failures in businesses, and these could be one of the reasons why the department stores in Hong Kong have been declining. The local and national department stores had a prime time before the mode of consumption was shifted from shopping for necessities to shopping for leisure. When the Japanese department stores brought the mode of leisure consumption to the city in the 80s, the general public turned to these stores which fulfilled both their basic and spiritual needs. The Japanese stores provided a new choice and helped transform the consumer culture which echoed the social and economic development of Hong Kong at that time. The national department stores were not able to adjust quickly to cater to this new consumer culture, partly due to the restrictions of being state-owned enterprises, and thus lost the glamour to the people. The local department stores performed better in reforming their businesses accordingly, but still had a hard time because of their company structures and ways of doing business. Their situation deteriorated when later the leisure consumption was changed to the lifestyle consumption in the 90s. Due to the limited space and the practice of standardizing in the management, the department stores in Hong Kong were having difficulty in providing a multi-cultural shopping environment and a rich selection of products, which were crucial in the lifestyle consumption, when compared to the shopping malls. The shopping malls hence played a more prominent role in the retailing industry in the 1990s. Only certain national and local department stores survived in this decade, while the Japanese ones were still making profits and expanding their businesses. The epoch of Japanese department stores was put to an end by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis in which a lot of companies went bankrupt and were closed. We do not know whether these successful retailing models of department stores could lead a good business under the cultural consumption. Now, most of the department stores become parts of the shopping malls instead of running businesses in their own building, probably due to the high land price and rent. Although still keeping their own management and way of running business, their spaces are limited and the rents are controlled by the malls, which could inhibit their growth and development.

 

2.4        Chapter Summary

We have seen how two prominent business models in the retailing industry – the department store and shopping mall – have been influenced by the consumer culture. The changes in the consumer culture are parts of the reasons why the department stores declined and diminished while the shopping malls rose and replaced their status. The department stores were generally good at selling products fulfilling daily necessities. That is why they were the most sought-after places for shopping before the society became affluent. The arrival of the Japanese department stores with leisure consumption in the 1980s had a huge impact to the society. They changed the retailing industry as well as the social activities of the people. The 80s was also the time when the shopping malls became the daily sites of consumption due to the development of the new towns. The malls were built for the uprising of a new group of consumers – the middle class of Hong Kong. Later when the lifestyle consumption prevailed in the 1990s, the shopping malls became more important consumption sites for the people, though the Japanese department stores were still having their heydays. The focus of consumption began to transfer from commodities to values, and the shopping malls started to create their own images and brand. In this decade, it was obvious that the department stores were about commodities while the shopping malls were about values like lifestyle and identity – the advertisements of the department stores were selling their commodities while those of the shopping malls were marketing about the lifestyle and social status they represented. For the age of the culture consumption, we cannot compare the two business models because the successful retailing model of the department store, the Japanese one, had been ruled out from the market due to other economic factors.

 

3

Department Stores, Shopping Malls

and Urban Development

 

Figure 8: The typical shopping malls in Hong Kong and the United States

 

3.1        Chapter Overview

The urban development of Hong Kong has a significant influence on constituting the uprising and downturn of the shopping malls and the department stores. In this chapter, we are going to look into two crucial factors involved in this development: the new towns (新市鎮) (or satellite cities) and the infrastructure. Each paragraph in the following overview will be discussed in detail per section

Department stores were mostly located in the commercial districts in the urban centre, before the local department store Wing On opened its branch store in the first private housing estate of Hong Kong (Mei Foo Sun Chuen) in the 1970s, and the Japanese department store Yaohan opened its first store in the shopping mall in a new town (Sha Tin) in the 1980s. After their opening, more and more department stores, mainly the Japanese ones, expanded their business to the newly developed districts outside the urban centre.[46] Department stores started to decentralize, with the development of retailing market in the new towns.

New towns were important places for shopping malls to take shape versus the suburbs in the United States. The current way of designing and building shopping malls originated in the new towns in the eighties, although the first shopping mall in Hong Kong was built in the urban centre (Tsim Sha Tsui) in the sixties.

 The development of the new towns and the shopping malls would not be possible without the infrastructure, primarily the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and the Kowloon Canton Railway (KCR)[47]. In the United States, the planning and development of shopping malls are impossible without paying attention to automobiles. For example, malls are always surrounded by huge parking lots, which show the importance of cars. In Hong Kong, railway systems play a role more important than cars do. [Figure 8] The MTR and KCR are so influential that most of the commercially successful shopping malls are built on top of the MTR stations or linked to the KCR stations. The development of the shopping malls got mature in the new towns in the eighties, and then went back to the central area of the city with a triumph in later time.

The booming of the shopping malls in the urban centre not only speeded up the fall of the department stores but also turned the surrounding area of the malls into sites of consumption or consumption-oriented space, starting the ‘mallification’ of Hong Kong. Shopping malls used to meet people’s needs and act as a replacement of street lives and communities in the new towns. In the late 2000s, the malls began to dominate and engulf the street lives and communities of every part of the city.

3.2        Centralization and Decentralization of the Department Stores

All the department stores were centralized in the urban centre of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon before the 1970s. Commodities in the department stores were less affordable for the general public before the soaring of Hong Kong’s economy, and the Massive Transit Railway (MTR) which formed the underlying traffic network of Hong Kong had not been built. Therefore, the retailing business still concentrated in the urban centre.

In the late sixties, the first private housing estate of Hong Kong, Mei Foo Sun Chuen (美孚新邨) was built in Lai Chi Kok (荔枝角). The emerging middle-class started to move out of the city centre to the estate, in pursuit of better living qualities. Lai Chi Kok was considered an outlying area of Hong Kong at that time. Therefore, Wing On’s opening of the Mei Foo Sun Chuen Branch there in 1974 was considered pioneering.[48]

In the seventies, the phase-one new towns construction planned by the government started. The new towns were Tsuen Wan (荃灣), Sha Tin (沙田) and Tuen Mun (屯門) (please refer to Figure 3 for the locations). Among these towns, the first large-scale shopping mall was built in Sha Tin - New Town Plaza in the 80s. When the mall was first complete, the property development company, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. (新鴻基地產發展有限公司), had difficulty in having a large-scale retailer operate an anchor store there, mainly because of the political uncertainties initiated by the Sino-British negotiations over the sovereignty of Hong Kong between the Prime Ministers Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽) of the People's Republic of China and Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom in the early eighties. When the crisis of confidence in Hong Kong was at its peak, Sun Hung Kai Properties agreed to reduce the rate to half the initial offering price. Yaohan thus got the 10-year lease of operating in the New Town Plaza at a very favourable price, and became the first Japanese department store which opened a store in the new towns away from the urban centre.[49]

After Yaohan’s opening in the New Town Plaza in Sha Tin in 1983, more and more Japanese department stores explored the new markets in the regions outside the well developed urban centre. In the meantime, more Japanese stores were opened in Causeway Bay (five stores in the district by the end of the eighties)[50], one of the commercial districts in the urban centre of Hong Kong Island, making the place a well known shopping precinct for both the locals and tourists. Later the place developed into a large district of consumption with department stores and shopping malls being the landmarks and nodal points of a network composed of streets lined with shops. These landmarks and nodal points were reference points for people to meet, travel and shop in the district. For example, the door front of the Japanese department store SOGO[51] in Causeway Bay has been the landmark for gathering in the district [Figure 10]; Daimaru (大丸), another Japanese department store, has been the name of the terminal stop for the mini-buses going to the centre area of Causeway Bay, even after its closure in Hong Kong in December 1998. Therefore, 1980s is the decade when the Japanese department stores started to decentralize and at the same time did not lose their ground in the urban area.

 

     Figure 9: The door front of SOGO (崇光百貨) in Causeway Bay (銅鑼灣) in August 2010

As mentioned briefly in Section 3 of Chapter 1, 1980s was a disastrous decade for the national products department stores in Hong Kong, and actually also a hard time for the local department stores. The national products department stores suffered severely in the retailing business because of their inability to react or adapt to the change in the consumer culture, as discussed in chapter two. The second reason is they had more restrictions than the other department stores. Their products were imported from mainland China, but they were not allowed to negotiate with the manufacturers. They could only do so in the trade fairs organized by the distributor Chinese Resources, a state-owned enterprise. Furthermore, their products prices were standardized by The Hongkong & Kowloon General Merchandise Merchants’ Association Ltd. (港九百貨業商會). Only when the stores located in the areas with high rent could they raise their prices by around 5%. Although the national products department stores made some attempts to reform their companies like redecorating the stores and improving the staff quality, their efforts came too late and seemed to be in vain.[52] For the local department stores, their failure lies in their poor management. They did not have a clear system of controlling the number of stock and pricing their products, and they usually had poor management in human resources because their businesses were run on a family basis.[53] The vigorous competition in the retailing market and the emergence of the specialty stores which provided high level of service and expertise also count for their downturn. Therefore, in the urban centre, the businesses of the Japanese department stores were reinforced and the ones of the national products and local department stores diminished.

In the nineties, department stores started to have difficulty in running businesses in the urban area due to the ever-rising rent and the increase in the logistics expense. Matsuzakaya and Isetan, for example, closed their department stores in Hong Kong due to high rent. The heyday of the Japanese department stores ended after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis hit Hong Kong. A lot of Japanese department stores were either bankrupt or purchased by local enterprises. For instance, all stores of Yaohan and The Daimaru in Hong Kong were closed on 21 November 1997 and in December 1998 respectively; SOGO Hong Kong was bankrupt in 2000, and was purchased and operated by Lifestyle International Holdings (利福國際集團有限公司) now. The department stores in Hong Kong either moved to the places with lower rent which were usually the regions outside the urban centre like the new towns, or moved into shopping malls and became their anchor stores. The department stores were no longer destinations of shoppers nor concentrated in the urban centre. They were scattered sparsely in every part of Hong Kong.

In the 2000s, even in the regions outside the urban centre did the department stores have hardship in running businesses. For example, four branches of the big Japanese department store JUSCO were closed from 2004 to 2010 in Tsz Wan Shan (慈雲山) and Lok Fu (樂富) of Wong Tai Sin district (黃大仙區), Tseung Kwan O (將軍澳) of Sai Kung district (西貢區), and Tai Po district(大埔區). In the urban centre, even the oldest and most experienced department stores could not hold their businesses. For instance, two branches of one of the oldest department stores in Hong Kong - Wing On were closed in February 2004 and the last department store of Chinese Resources, a state-owned enterprise, was closed on 8 April 2005. Now, it is quite difficult to find a large-scale department store in Hong Kong. Certain big companies running department stores still exist, but the scale and size of their stores are getting more and more like a supermarket.

 

3.3        The Shopping Malls and the Development of the New Towns

The development of the shopping malls is inseparable from the development of the new towns in Hong Kong, versus the suburbs in the United States. In suburbs, people live in houses with private gardens; in new towns, people live in high-rise residential towers with collective facilities. New towns are large scale residential development planned by the government to solve the problems caused by the high density dwellings and the scarcity of land in the urban centre, and at the same time to provide Hong Kong citizens with better living qualities. Strictly speaking, these towns were not completely new. Traditional Chinese towns and villages existed for centuries in many of these towns like Tuen Mun (屯門), Tai Po (大埔) and Sha Tin (沙田), well before Hong Kong became the colony under the British governance starting in 1842. In the early years of Hong Kong being a colony, the development clustered around the Victoria Harbour. The decentralized mode of urban development only started in 1973. Governor MacLehose (麥理浩) launched a New Towns Development Programme to implement his ’10-year Housing Target’. Three phases of new towns have been constructed since.[54] Phase-one new towns are of larger population, when compared to phase-two and phase-three, which are mainly accommodated in public housing. These towns are Tsuen Wan (荃灣)(the new town is named in 1959), Sha Tin (1967) and Tuen Mun (1967). Phase-two towns are smaller and have a balance between private and public housing. These towns are Tai Po (1979), Fanling (粉嶺)/Sheung Shui (上水) (1979) and Yuen Long (元朗) (1979). Phase-three towns are more diverse in function, and are mainly for the middle class. These towns are Tseung Kwan O (將軍澳) (1982), Tin Shui Wai (天水圍) (1982) and Tung Chung (東涌) (1991).[55]

However, the planning of the new towns had little to do with the existing city fabric and contexts except the land ownership issues of the indigenous inhabitants. The government planned the new towns, influence by the Garden City movement, by zoning. Under the outline zoning plans, certain numbers of activities and facilities have to be provided to make the town self-sufficient and balance in the development. The new towns possess comprehensive social, community and healthcare infrastructure that they are almost like individual cities. The shopping malls then came naturally to the centre of these new towns, being typical models of condensation of commercial, retailing and consuming activities under capitalism. These shopping malls were big and imbedded into the network of residential towers and traffic terminal in the podiums, footbridges and the ground level.

Although the first shopping mall of Hong Kong was not built in the new town, the prevailing mode of developing, designing, building and management of the composite buildings with residential towers and shopping malls originated in the new towns in the 1980s. The first mall of Hong Kong was built in Tsim Sha Tsui, a tourist spot in the urban centre, as we discussed in the last chapter.

In the 80s, a lot of new towns were complete and a lot of people moved into these towns. Large-scale shopping malls were first built in Sha Tin (New Town Plaza) and Taikoo Shing (Cityplaza) as condensation of commercial activities and provision of daily necessities. Although Taikoo Shing is not a new town but a newly developed residential district on Hong Kong Island, it shares a lot of similarities in terms of urban planning and development. Therefore, it is included here as an example showing how the shopping malls has been developing in Hong Kong. Citiyplaza in Taikoo Shing is a typical example of shopping mall acting as the centre of the residential development [Figure 10]. In the beginning, retail merchants were doubtful about opening their shops in the outlying places, as we discussed in the last section about the first department store moving into the New Town Plaza in Sha Tin. But after the Shatin train station was in use, more and more shops moved into the shopping mall and the mall turned out to be a success. The importance and influence of infrastructure to the development of the shopping malls will be discussed in the next section.

        Figure 10: (The diagrams are taken from Year III Selina’s Group (Fall 2006) of The Architecture Department, The University of Hong Kong; The photo is taken from Google Street View in 2010.)

After the success of the New Town Plaza and the Cityplaza as precedent cases, more and more shopping malls were built, in commercial districts and residential districts. The developers in Hong Kong started to experiment with the possibilities in gaining maximum profits by developing shopping malls together with offices and hotels or with private housing estates. By building these functions with the malls, the developers secure a steady number of visitors, and thus are able to sell off or let the shops and the residential units for higher prices.

Residential towers with a shopping mall as a podium on the first few floors become a successful and efficient commercial model that it becomes a trend or even formula for developers to build mixed-use real estate development. A lot of residential developments in the new towns after 1980s are built with this formula. You can always find a big shopping mall in the new towns, and usually there will be more than one mall and the malls are often connected to each other with footbridges.

The most extreme case of this kind of development is the region around Tseung Kwan O (將軍澳) . Most of the buildings are built on top of a huge podium which is either a shopping mall or car park. The malls and the car parks are connected and form a huge network. This network is elevated from the ground and makes the streets and roads on the ground purely functional for vehicles. There is no street life under such mode of development. The network of pedestrians is formed above the ground by the shopping malls and the footbridges; on the ground level, the network of vehicles is formed by roads and highways which are planned for the vehicles but cannot be easily crossed by pedestrians; under the ground, there is a huge network of Mass Transit Railway (MTR) connecting the living complex to other parts of Hong Kong [Figure 11]. We can go there without visiting its outdoor environment and walking on the ground, but it is quite unavoidable not to pass the shopping malls, unless we drive.

Figure 11: The MTR network under the residential developments of Tseung Kwan O (將軍澳)

The Building (Planning) Regulations of Hong Kong actually have a great influence on shaping the above mentioned mode of development. According to Regulation 20 Permitted site coverage in Chapter 123F of the Regulations, the site coverage for a non-domestic building, or for the non-domestic part of a composite building, could go up to 100% for the first 15 metres of height, on all three classes of sites [Figure 12]. The value of shops is in general higher than that of flats in Hong Kong. Therefore, in order to gain maximum profits, the developers always develop private housing estates or complexes with shopping malls occupying the first 15 metres, after discovering the commercial potential of the malls in the 80s.

      Figure 12: An extract from Chapter 123F Building (Planning) Regulations of Buildings Ordinance of Hong Kong (Source: http://www.legislation.gov.hk/eng/home.htm)

To conclude with, the current mode of developing and designing large-scale shopping malls with residential programmes originated in the new towns and some other newly developed residential districts in the 1980s, shaped by the Building (Planning) Regulations of Hong Kong. The ideology of the developments is purely commercial and functional, with the aim of making maximum profits and achieving the most efficient logistics flow. Under the New Towns Development Programme, a lot of middle class and working class people have moved to the new towns and their way of living and practice of using space have changed due to the provision of collective outdoor and indoor spaces and facilities. Their travelling in the mass transit public transport in daily life has diminished and degraded the life of the streets, that a lot of people turn inward to shopping malls for their social and daily activities. Although not all of the shopping malls in Hong Kong are developed with this mode, for example the Times Square was built with offices and the Grand Century Place was developed with offices and a hotel, it has a significant effect on the Hong Kong society and the urban development, which will be discussed in the next few sections. In the last decade, more and more residential complexes are built with this mode and shopping malls become ubiquitous in Hong Kong.

 

3.4        The Shopping Malls and the Infrastructure

The development of the shopping malls and new towns in Hong Kong are greatly influenced by the development of the infrastructure of the city, primarily the Mass Transit Railway (MTR). This is mainly because most of the people in Hong Kong take public transportation for commuting rather than driving their own vehicles. The frequent use of public transportation leads the development of the malls in Hong Kong to deviate from the American shopping mall topology which is automobile-driven. A new topology of shopping malls emerged in Hong Kong during the 1980s.

MTR was an underground railway network connecting the existing urban fabric of the city, mainly on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The mass construction of the MTR started in the 70s, the decade in which a lot of new towns and new living districts, for instance Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin and Taikoo Shing, were being constructed. MTR had such a great influence on the urban development because it was built in a time when Hong Kong was transforming from an industrial based society to a service based one with industries like finance, logistics and tourism. Therefore, the new construction of the city could be built in response to the MTR railway and stations; and the planning of the MTR lines and stations could also coordinate with the development of the city.

Well before the construction of the underground railway, there was the train railway on the ground – the Kowloon Canton Railway (KCR). Although the MTR and KCR are run by the same company MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) now, the two terms are used here to refer to the traffic network underground and on the ground respectively, and their different functions and roles in the urban development. The train railway KCR connects Kowloon Peninsula to Lo Wu, a town near the border of mainland China. This railway formed the backbone of the formation of new towns in the New Territories in the north of Kowloon and the south of Shenzhen, China. Before the opening of the East Tsim Sha Tsui Station in 2004, Kowloon Tong was the only interchange station between the MTR and the KCR.

The construction of MTR linking the KCR was a good incentive for people to move into the newly developed residential districts away from the urban centre like Taikoo Shing and the new towns like Sha Tin. MTR and KCR were powerful infrastructure to decentralize the population to the periphery of the city. They made the New Towns Development Programmes plausible and viable. The new towns then became the new markets for the retailing industry, which formed the background for the genesis of the shopping malls for Hong Kong people. The New Town Plaza in Sha Tin is a good example of a shopping mall becomes successful by connecting itself to the KCR station.

The mass transit public transportation systems not only facilitated the formation of the shopping malls in the new towns, but also the ones in the urban centre. For example, The Landmark (1980) was built on top of the Central MTR station, Times Square (1994) on top of the Causeway Bay MTR station, Langham Place (2004) on top of the Mong Kok MTR station, and Elements (2007) on top of the Kowloon MTR station. On one hand, the connection to the mass transit system ensures the accessibility to the public and thus makes the malls having a higher number of potential visitors. On the other hand, shopping malls act as perfect linkage between the stations and the residential development because the malls are climatically well controlled indoor environment which protects the passers-by from getting wet under the rain and from the polluted air.

The case of Union Square with the shopping mall Elements is the most striking example of constructing a ‘self-sufficient’ living, working and entertaining quarter isolated from its urban contexts with the help of the underground railway. [Figure 13] It is located on top of the Kowloon MTR station. Visitors go to the mall mainly by public transport like MTR, buses and mini-buses. The complex cannot be approached easily by pedestrians as the site is surrounded by huge roads for vehicles, and it is detached from and alien to the existing urban fabric in the east. We shall have a more in-depth look at this type of planning when we talk about the shopping malls and communities in the next section.

     Figure 13: The Union Square in West Kowloon (source: Google Maps)

By looking at the locations and distribution of the shopping malls, which are usually situated on top of the MTR stations and linked to the KCR stations, we know how important the mass transit system is for the retailing and commercial activities, as the presence of the malls indicate the concentration of these two activities in the regions.

3.5        The Shopping Malls, Department Stores and Communities

Shopping malls are the central parts of the communities in the new towns and were parts of the communities in various districts in the urban centre. In the last two decades, however, the booming of the shopping malls not only speeded up the fall of the department stores but also dismantled the communities of the neighbourhoods in the urban centre. If we adopt the idea that ‘community’ is not a place but a set of social ties[56], the shopping malls have been breaking down the social ties in the neighbourhood. The traditional communities are not only eroded by the virtualization of personal relationships in the realm of mass media and on the Internet, but also are replaced, engulfed or assimilated by the shopping malls and become the sites of comsumption in nature. In this section, I shall illustrate the relationship between the shopping malls and communities and how the malls have been breaking down the social ties in the neighbourhood; in the next section, I shall illustrate how the shopping malls have been turning the neighbourhoods or even the while city into sites of consumption.

In the new towns, since most of the residents came from other parts of the city and were new to the places, there were no social ties between them and the towns. Although some of the new towns are located in places with a long history, the indigenous inhabitants have their own communities and neighbourhoods which are quite isolated from the new developments planned by the government. The new residents thus had to form their own communities in the newly built environment composed mainly of residential towers, podium-top gardens, shopping malls and the leisure facilities provided by the government like the swimming pools, tennis courts and basketball playgrounds. Since shopping malls are part of the network which the residents walk pass and visit in their daily activities as discussed in section 3, the malls become part of the new neighbourhood in the material sense. In the 80s and 90s, department stores in these malls were the landmarks or gathering places of the neighbourhood. For example in Tuen Mun, the Japanese department store Yaohan was the place where the elderly and housewives stay, communicate with their neighbours and make new friends. Despite the shopping malls, where rules of personal conduct are enforced and visitors being monitored, are not formal public spaces, they belong to the public domain where an exchange between different social groups is possible and also actually occurs, defined by Maarten Hajer and Arnold Reijndorp.[57] The shopping malls and department stores in the new towns are built and opened for the region; the visitors are mostly the residents in the towns. Therefore, the shopping malls and department stores in the new towns belong to the neighbourhoods, unlike those in the urban centre, where the social ties are formed. They help forming and shaping the new communities in the new towns.

On the contrary, in the urban centre where there is a long history of urban development, the shopping malls do not conform to the existing neighbourhoods and city fabric, which could break down the sophisticated social ties. The arrival of shopping malls in the urban centre is, of course, not necessarily a bad thing. However, when the shopping malls in the urban centre do not function as the public domain like those in the new towns do, after damaging the existing social ties in the neighbourhoods, it is then a huge issue.

Most of the long-standing neighbourhoods on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon are composed of streets. Markets, shops, stalls and hawkers usually cluster along streets but not in plazas, nor inside buildings. The streets with retailing activities and stalls opened on both sides, especially with butcher shops and fish markets which sell live animals, are called street markets (街市). Some of the famous street markets are located in Central, Wan Chai and Mong Kok [Figure 14]. Lively neighbourhoods around streets like these in the urban centre are endangered under the urban development projects in recent years.

      Figure 14: (From left to right) Graham Street (嘉咸街) in Central (中環); Fa Yuen Street (花園街) in Mong Kok (旺角); Tai Yuen Street (太原街) in Wan Chai (灣仔)

After shopping malls become an essential architectural model for combing various programmes like offices, hotels and serviced apartments into a unified whole which can generate profits more effectively, the new developments in Hong Kong usually contain the malls in the first few floors. Even the large-scale urban redevelopment projects jointly run by the Urban Renewal Authority (市區重建局)[58] of the Hong Kong Government and the real estate developers are planned in similar fashion. Under such a redevelopment project, a diversity of buildings and street lives are very often replaced by a single monolithic building – the shopping mall - with a blank exterior. The mall is gigantic and a complete world into itself that it makes no connection with the surrounding neighbourhood, except on the logistics and circulation levels which are planned to draw people in. Some of the daily activities in the neighbourhood are moved indoor to the mall which is not a genuine public space. In a mall, the behaviors of the visitors and the activities happening inside are monitored and controlled by the managing company; interaction and freedom of speech are restricted. The old inhabitants in the neighbourhood are accustomed to the old ways of using and performing in the old form of public space. However, their need of keeping the integrity of the community in the neighbourhood is often neglected. They are being excluded from the new ‘communities’ by their social lives not considered in the urban renewal and redevelopment projects which follow the commercial mode of development. In the busy shopping malls which display all kinds of new products and target at the consumers with great purchasing power, the elderly usually become aliens. Therefore, the new social ties in the neighbourhoods being renewed and redeveloped in the urban centre can hardly be formed with the qualities found in the past ones.

Another reason why the shopping malls in the urban centre cannot function as the public domain as the ones in the new towns do is they are not designed to serve only the surrounding neighbourhoods but actually the whole city of Hong Kong, probably due to their high land value and rent. This is the reason why most of the prominent malls in the urban centre are connected to the MTR network. The malls, overriding the neighbourhoods outside, are introverted buildings serving an anonymous group of customers coming from all parts of the city.

Department stores have limited effects on breaking the social ties in neighbourhoods due to their store sizes. They do not take up so many building blocks and streets as shopping malls do. Also, they are now usually located inside shopping malls.

Some people see the shopping mall as an adapted form of urban public space, or a new type of public space under capitalism. They think Hong Kong people spend more and more time in the malls that shopping becomes a way of life.[59] But they are only true for a certain group of people. Shopping malls are ‘pseudo-public spaces’ in social-activist critic Mike Davis’s perspective, because of the subsequent loss of possibilities for interaction and the lack of socioeconomic riches and diversity of the traditional metropolis due to the surveillance and restriction in accessibility.[60] Jenneth Jackson describes the malls as the places which cater exclusively to middle-class tastes and contain no unsavory bars or pornography shops, no threatening-looking characters, no litter, no rain, and no excessive heat or cold;[61] Diane Ghirardo believes the malls reduce the notion of a public space to a zone exclusively oriented towards consumption.[62] These perspectives further explain why a proper community cannot be formed in a shopping mall. The shopping malls with department stores inside in the new towns help shaping the communities, and are parts of the neighbourhoods. However, the communities formed are not complete and healthy because the places (the malls and the areas nearby) are consumption-oriented in nature.

 

3.6        Mallification of the City

More and more shopping malls are built in the last decade, with almost one new gigantic mall complete every year. In this section, I shall show that the ‘mallification’ of Hong Kong is not just an impression but an ongoing fact which has a huge influence on the social lives of the citizens.

In Bart Eeckhout and Steven Jacobs’s ‘3 Recent Transformations of Urban Public Space’[63], the term ‘mallification’ is used to describe the phenomenon that places are increasingly turned into sites of consumption, while continuing to be publicly accessible to large parts of the urban population. They see this phenomenon the material consequence of the privatization of public space in the contemporary city at an economic level.[64] When the majority of the urban population turn to these sites of consumption rather than the traditional public spaces like street markets, parks, promenades and countryside, the social and cultural activities of the society are more likely to happen there – the gravity of the social life is shifted to various sites of consumption.

The main problem, though, is not the fact that our social spaces are related to consumption, because shopping street, markets, groceries and so forth – almost all the activities in a contemporary city – are also related to different forms of consumption. The biggest problem is that these sites of consumption are becoming more and more like shopping malls, or being turned into part of the malls – places of monoculture in which decisions are guided and behaviors controlled in an unnoticeable manner. For example, most of the shopping malls in Hong Kong do not provide enough furniture for the visitors to take rest. If they want to do so, they have to go to cafés, fast-food shops or other retail places where seats are provided. In these locations, the visitors become the customers and are more likely to spend money, which they did not expect before entering the malls. Apart from this, visitors are being guided to walk pass different shops and facilities unconsciously in shopping malls. The location of escalators, the grouping of shops, the framing of views, the lighting and many other details are well planned with the intention to keep the visitors staying inside the malls as long as possible and to direct them to walk pass as many shops as possible, and thus increase the chance of earning money from them. One common strategy is to put the food court or the storey with catering and beverage services on a high floor, so that the visitors have to travel up and walk pass many shops along the route to eat and drink, as eating and drinking are big impetus for people to take action. Festival Walk, Times Square and Langham Place are some famous examples of adopting this strategy.

What is even worse is that in the last decade there are more and more occasions on which people can hardly avoid walking in or passing the malls, since the pedestrian and traffic networks are very often connected to shopping malls. In new towns, these are common scenarios due to the planning and mode of development as we have discussed in the last three sections; in the urban centre, this is the aftermath of various revitalization, renewal and redevelopment projects, jointly carried by the government and real estate developers, in which a lot of streets, markets and groceries were turned into shopping malls or parts of them.

One of the most influential events aggravating the ‘mallification’ of Hong Kong is the privatization of 180 retail and car park properties of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (香港房屋委員會) in 2004. The Link Real Estate Investment Trust (‘The Link’ or ‘The Link REIT’) (領匯房地產投資信託基金), managed by The Link Management Limited (領匯管理有限公司), was created to privatize these properties which are at the proximity of the homes of 40% of the Hong Kong population. The Link REIT was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 25 November 2005, as part of a divestment exercise by the Hong Kong Housing Authority, and 100% of its units were sold at the Initial Global Offering.[65] The privatization was an act to demonstrate the government's commitment to the principle of ‘market leads and government facilitates'. It implied that a lot of public amenities around the public housing would become the assets of the managing company and the shareholders who invested in the Trust in order to making profits. After The Link Management Limited took over the properties, it launched a series of asset enhancement measures like renovating the shopping centres[66] to create additional retail space and improve the access, and bringing in big chain stores to some flagship centres. For example, the old market in Ming Tak Shopping Centre (明德商場) in Tseung Kwan O was converted to a new extension of the shopping centre on the ground floor; in Tsz Wan Shan Shopping Centre (慈雲山中心), new escalators were installed at the nearby bus terminal to reverse the travel pattern of the pedestrians and to provide direct access to the 5^th floor of the shopping centre; popular retail and dining shops were introduced to the Lung Cheung Plaza (龍翔廣場) in Wong Tai Sin to transform the centre to an exciting shopping destination for tourists and nearby residents.[67]

Shopping centres in Hong Kong were different from the shopping malls in their catchment areas, types of shops, management and interior design. Shopping centres were usually less furbished and trendy in decoration than shopping malls and the shops inside were more practical with the aim of serving the surrounding neighbourhoods but not tourists. For example, there were clinics, pharmacies, barber shops, day-care centres and tutorial schools in shopping centres but seldom did they exist in shopping malls. The shops in shopping centres were mostly opened by small entrepreneurs who were very often also working in the shops while the shops in shopping malls were usually opened by big corporations in which the staff were employed.

Under the management of the private enterprise The Link REIT instead of the Hong Kong Housing Authority which belongs to the Hong Kong government, the shopping centres in different districts of the city have been converted into shopping malls which run businesses based on the calculation of expenditures and returns. Even though the customer overall ratings on some shopping centres increased significantly by 60% after the implementation of the Asset Enhancement Projects, according to the surveys conducted by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on the asset enhanced projects in 2006,[68] several social problems came into view gradually in the subsequence years. For instance, the rents increased substantially after the renovations of the shopping centres, which forced a number of small businesses to close down in 2006, 2008 and 2009. Also, the rental contracts with the small entrepreneurs were terminated selectively, that The Link REIT had been accused of partially to big chain shops. In November 2009, Hong Kong Doctors Union president Henry Yeung Chiu-fat estimated that more than half of the estate doctors might leave the housing estates due to the high rents.[69]

After the privatization, the properties were run with higher profits and return rates. The shopping centres look better in appearance, and the class and qualities of the commodities sold inside go higher and better. Yet, a lot of small shops including those who fulfilled the basic needs of the neighbourhoods and provided essential services to the nearby residents were driven away by high rents and big chain shops. The shop choices are no longer adjusted naturally by the demand of the neighbourhoods but decided by the managing company. People will find similar types, or even similar brands, of shops in all the shopping centres being privatized. The spaces around the public housing with shopping centres are becoming less and less like neighbourhoods which served and belonged to the local residents in the past. These spaces are now parts of the shopping malls which have different expectations, standards and requirements on how to use the spaces properly and personal behaviours because of the shifts in the target groups and business model. For the number of retail properties and areas of residence affected, the privatization of the properties of the Hong Kong Housing Authority in 2004 is the single most important event accelerating and intensifying the ‘mallification’ of the Hong Kong society.

4

Conclusion

 
 

4.1        The Decline of the Department Stores and the Rise of the Shopping Malls

The decline of the department stores and the rise of the shopping malls in Hong Kong are the complex amalgamating results of many interweaving factors like the changes in the consumer culture, economy, planning, urban development, government policies and many other events throughout the history of the city. We have discussed about these factors and events in previous chapters and sections specifically, and it is time to look at all of them in a bigger picture now.

Before the massive development of the new towns and the huge population attained in these towns in the 1980s, consumer culture had a more decisive role in affecting the success and failure of a retailing model. The retailing stores competed with each other in terms of the quality, class and price of the daily necessities they sold and the basic services they provided. Among these retailing stores, the department stores were successful. They were the consumption landmarks of the neighbourhoods, mainly in the urban centre. Going to department stores was not a daily activity but a serious journey.

When the affluent middle class was forming in the 70s and a lot of them started moving to the new towns with the working class, they began to ask for something more than just fulfilling basic needs in life. Also, their way of living and practice of using space have altered due to the change in the environment (the provision of collective outdoor and indoor spaces and facilities in the new towns) and the commuting means (the use of mass transit public transport in daily life because of their distant locations from the urban centre). 1980s was the decade when the urban development had a more prominent effect on the retailing industry. At that time, the shopping malls appeared in the new residential districts and fulfilled both the basic and social needs of the new residents. They functioned as leisure destinations, with the help of the department stores inside, and helped shape the emerging communities. The Japanese department stores saw the potential in these new markets and started to expand and decentralize, while the local and national department stores were reforming their businesses in the urban centre in order to survive and compete with the Japanese ones. With the soaring economy of Hong Kong, the land price and rent in the urban centre were rising rapidly, which forced a lot of local and national department stores with poor management to close down. The pursuit of lifestyle in form of consumption in the next decade helped reinforce the positions of the shopping malls and the Japanese department stores in the retailing market. In the same decade, the real estate developers started to discover the huge potential and high efficiency of combing shopping malls with other programmes like residential housing, offices and hotels to make money. The trends of the above development of the department stores and shopping malls continued without much deviation until the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis hit Hong Kong.  

Although 1997 is a year with tremendous importance in Hong Kong politics that the sovereignty of Hong Kong was returned from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China, the economy and the retailing industry were not directly affected. This was the result of the ‘One country, two systems’ principle agreed by the two countries in the Sino-British Joint Declaration which ensured the stability of Hong Kong’s society and economy. Hong Kong could keep its capitalist economic and political systems for 50 years.

The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis had a much greater impact on the economy and retailing industry than the huge political change. Many parent companies of the Japanese department stores suffered a colossal loss, and had to close down their businesses in Hong Kong. These department stores were either bankrupt or purchased by local enterprises. The epoch of the Japanese department stores in Hong Kong ended abruptly, though the remaining ones were still influential in the city when compared to other department stores. The local and national department stores also suffered severely and diminished even further in terms of the number of companies and their branch stores. Since most of the shopping malls belonged to the government and the real estate developers who owned the lands and the properties, they were less prone to being shut down. Also, since the malls are usually parts of the fabric of the neighbourhoods with a lot of residential housing or located in the commercial districts with many office towers, there are constant number of visitors, which are the residents and the workers in these cases respectively, which keep the businesses running. The economic factors have been more essential in determining whether a retailing business can survive and will be successful or not since then. The above events also tell us how critical the resource of lands and the value of properties are for doing businesses in Hong Kong.

2003 was another disastrous year for the economy and the retailing businesses in Hong Kong. The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) kept tourists from visiting Hong Kong of which tourism is one of the pillars in its service economy. Other businesses were also stagnant. Although the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) was signed, which were beneficial to Hong Kong entrepreneurs and enterprises entering the Mainland markets, and the Individual Visit Scheme was launched, which drew in a huge influx of Mainland visitors, to boost Hong Kong economy, the department stores did not benefit much from these policies and continued to close down because of the high rent and low number of visitors. A lot of Mainland tourists visited the shopping malls under the scheme, and the retail rent went up dramatically even though the economy of Hong Kong was still recovering. The department stores in the malls thus had a very hard time surviving.

Since the discovery of the commercially efficient model of developing shopping malls with high-rise residential housing on top, more and more gigantic shopping malls have been built in the new towns and later also in the urban centre. People start to notice the overwhelming number of shopping mall may lead to a monoculture society in which people could only shop. They also noticed a lot of characteristic old neighbourhoods were redeveloped into the same kind of commercial development under the collaboration of the Urban Renewal Authority and the real estate developers. Together with the privatization of 180 retail and car park properties, which are at the proximity of the homes of 40% of the Hong Kong population, of the Hong Kong Housing Authority in 2004, the ‘mallification’ of Hong Kong was evident. The shopping malls were not just taking over the businesses of the department stores but our social space and life. Because the malls exist ubiquitously in the city and are parts of the neighbourhood fabric, we basically have no choice but to visit them while carrying out different daily activities. Under these conditions, consumer culture becomes something the shopping malls manipulate to promote themselves and to attract visitors, like their using of cultural elements to establish their brands and positions in the consumption market. 

The shopping malls produce retail spaces while the department stores ‘consume’ them. This is the key factor in constituting the fall of the department stores and the rise of the shopping malls after the year 2000. In the past, there were a lot of different factors influencing a retailing model. Now, several forces dominate over the others, which does not make life easier but more difficult. The competition in the retailing industry is fierce, and the markets are ‘monopolized’ by the shopping malls in the present days. 

Bibliography:

1.      Borking, Seline. The Fascinating History of Shopping Malls. Den Haag: MAB Groep B.V., 1998.

2.      Duan, Hongbin (段宏斌). Key Code to the Success of Hong Kong Shopping Mall (香港購物中心成功密碼). Harbin: Heilongjiang Arts Publisher (哈爾濱：黑龍江美術出版社), 2006.

3.      Hajer, Maarten and Reijndorp, Arnold. In Search of New Public Domain. Rotterdam: Nai Publishers, 2001.

4.      Maitland, Barry. Shopping Malls: Planning and Design. London: Construction Press, 1985.

5.      Mathews, Gordon and Lui, Tai-lok (呂大樂), ed. Consuming Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, c2001.

6.      Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association (港九百貨商店職工會). Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association 40^th Anniversary Special Edition, 1946-1986 (港九百貨商店職工會四十週年會慶特刊, 1946-1986). Hong Kong: Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association (香港：港九百貨商店職工會), 1986.

7.      Kan, Chang-chiu (甘長求). Hong Kong Supermarkets: New Trend in the Retailing Industry (香港超級市場：零售業新趨勢). Hong Kong: The Commercial Press (香港：商務印書館), 1995.

8.      Lam, Wai Sum (Shirley)(林慧心). ‘The New Meaning of Shopping Mall and Its Implications to Future Development’. Master of Housing Management Dissertation, The University of Hong Kong, June 2008.

9.      MacPherson, Kerrie L., ed. Asian Department Stores. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, c1998.

10.  Ng, Chun Hung (吳俊雄) and Cheung, Chi-wai (張志偉). Reading Hong Kong Popular Culture 1997-2000 (閱讀香港普及文化 1970-2000). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2002.

11.  Pietromarchi, Bartolomeo. The [un]common place - art, public space and urban aesthetics in Europe. Actar, 2005.

12.  Read, Stephen and Pinilla, Camilo, ed. Visualizing the Invisible: towards an urban space. Amsterdam: Techne Press, 2006.

13.  Slater, Don. Consumer Culture and Modernity. Cambridge: Polity, 2002(1997).

14.  Sit, Victor F.S. (薛鳳旋). Hong Kong: 160 Years' Development in Maps (香港發展地圖集). Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (H.K.) (香港：三聯書店(香港)有限公司), c2010.

15.  The Ghent Urban Studies Team. The Urban Condition: Space, Community, and Self in the Contemporary Metropolis. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 1999.

16.  Wing On Co. Ltd.. Main Store Grand Opening, 23rd October, 1978. Hong Kong: the Company, 1978.

17.  Woo, Mathias (胡恩威), ed. Destroy HK: Hong Kong style 2 (消滅香港 : 香港風格2). Hong Kong: Jin nian, shi er mian ti (香港：進念・十二面體), 2006.

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[1] Seline Borking, The Fascinating History of Shopping Malls (Den Haag: MAB Groep B.V., 1998), p. 42-44.

[2] Wai Sum Lam (Shirley), The New Meaning of Shopping Mall and Its Implications to Future Development (Master of Housing Management Dissertation, The University of Hong Kong, June 2008), p. 24.

[3] Seline Borking, The Fascinating History of Shopping Malls (Den Haag: MAB Groep B.V., 1998), p. 23.

[4] Seline Borking, The Fascinating History of Shopping Malls (Den Haag: MAB Groep B.V., 1998), p. 23-26.

[5] Seline Borking, The Fascinating History of Shopping Malls (Den Haag: MAB Groep B.V., 1998), p. 42-44.

[6] There are some differences between a shopping mall and a shopping centre in different parts of the world. The case in Hong Kong will be explained in Section 6 of Chapter 3 - Mallification of the City. The term shopping mall is used constantly in this thesis to refer to the same architectural model described below, which encompasses both the shopping mall and the shopping centre.

[7] Barry Maitland, Shopping Malls: Planning and Design (London: Construction Press, 1985), p. 23.

[8] The Sincere Company (先施公司) was opened on 8 January 1900 by Ma Yingbiao (馬應彪) with HK$25,000 as capital and the rather hesitant support of eleven partners. (Kerrie L. MacPherson, ed., Asian Department Stores (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, c1998), p. 70.)

[9] Some say the first department store of Hong Kong is Lane Crawford (連卡佛) opened by two enterprising Scots, Thomas Ash Lane and Ninian Crawford in August 1850 (The Web site of Lane Crawford: About Us, Lane Crawford, http://www.lanecrawford.com/about-us.htm). But it was actually a grocery store, according to Siuyin Tsang’s The Life and Death of the Department Stores in Destroy HK: Hong Kong style 2, p. 123.

[10] The Wing On Company (永安公司) was officially opened on 28 August 1907, founded by the Kwok brothers Kwok Lock (郭樂) and Kwok Chin (郭泉)(also known as James Gocklock and Philip Gockchin).(Kerrie L. MacPherson, ed., Asian Department Stores (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, c1998), p. 51-52.) It was a grocery store rather than a department store before it expanded to include all sorts of general provisions and the later expansion in the store size.(Wing On Co. Ltd., Main Store Grand Opening, 23rd October, 1978 (Hong Kong: the Company, 1978), p. 30.)

[11] Siuyin Tsang (曾兆賢), ‘The Life and Death of the Department Stores (百貨公司生與死)’ in Destroy HK: Hong Kong style 2, ed. Mathias Woo (Hong Kong: Jin nian, shi er mian ti, 2006), p. 124.

[12] Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association, ‘The Past and Present of the Department Stores (百貨公司的今昔)’ in Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association 40^th Anniversary Special Edition, 1946-1986 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association, 1986), p. 36.

[13] ‘The China Products Co., founded in the British colony of Hong Kong in direct response to the challenge of the west in Asia, responded by selling at first exclusively Chinese made products to compatriots and foreigners alike, though marketed and managed according to the models pioneered by Wing On and Sincere.’ (Kerrie L. MacPherson, ed., Asian Department Stores (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, c1998), p. 26.)

[14] Ibid., p. 26.

[15] Chang-chiu Kan, Hong Kong Supermarkets: New Trend in the Retailing Industry (Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 1995), p. 99-100.

[16] Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association, ‘Forty Years of Development in Harmony (團結發展的四十年)’ in Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association 40^th Anniversary Special Edition, 1946-1986 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association, 1986), p. 16.

[17] There are two types of national products department stores: one is the state-run socialist institution of China; the other is opened by the Chinese entrepreneurs who have a close relationship with China or its national resources. (Chang-chiu Kan, Hong Kong Supermarkets: New Trend in the Retailing Industry (Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 1995), p. 100.)

[18] Ibid., p. 100.

[19] Hongbin Duan, Key Code to the Success of Hong Kong Shopping Mall (Harbin: Heilongjiang Arts Publisher, 2006), p. 29.

[20] A store called Tamiya (玉屋百貨) was opened in 1968, but was soon closed.

[21] Chang-chiu Kan, Hong Kong Supermarkets: New Trend in the Retailing Industry (Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 1995), p. 98.

[22] Siuyin Tsang (曾兆賢), ‘The Life and Death of the Department Stores (百貨公司生與死)’ in Destroy HK: Hong Kong style 2, ed. Mathias Woo (Hong Kong: Jin nian, shi er mian ti, 2006), p. 124.

[23] Siuyin Tsang (曾兆賢), ‘The Life and Death of the Department Stores (百貨公司生與死)’ in Destroy HK: Hong Kong style 2, ed. Mathias Woo (Hong Kong: Jin nian, shi er mian ti, 2006), p. 124.

[24] Chang-chiu Kan, Hong Kong Supermarkets: New Trend in the Retailing Industry (Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 1995), p. 101.

[25] The new department stores included the new branches of the existing stores, and the newcomers Mitsukoshi, Limited (株式會社三越), Tokyu Department Store Company, Limited (株式會社東急百貨店), Yaohan (八百伴), UNY, and JUSCO (吉之島/佳世客). (Ibid., p. 98.)

[26] Siuyin Tsang (曾兆賢), ‘The Life and Death of the Department Stores (百貨公司生與死)’ in Destroy HK: Hong Kong style 2, ed. Mathias Woo (Hong Kong: Jin nian, shi er mian ti, 2006), p. 126.

[27] Ibid., p. 126.

[28] The Agreement is also known as Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA). It enhances the already close economic cooperation and integration between the mainland China and Hong Kong. (Trade and Industry Department of The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, ‘CEPA: Overview of CEPA – What is CEPA?’, http://www.tid.gov.hk/english/cepa/cepa_overview.html.)

[29] The scheme allows citizens of certain appointed cities in mainland China to visit Hong Kong and Macau on an individual basis rather than only being able to travel to the two cities on business visas or in group tours as before.

[30] Wai Sum (Shirley) Lam, ‘The New Meaning of Shopping Mall and Its Implications to Future Development’ (Master of Housing Management Dissertation, The University of Hong Kong, June 2008), p. 22.

[31] Ka Fai Ma (馬家輝), ‘The Popular and the Divergence/The Death of Department Stores (流行與分眾/百貨公司之死)’ in Reading Hong Kong Popular Culture 1997-2000, ed. Chun Hung Ng and Chi-wai Cheung (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 64.

[32] Foon Leung (梁款), ‘A Sai Wan Person in Yaohan (西環人在八百伴)’ in Reading Hong Kong Popular Culture 1997-2000, ed. Chun Hung Ng and Chi-wai Cheung (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 371.

[33] The fixed price merchandise practice was established by chance of an accident. The boss of Sincere was planning to establish the fix price practice when he first came to Hong Kong from Australia. But he did not do it until much of his stock was damaged in a storm. He sold the goods with a low price with a price tag on each item. Since the goods were much cheaper than usual, the store attracted a lot of customers even though there would be no bargaining on the price. Since then, the company has been implementing the fixed price merchandise practice. A lot of other department stores soon followed this practice. (Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association, ‘The Past and Present of the Department Stores (百貨公司的今昔)’ in Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association 40^th Anniversary Special Edition, 1946-1986 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association, 1986), p. 36.) and (Kerrie L. MacPherson, ed., Asian Department Stores (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, c1998), p. 71.)

[34] Siuyin Tsang (曾兆賢), ‘The Life and Death of the Department Stores (百貨公司生與死)’ in Destroy HK: Hong Kong style 2, ed. Mathias Woo (Hong Kong: Jin nian, shi er mian ti, 2006), p. 122-123.

[35] Yeung Wai Lee (李揚慧), Salad (沙律) and Tin Hung Wong (王天虹), ‘A Sai Wan Person in Yaohan (西環人在八百伴)’ in Reading Hong Kong Popular Culture 1997-2000, ed. Chun Hung Ng and Chi-wai Cheung (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 374.

[36] The points were made by the assistant professor Heung Wah Wong (王向華) of the Department of Japanese Studies in The University of Hong Kong. (Ibid., p.376.)

[37] Gordon Mathews and Tai-lok Lui, ed., Consuming Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, c2001), p.31.

[38] Ibid., p.25.

[39] Gordon Mathews and Tai-lok Lui, ed., Consuming Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, c2001), p. 34. Original published in Tim Lim, ‘The Buck Shops Here.’, Postmagazine, South China Morning Post, May 30, 1999.

[40] Gordon Mathews and Tai-lok Lui, ed., Consuming Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, c2001), p.37.

[41] Ibid., p.25.

[42] Ibid., p.33.

[43] Don Slater, Consumer Culture and Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 2002(1997)), p. 29.

[44] Don Slater, Consumer Culture and Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 2002(1997)), p. 30.

[45] Ibid., p. 32.

[46] Chang-chiu Kan, Hong Kong Supermarkets: New Trend in the Retailing Industry (Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 1995), p. 98.

[47] Kowloon Canton Railway was operated by the same company as Mass Transit Railway - the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) since 2007 under a 50-year service concession. The two terms are used here to distinguish their early differences which will be explained later.

[48] Wing On Co. Ltd., Main Store Grand Opening, 23rd October, 1978 (Hong Kong: the Company, 1978), p. 63-64.

[49] Kerrie L. MacPherson, ed., Asian Department Stores (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, c1998), p. 263-264.

[50] Chang-chiu Kan, Hong Kong Supermarkets: New Trend in the Retailing Industry (Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, 1995), p. 98.

[51] Now the store is owned by Hong Kong merchants, after Japan’s SOGO declared bankruptcy in 2000.

[52] Siuyin Tsang (曾兆賢), ‘The Life and Death of the Department Stores (百貨公司生與死)’ in Destroy HK: Hong Kong style 2, ed. Mathias Woo (Hong Kong: Jin nian, shi er mian ti, 2006), p. 125.

[53] Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association, Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association 40^th Anniversary Special Edition, 1946-1986 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong & Kowloon Departmental Store Workers Association, 1986), p. 39.

[54] Victor F.S. Sit, Hong Kong: 160 Years' Development in Maps (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (H.K.), c2010), p. 104.

[55] Ibid., p. 104-105.

[56] The sociologist William Flanagan notes, ‘During the past two decades, researchers have embraced the idea that “community” is not a place but a set of social ties, that it is an extra-spatial social phenomenon not to be confused with neighbourhood.’ (Bart Eeckhout and Steven Jacobs, ‘3 Recent Transformations of Urban Public Space’ in The Urban Condition: Space, Community, and Self in the Contemporary Metropolis, The Ghent Urban Studies Team (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 1999.), p. 88.)

[57] Maarten Hajer and Arnold Reijndorp, In Search of New Public Domain (Rotterdam: Nai Publishers, 2001.), p. 11.

[58] Urban Renewal Authority (URA) (市區重建局) was set up on 1 May 2001 to replace the Land Development Corporation (LDC) (土地發展公司), which was set up in 1988, to undertake a massive urban renewal programme involving 200 new projects and 25 LDC announced projects in the following 20 years. (Urban Renewal Authority, ‘Urban Renewal Authority: News & Notices – 10 May 2001: URA Board held its first meeting’, Urban Renewal Authority, http://www.ura.org.hk/html/c1002012e137e.html.)

[59] Wai Sum Lam (Shirley), The New Meaning of Shopping Mall and Its Implications to Future Development (Master of Housing Management Dissertation, The University of Hong Kong, June 2008), p. 1.

[60] Bart Eeckhout and Steven Jacobs, ‘3 Recent Transformations of Urban Public Space’ in The Urban Condition: Space, Community, and Self in the Contemporary Metropolis, The Ghent Urban Studies Team (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 1999), p. 93.

[61] Ibid., p.92-93.

[62] Ibid., p. 93.

[63] Ibid., p. 88-104.

[64] Ibid., p. 97.

[65] The Link Management Limited 2004 - 2010, ‘The Link: About Us - Overview’, The Link, http://www.thelinkreit.com/en/corp/overview.asp.

[66] The retail properties under the management of the Hong Kong Housing Authority were shopping centres but not shopping malls. Their differences will be explained in the next paragraph.

[67] The Link Management Limited 2004 - 2010, ‘The Link: Asset Enhancement – Asset Enhancement Projects’, The Link, http://www.thelinkreit.com/en/value/htak.asp.

[68] The Link Management Limited 2004 - 2010, ‘The Link: Asset Enhancement – Customer Feedback’, The Link, http://www.thelinkreit.com/en/value/response.asp.

[69] Beatrice Siu, ‘Doctors dig in and vow to strike over Link rent rises’, The Standard, November 4, 2009, Features Section, http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?sid=25948278&art_id=90064&con_type=3&pp_cat=11.