Why go
North Point’s “Little Shanghai” association, Shek Kip Mei’s housing history and the growth of country parks reveal different consequences of postwar change. The story links refugee skills and capital with factory production, then follows the social demands that accompanied growth. It gives residential districts as much historical weight as the harbour’s commercial towers.
The full story
People arriving from mainland China after the war brought skills, capital and a growing industrial workforce. Firms also moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong. Small factories made textiles, plastics, umbrellas, footwear and other goods that could be produced in limited space. North Point became associated with Shanghai arrivals and was known as “Little Shanghai”. Rapid population growth also brought extensive squatter settlements. The Shek Kip Mei fire exposed the dangers of overcrowded housing and helped prompt a programme of multistorey public housing. Early estates offered very basic conditions, including shared cooking facilities. The high-rise city grew partly from an urgent need for homes. Cinema gained ground alongside Cantonese opera as leisure changed. Industrial expansion came with long working hours, low wages and water shortages. The 1967 disturbances added political turmoil. In the 1970s, subsidised education expanded from six to nine years. Campaigns for equal pay and permanent employment for married women also changed working life, while the country parks system protected another part of the territory. Rising wages and mainland economic opening later encouraged manufacturing to move north.