Cultural significance of the trapped heritage: Stanley Mosque as a cultural identity for the Muslimcommunity in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong has long been establishing as a multicultural society, where people of different nationalities sharing diverse beliefs gather to pursue their dreams. As a utopian society is yet an ideal, when one uncovers the veil of this ever developing city, the neglect of religious minorities and their culture is still a common phenomenon.

Being one of the religious minorities that are overlooked in Hong Kong, Muslims occupy merely about 1.3% of Hong Kong’s population in 2007. Besides Chinese, they include Indians, Indonesians, Malaysians, Pakistanis as well as Muslims from Middle Eastern and African countries. Their presence can best be reflected by the existence of mosques on both the Hong Kong Island and in the Kowloon Peninsula. The majority of Hong Kong people, who are non-Muslims, pay so little or even no attention to the mosques, Muslims’ central focus of religious and social lives, in spite of some of their existence for over half a century.

Five mosques can be found in Hong Kong. Besides the Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Centre situated in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, four other mosques are all located on the Hong Kong Island, including Jamia Mosque in Central, Masjid Ammar & Osman Ramju Sadick Islamic Centre in Wan Chai, Cape Collinson Masjid in Chai Wan and Stanley Mosque in Stanley.

In this dissertation, Stanley Mosque is particularly selected for study as it is unique in ways which deserves a comprehensive understanding. Not merely is it the only mosque situated inside a prison in Hong Kong which implies a worth knowing story behind, rarity of records about the Mosque also signifies the necessity of an immediate study so as to discover and retain valuable information, especially the primary sources. The recent designation of Stanley Mosque as a proposed Grade I historic building in Hong Kong by the Antiquities Advisory Board on 19th March 2009 constitutes another strong reason for a comprehensive study as the designation indicates a potential change on the community’s attitude towards the recognition of this Islamic built heritage.

Focus of this dissertation is on the cultural significance of Stanley Mosque, in which all its cultural heritage values are identified. While traditional approach mainly focuses on historical and architectural aspects of mosques in analysis, value-centred management approach is adopted in this dissertation to remedy this inadequacy and cover as well social aspects of Stanley Mosque, since it is a cultural identity for the Muslim community in Hong Kong. In addition to the traditional values including historical and aesthetic / architectural values, contemporary values comprising social, symbolic, spiritual and identity values are also derived from the analysis of Stanley Mosque adopting the value-centred management approach. More important, statement of significance of the Mosque is laid to explain in precise its cultural heritage values and character-defining elements (CDEs).

As one of the historic buildings in Hong Kong, Stanley Mosque cannot be detached from the ongoing related policies and measures. Based on the cultural significance as identified, a territory level assessment of Stanley Mosque through the current historic buildings assessment and grading system in Hong Kong is carried out, aiming at a review on the assessment criteria of historic buildings. In addition to the current challenges, future of the Mosque are as well mentioned in the end, since this dissertation is not merely a documentation of the Mosque, but also a way forward, providing guidance for parties to be involved in any future intervention of the Mosque.