Staging the street : the dynamics of street performance and spatial regulation in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of Street Performance in Hong Kong with respect to the regulatory management of Public Space. The two most popular locations for Street Performance in Hong Kong, namely the Mong Kok Pedestrian Precinct and the Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront Promenade, are selected for our in-depth study. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Street Performers while six informal oral conversation were carried out with passing-by audience and nearby business owners. The generational and locational change in Street Performance, resulted from the changing social and cultural needs from different groups of Street Performers, shaped the key characteristics of the dynamic culture of Street Performance in Hong Kong. The open space along the streets also offer an environment to promote social integration between citizens, especially Street Performers who staged on the street for various reasons. In addition, by studying how the Street Performers in Hong Kong competed, connected and interacted with each other, the relationship between space ownership and complex ecosystem of Street Performers was divulged. The social impacts of Street Performance on Hong Kong from the perspectives of community indirectly led to the land use conflicts in such areas with different stakeholders in Hong Kong, including audience, business owners and nearby residents. After analyzing the current regulations towards Street Performance in Hong Kong, the research findings reveal that, apart from the introduction of the licensing system of street performers, one of the best way-out for the government to solve the problem of public space usage in Hong Kong is that governance of Street Performance needs to balance the interests of multiple users of the Public Space in order to avoid any land use conflicts and to reduce the concerns of Street Performers like pedestrian flow and effectiveness of their performance.