The lost historic urban landscape episode IV : interpretation of the disappeared Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong

Abstract

The Kowloon Walled City had experienced over hundred years of history of political entanglement, and was demolished in 1993, and it had been replaced by the Kowloon Walled City Park. The author is aware that most academics’ studies focus on its history and architectural forms, but its heritage values and meanings of the landscape had not been proper recognition and document. The author, as the previous resident at Kowloon Walled City with strong interest in conservation, was excited to discover these missing chapters at that lost historic urban landscape. The Kowloon Walled City is a valuable place to explore at different perspective in-depth. This dissertation focuses on identifying its heritage values and meanings of the lost historic urban landscape of Kowloon Walled City and on evaluating the conservation and interpretation approaches at Kowloon Walled City during the development process of Kowloon Walled City Park. Through researching history and stories of the Kowloon Walled City (with fragments of memory and stories of author’s childhood in 1980s) from its establishment until its demolition in 1993, its heritage significances will be re-examined. The development of Kowloon Walled City Park was used as a case study for understanding the conservation and interpretation approaches in the earlier Hong Kong. With reference to the current international standards and guidelines, the conservation and interpretation works at historic urban landscape of the Kowloon Walled City are evaluated. The scopes of this research are to examine and recommend the interpretation of Kowloon Walled City at the existing Kowloon Walled City Park in order to set up a valuable reference for interpreting the disappeared historic urban landscape in Hong Kong.