The disappearing scenery of Old-fashion Grocery Stores in Hong Kong

Requirement

Text, links, pictures and/or graphics and audio

Description and Introduction:

For those who’ve lived in Hong Kong for generations, the local old-fashion grocery stores, an icon of a past age of Hong Kong, were absolutely their collective memory. This kind of grocery store is famous for offering necessities of daily life and Hong Kong-style dried seafood. 

Situated at the junction of Wellington Street and Graham Street, the 80-year-old Wing Wo Grocery sells rice, preserved vegetables, salted eggs, chili sauce and suchlike every day. It is one of the last of its type in the area, standing for lifestyles in Hong Kong in old days. Tourists visit there for an original slice of historic Hong Kong. Because of the authority’s redevelopment plan for modern skyscrapers, only this grocery shop’s facade will be preserved.

Will the old-fashion grocery store like Wing Wo Grocery still exist and develop in the fast-paced society? I need to explore the reasons impeding its development by interviews. Increasingly, Hong Kong’s shoppers are buying in supermarkets, instead of traditional wet markets. With the prosperity of supermarkets in Hong Kong, the existence of grocery stores is under threat.

I questioned:

1. Which is the major influencer of consumers’ grocery store choice?

2. How could the grocery stores draw customers again? Will they bring back the 1980’s-era quality brand to identify their product again?

However, the current economic outlook for Hong Kong is mixed. A slow economic recovery and high unemployment have affected eating and shopping habits. Demand for grocery store products continues to be very strong. Will this become a new chance for grocery stores to survive?

To revive these historic shops for redevelopment, there is a long way to go.

Photoed By Xue Jing

Framework of the Coverage:

 Format: Text (With Separate pictures and audios representing the interviews)

 Soundslides

1. Research and Interview Arrangement( Graham Street, Western District, Wanchai)

Visit several typical grocery stores in Hong Kong

Contact the owners of the grocery stores, interviewing about the past, present and the future of the grocery stores.

2. Kinds of Interviewees:

1) Grocery owners

2) Customers buying the necessities in the old-fashion grocery stores

3) Vox Pop: Persons shopping in supermarkets instead of grocery stores

4) Authority: Official from Food Marketing Institute of Hong Kong (If possible)

                    Professors in the field of food marketing in the University of Hong Kong

5) Others

Structure　(Different 3 webpages in several parts)

Page One

Feature Story of Wing Woo Grocery Store

Subject: Wing Woo Grocery Store as a typical case

 l          A clue subject about his/her memory of old-fashioned grocery shop in old days in Hong Kong (Picture and Audio). These days I am looking for a Hong Kong resident who owns the vivid memory of the old-fashioned grocery shops in old days as a customer. His/her story could serve as a clue to attract the audiences’ attention of this topic.

  l          A detailed description of Win Woo Grocery Store(Audio and Picture-gathering).It is one of the last of its type in the area, standing for lifestyles in Hong Kong in old days. I would like to have an in-depth look at Wing Woo Grocery Shop as a typical case. Unfortunately, when I came to Wing Woo on Sunday afternoon, I found it was closed because the bad business on Sundays. So I will select another suitable time to contact the owner of Wing Woo Grocery store.

Page Two

Dilemma they faced with: witness the change but to change themselves or not?

l          The dilemma of Win Woo Grocery Shop(Audio and Picture)Because of the authority’s redevelopment plan for modern skyscrapers, only this grocery shop’s facade will be preserved. This event could be a transition between the past and the future of the grocery stores in Hong Kong. The background news of the URA Plan plan could also be involved.

l          Introduction about other grocery shops in Hong Kong (Audio and Picture). I have approached several traditional grocery stores in Hong Kong this Sunday, most of which own more than sixty-year-old history. The owners are very kind to tell their business situations and historic backgrounds. This part could be a general picture of the topic.

Page Three

Critical Issues: Is grocery store a sunset industry?

l          The comparison between supermarket and old-fashioned grocery shops (Graphic and pictures)Some detailed comparisons between the modern supermarket and the old-fashioned grocery stores. Through their both advantages and disadvantages, we can see whether or not the grocery stores have potential in the competitive grocery market.

l          The viewpoints of the future of grocery shops(the authority, the vox pops .etc )(Pictures and Audios) Selecting different viewpoints about the people from various circles in Hong Kong, adding their comments about the grocery stores phenomenon in the way of Vox Pop . 

 

Photoed by Xue Jing

 Project Schedule:

The First Week	Background information searching (From Internet and Library Data) Approaching different sources for interviews
The Second Week	Interviews in different grocery stores (Pictures and Audios Gathering)
The Third Week	Story Writing and WebPages Planning Soundslides Making (Pictures with Audio)
The Fourth Week	Uploading different elements of the multi-media Project Accomplishment of the two pages

 

 

 

 

The disappearing scenery of Old-fashion Grocery Stores in Hong Kong

Description and Introduction:

For those who’ve lived in Hong Kong for generations, the local old-fashion grocery stores, an icon of a past age of Hong Kong, were absolutely their collective memory. This kind of grocery store is famous for offering necessities of daily life and Hong Kong-style dried seafood. 

Situated at the junction of Wellington Street and Graham Street, the 80-year-old Wing Wo Grocery sells rice, preserved vegetables, salted eggs, chili sauce and suchlike every day. It is one of the last of its type in the area, standing for lifestyles in Hong Kong in old days. Tourists visit there for an original slice of historic Hong Kong. Because of the authority’s redevelopment plan for modern skyscrapers, only this grocery shop’s facade will be preserved.

Critical Issues: Is grocery store a sunset industry?

Will the old-fashion grocery store like Wing Wo Grocery still exist and develop in the fast-paced society? I need to explore the reasons impeding its development by interviews. Increasingly, Hong Kong’s shoppers are buying in supermarkets, instead of traditional wet markets. With the prosperity of supermarkets in Hong Kong, the existence of grocery stores is under threat. I questioned:

1. Which is the major influencer of consumers’ grocery store choice?

2. How could the grocery stores draw customers again? Will they bring back the 1980’s-era quality brand to identify their product again?

However, the current economic outlook for Hong Kong is mixed. A slow economic recovery and high unemployment have affected eating and shopping habits. Demand for grocery store products continues to be very strong. Will this become a new chance for grocery stores to survive?

To revive these historic shops for redevelopment, there is a long way to go.

Framework of the Coverage:   (Wing Wo Grocery Store as a typical case)

    Format: Text (With Separate pictures and audios representing the interviews)

                 Soundslides

1. Research and Interview Arrangement :  (Graham Street, Western District, Wanchai)

Visit several typical grocery stores in Hong Kong

Contact the owners of the grocery stores, interviewing about the past, present and the future of the grocery stores.

2. Kinds of Interviewees:

1) Grocery owners

2) Customers buying the necessities in the old-fashion grocery stores

3) Vox Pop: Persons shopping in supermarkets instead of grocery stores

4) Authority: Official from Food Marketing Institute of Hong Kong (If possible)

         Professors in the field of food marketing in the University of Hong Kong

5) Others

Useful Links:

Grocery Store

Old grocery shop on Flickr-Photo Sharing!

Travel in Hong Kong Island

Project Schedule:

Published: October 20, 2008

Photoed By Xue Jing

Hong Kong- Tai O fishing village is one of the last remaining fishing villages in Hong Kong with stilt houses built hundreds of years ago. Today’s social and economic factors are changing in the face of this “the Venice of the East”, especially its traditional water-related fishing lifestyle. With the typhoon Hagupit, the fishing village of Tai O was flooded up to chest height. After the tide and storm surge, will Tai O’s environs and characteristics still be the same? With the tides of change, Tai O should be bare witness not only to its own beautiful scenery and long-standing culture, but also to its uncertain future development.

Please click here to view our project

Here are some public opinions about this crisis from the vox pop by reports of JMSC in a busy street.

Vox Pop

Danny , a man waiting for a bus

Gabriel, a man at the bus stop

From the vox pop, though some of them do not care about the scandal, most of the interviewees are worried about the poor quality of products as well as the low credibility of quality control of China. Probably, it’s quite natural for consumers to conclude that the whole industry isn’t trustworthy any more.

It has to be hoped that the central government should not only punish those irresponsible big companies but also improve greater transparency to salvage the whole industry’s reputation. It may take some time for consumers to restore trust for the milk safety of China.

  milk on the shelves of a supermaket , without famous brands from mainland China

A good beginning is half the battle. Fortunately, I stick to my original idea as the group project with other two excellent members. The tranquil natural setting and tremendous cultural resources of Tai O are so attractive to us. Probing the “Venice of Hong Kong” does have great potential for an interesting on-line story.

Tai O clearly has a niche to visitors and it is also a hotspot for the main-stream media such as SCMP, the Economics and so on. Mass media never tired of debating the pulling and pushing forces between globalization and localization, the contradiction between conservation and development. So what should we report for our audience? Its prosperous eco-tourism? Its commercial potential or the so-called green strategy to rejuvenate Tai O? None.

The local people come and go by boat. The traditional water-related fishing lifestyle is meaningful to catch the eyes. We would like to enter the world of a typical local family (maybe more than one), observing their normal life which still retains the unique characteristic of this traditional fishing village. Seeing is believing. How do the Tai O people retain and preserve their culture and tradition and live harmoniously in this rapidly changing modern society? From the houses on stilts to the heartfelt words of the dwellers we will tell you about them through our visual-audio story from a micro and rational perspective instead of a general picture. By interviewing the protection committee and the family in Tai O, we would like to present the local views of this debate. As a result, the audience will obtain a clear answer to the controversies between conservation and development.

Opening journalistic horizons in a spectacular way: challenges and opportunities

We can borrow professional camera and recorder from our classmates.How to tell a profound and powerful story? How to make our soundslides project a good marriage of words and pictures? How to put the audience at the scene? These are needed to be considered before we arrive at Tai O.

One concern is about the coherence of storytelling. Particularly, we want to focus on the lifestyle of the dwellers in the fishing village. However, we also want to add some more materials (e.g. the opinions from the tourists, the natural scene and other cultural heritages of Tai O) to highlight our story. So we need to consider how to make the various visuals coherently in a logical way with so many wide, medium and lots of tight shots.

The other concern is about communication while interviewing. We need to communicate with the local people, but none of us can speak native Cantonese. I think we should find a native speaker as our translator to the coming interview.  

Never mind, we will try our best to make it better.

Cooperating with my group members: many hands make light work

Our Planning

Han Wei and Nick are very nice and passionate persons in our team. Han owns abundant creative ideas and Nick’s native English is absolutely a highlight of our work. To me, as a student majoring in journalism for four years, I will try to put my four-year journalistic training into practice.  My task is:

1) Preparation Period  

Defining the purpose of the interview  Conducting background research Planning the interview

“Fishing Village” is my original idea, so I have created a folder filled with abundant materials about this heritage. After that, I should  record our pre-planed questions (no prejudge, from different perspectives of the topic) together with Han and Nick. 

2) Contact and Interview in my part

Some of the best stories come through personal contacts. Looking for the Cantonese-speaking person as our guild and contacting my England friend who has been to Tai O in his childhood as other special source to report the story is crucial to me. I will put more effort to ensure I have set up and got the best materials from my interviewees, following up interesting points, and hopefully getting an exclusive.

3) Photographer and final Editor

I will try to master the knowledge of soundslides, by learning its advanced skills through some technical books and websites like Mastering Multimedia to make sure we can tell a story skillfully as qualified on-line journalists.

原由 Little Camellia 上載

The traditional Chinese Mid-autumn festival is around the corner, and the lantern wrought in various shapes plays a very significant role of this festival. In Hong Kong, people choose different kinds of lanterns, preparing for the coming Mid-autumn lantern carnival. The lanterns are in the shapes of goldfish, peaches, pumpkins, butterflies, lucky stars as well as funny cartoons and so on, adding highlight to the festival season. No matter the ancient paper Lanterns or the plastic electric lanterns, they are both traditional and innovative. The salesperson told me, the battery –powered toy lanterns were very popular among the customers.

I went to the lantern market at Sai Ying Pun, and took a lot of pictures in the jubilant atmosphere. At last, I selected several of them including wide-shot, mid-short and feature close-up in order to report this folk and artistic heritage. This magnificent cultural heritage symbolizing best wishes and happiness comes to life with us, which will absolutely decorate the picturesque Mid-autumn night.

View more pictures of the cultral heritage of Hong Kong , Please click Here

Tai O Village of Lantau island, titled as the “Venice of Hong Kong”, is one of the last remaining fishing villages with stilt houses built hundreds of years ago.In the village, there are lots of temples, including War God Temple, Yanghou Temple, Hongsheng Temple, Tianhou Temple and so on.The local people come and go by boat. The ‘pangwu’, the ‘bamboo houses’ or ‘stilt houses’, a kind of stilt house, built right over the waterway is still quite scenic. The main-stream media such as the SCMP, the Economics also put the spot light on the issues of Tai O villages as a public topic. In my view, the topics about Tai O Fishing village are meaningful to go further steps, from its history, tourism to its salt-related fishing lifestyle. How do the Tai O people retain and preserve their culture and tradition and live harmoniously in this rapidly changing modern society? I want to grasp what elements of Tai O persists despite change, and to comprehend the factors cause change of their traditional heritages in some sense through a well-rounded investigative reporting from its historical roots to the future outlook. In general, the topics between the pulling and pushing forces between globalization and localization which have a far-reaching impact on the heritages are so attractive to me as a double-edge sword.

More Added: Today, When I scanned the latest news I subscribed in my Google Reader Through RSS (Home/ News/ Hong Kong ), an article related to the Tai O Fishing Village caught my eyes: Preserving past best way to revive Tai O, say design winners (SCMP, September 9,2008) The article published today elaborated how to make a delicate balance between “revitalization” and “over-touristy” , providing a profound insight for me to dig into this significant topic for my in-depth online report.

Here is the link:http://www.hkstories.net/mj2008_fall42/Lisa.mp3

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