{"id":15649,"date":"2019-12-13T20:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=15649"},"modified":"2021-06-23T17:16:30","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T09:16:30","slug":"more-than-a-hostel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2019\/12\/more-than-a-hostel\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than a Hostel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The hostel is\u00a0not\u00a0just for travellers, but also locals in the neighbourhood.<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Lambert Siu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong\nKong is a wondrous city with all sorts of fascination taking you by surprise. One\nis hidden in a corner of Sham Shui Po, a secret garden where hostel and music live\nhouse come together in a tenement building as a creative residence named\nWontonmeen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWontonmeen\u201d\nmeans \u201cwonton noodle\u201d in Cantonese, which is an iconic food of Hong Kong.\nPatricia Choi Pui-yee, founder of this creative residence chose this name as\nshe thinks it is a vivid representation of the local trait of this district and\nan embodiment of her love for the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wandering inside Wontonmeen brings you back to the old Hong Kong. The interior design is filled with a sense of nostalgia. Collectables and antiques found from flea markets stacking up on the shelf, vintage movie theatre seats from the 1960s in the common area and an eye-catching neon sign remind us of Hong Kong\u2019s dazzling nightlife in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Vintage movie theatre seats from the 1960s in the common area <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Collectables and antiques found from flea markets <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Kent Leung For-wah, Choi\u2019s husband and co-manager of Wontonmeen<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The appealing retro aesthetic has shaped the tiny common area into an intimate venue perfect for chic music. Kent Leung For-wah, Choi\u2019s husband and co-manager, first thought of turning the common area into a mini live house accommodating approximately 40 audience members when he observed that the common area was often left idle. As a professional musician and fond jazz music lover, Leung intuitively came up with the plan to fully utilize the space by inviting his friends to play jazz music at first and extend the line-up further to local indie artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jazz\nmusic is often perceived a bit high-end or out of reach to resident living in\nthe neighbourhood, the poorest district in Hong Kong. Yet, Leung has been\noffering gigs for free, hoping to promote jazz and indie music regardless of\ntheir economic background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Artists performing free gigs in the common area of Wontonmeen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\nagenda behind free entry is to encourage more people to give themselves a try\neven though they may not have heard of jazz music before. After they learn\nabout what we are trying to achieve here and appreciate [our effort], they will\nthen support us,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above the music area, the first and second floors belong to the hostel area, offering both private and shared accommodation for tourists. The design of hostel rooms is inspired by caged homes or cubicle apartments commonly found in densely-populated districts, where rental rooms are divided into numerous small units, owing to the skyrocketing property price and high land rent in Hong Kong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hostel
The “Hong Kong” neon light sign placed on 1\/F patio with a hammock underneath for tenants to rest on<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Such\nidea can be traced back to a final year project conducted by one of Choi\u2019s students\nin her environmental design class, who wants to improve the living condition of\nthe caged home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Wong Ka-po, a part-time staff member from Wontonmeen<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wong\nKa-po, a part-time staff member from Wontonmeen, points out the design theme of\nthe hostel is borrowed from caged homes and subdivided units, but instead of\nusing the theme as a gimmick to lure tourists, storage space and level of\nprivacy of the hostel were refined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst,\nthe bed is made larger and wider. Second, the cages are wrapped with iron net, and\nthat makes the design very practical as you can hang all your personal items\nwith hooks. When you leave, you can simply pull the curtain down to create your\nown private space,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A poster of In the Mood for Love, a classic romance by local director Wong Kar-wai, is hung on the wall inside the washroom in the hostel area<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What distinguishes Wontonmeen from other hostels is the homey feeling it gives to every visitor and the authentic local experience that travellers yearn for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough we call ourselves a hostel, the hosts are always here,\u201d Wong says. Running on a \u201cfamily-styled\u201d basis, the hosts and guests maintain a very close bonding, going beyond a mere landlord-and-tenant relationship. Besides customising their own tourist maps to provide local recommendations of places to visit in English, they would explore local food in Dai Pai Dong, a unique form of open-air food stall in Hong Kong or even visit the anti-extradition bill protests scenes with the tenants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Another neon sign and collectibles displayed on the wall in the common area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Books and maps available on loan for travelers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Apart from serving as a cultural exchange hub for tourists, Wontonmeen also cooperates with other non-governmental organisations in Sham Shui Po to launch community activities, such as guided tours, screenings of local films and cooking workshops. It does not simply function as a hostel that attracts foreigners but it also acts as a focal point that gathers and connects nearby residents in the neighbourhood together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by Scarlet Shiu<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Located in Sham Shui Po, a densely-populated district, Wontonmeen is a creative residence that combines elements of hostel, music live house and tenement building together, serving as a central hub that gathers both locals and travelers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1802,72,11,542],"tags":[1348,1346,1349,1351,1350,1347],"class_list":["post-15649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-154","category-photo-feature","category-photo-story","category-vchoice-2","tag-creative-residence","tag-hostel","tag-live-house","tag-sham-shui-po","tag-tenement-building","tag-wontonmeen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15649"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15775,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15649\/revisions\/15775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}