{"id":21982,"date":"2023-01-23T21:19:45","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T13:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=21982"},"modified":"2024-04-17T12:35:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T04:35:29","slug":"forced-off-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2023\/01\/forced-off-the-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Forced Off The Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dai pai dong owners in Fo Tan may face eviction by 2024 due to government plans.

By Victoria Fong<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry has been working in Tai Yuen Dai Pai Dong in Fo Tan for over 30 years. The stall is facing eviction by 2024 due to government plans to redevelop Fo Tan\u2019s East and West Cooked Food Markets into a new government complex.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur latest rental contract with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) ends in June 2023 and FEHD officers say we have to move by 2024, but many details are uncertain. We are unlikely to move to another place since it is difficult to find a space as big as our current site, where big groups can eat, chat and have a beer,\u201d says Jerry, who declines to reveal his full name.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur contract is renewed every two to three years. We would love to renew our contract, but we do not know if the FEHD will offer us a renewal in June,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Jerry, who is the person-in-charge of Tai Yuen (\u6cf0\u6e90) in Fo Tan\u2019s East and West Food Markets, has been working at the stall for more than 30 years.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    A staff member serving hot dishes at Tai Yuen.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    Tai Yuen is facing eviction by 2024 due to government plans to redevelop Fo Tan\u2019s East and West Cooked Food Markets into a new government complex.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    The FEHD announced in May 2021 that Fo Tan\u2019s East and West Cooked Food Markets would be fully closed by 2024. The government plans to construct a new government complex at Shan Mei Street in Fo Tan, which is about 60 metres away from the cooked food markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According to a joint response from the Government Property Agency (GPA) and the FEHD to questions raised by the Sha Tin District Council in January 2022, stalls at Fo Tan\u2019s East and West Cooked Food Markets would not be relocated to the new government complex, citing that there are plenty of restaurants for workers and residents to choose from in that area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The new government complex will mainly be used for \u201crecreational, cultural, medical and health, social welfare and education facilities, government offices and car parks\u201d, according to GPA\u2019s response to Legislative Council member Michael Lee Chun-keung in May 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But the government building\u2019s plan was not revealed to Jerry during his meeting with FEHD officers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cStall owners do not have much say if the government decides they no longer need dai pai dongs when chain restaurants are opening across the city. It is completely out of our control. It is true that we are not as tech-savvy as chain restaurants. We do not have digital ordering systems, but I think we still have an edge,\u201d Jerry says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cStudents from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) often come during orientation camps and \u2018dem beat\u2019 (perform chants) in the open space nearby. You don\u2019t get to do that at regular restaurants because they\u2019re usually more restrictive. Our food also tastes better than chain restaurants because of the \u2018wok hei\u2019,\u201d he says, referring to the smoky flavours of dishes that can only be achieved by cooking under intense heat with a cooking wok. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      'Wok hei', meaning 'breath of wok', can only be achieved under conditions of intense heat with dai pai dong's cooking range.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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      Handwritten menus are one of the features of dai pai dongs in Hong Kong.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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      A staff member of a dai pai dong organizing hand-written records of customers\u2019 orders.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

      Professor Chong Yuk-sik, who published a book about dai pai dongs in Hong Kong in 2011, thinks that dai pai dongs like Tai Yuen carry social value in Hong Kong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cDai pai dongs are freer than indoor restaurants. There is more interaction between customers and stall owners than chain restaurants,\u201d says Chong, who is a research associate at the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies in CUHK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        Customers having lunch outdoors at a dai pai dong in Sham Shui Po.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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        A cooking area of a dai pai dong in Sham Shui Po.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

        \u201cThe government is not keen on conserving dai pai dongs. They mainly focus on conserving dai pai dongs that can promote tourism, like the ones on Stanley Street in Central. For cooked food bazaars, they may halt renewal plans when encountering resistance, but eventually, they will go on with their plans,\u201d she says.
        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Edited by Gabriella Lynn
        Sub-edited by Chaelim Kim<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Dai pai dong owners in Fo Tan may face eviction by 2024 due to government plans. By Victoria Fong Jerry has been working in Tai Yuen Dai Pai Dong in Fo Tan for over 30 years. The stall is facing eviction by 2024 due to government plans to redevelop Fo Tan\u2019s East and West Cooked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2180,72,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-january-2023","category-photo-feature","category-photo-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21982","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21982"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22027,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21982\/revisions\/22027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}