EVENT DESCRIPTION
Hong Kong’s modern history is closely tied to the sea, and the culture of swimming among Hong Kong people can be traced back at least a hundred years. In the 1930s, Commander Huang Shaohong from the Guangxi clique visited Hong Kong and was deeply impressed by the thriving swimming culture here. Over a decade later, when he published his Memoir at Fifty, he vividly remembered, “Not only was the seawater clean, there were many locations and the facilities were excellent. When the summer arrived, many men and women went to the beaches for leisure. … One person had estimated that during Hong Kong’s summer, about fifty to sixty thousand people immersed themselves in the seawater everyday, approximately one-tenth of the total population. This reflects how much Hong Kong people love swimming.”
Hong Kong scholars Poon Shuk Wah and Wong Wing Ho go further to argue that swimming in Hong Kong has a culture of its own. In their book Leisure, Seaside, and Sea Bathing: A History of Swimming in Hong Kong, they reference the symbolical signification of Repulse Bay, the main setting of Eileen Chang’s novel “Love in a Fallen City”, embodies notions of nobility, liveliness, romance, and freedom that the novelist could not find in Shanghai. They also compare the modern culture of Shanghai, as described in Li Oufan’s publication Shanghai Modern with the lifestyle in Hong Kong during the same period, and conclude that while Shanghai boasts “modern architectural landmarks like the Bund, it lacks beaches where young men and women can frolic.”
Thanks to Linda Pun’s suggestion, swimming in Hong Kong becomes the sixth theme of the exhibition series “History in Photographs, Photographs in History.” Through photographs and postcards, this exhibition introduces various aspects of Hong Kong’s swimming history, including famous beaches, swimming locations, swimming outfits, water sports, and the very local swimming competition — the Hong Kong Cross Harbour Race. It also features renowned swimmers, some of them go to different parts of the world to pursue difficult challenges.
