Ghost signs resurrect bygone Hong Kong
Green Spot, a glass-bottled soft drink once available at every family-run shop in town.
These kinds of sightings have become less common in Hong Kong, but once you've seen one, it's hard not to see, and seek out, other examples of these palimpsest survivors of humidity, rain or repainting. They can be small or large, images on a wall or time-worn shop signs. And despite Hong Kong's blistering rebuilding rate and the homogenising force that is the Urban Renewal Authority, there are still quite a few ghost signs around, if you know where to look.
Ghost signs captured in April 2023 at 15 Nanking Street, Jordan, the former location of the Yuet Hing Company, a dealer in electronic scales. The company has since relocated about seven blocks west, leaving behind the signs by calligrapher Huang Weichang. Photo: Ben Marans
Hongkonger Billy Potts, son of an English father and a Chinese mother, is a heritage writer, designer and my Kowloon City guide for the day. He is also an expert at spotting a bit of paint, a faint outline or part of an old affiche hidden by an air conditioner.
'A ghost sign …' he mulls, 'people all over the world have their own definitions, but we've come up with one for Hong Kong that works for us: a sign where the original owner could not have possibly intended for it to look that way, or for us to see it now, at this time.'
That 'us' is Potts and fellow ghost-hunter Ben Marans. A Canadian photographer who has been living in Hong Kong since 2018, Marans co-founded the Ghost Signs project with Potts in 2022, as patrons to a disappearing history. Take
'Little Thailand' in Kowloon City , which is scheduled to be demolished. Every time Potts and Marans visit, yet more scaffolding and green mesh cover yet more shophouses.
The top section of the Cheong K Building sign, in Quarry Bay, in October 2024. Photo: Ben Marans
Marans and Potts have now launched a virtual ghost-sign map, hkghostsigns.com, onto which others can add their own finds. After review, of course.
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