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South China Morning Post
09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
This week in PostMag: ghostly signs of Hong Kong and Old Master Q
The best stories are often the ones hiding in plain sight: half-obscured and easy to overlook. That's the starting point for our cover story this week, on Hong Kong's ghost signs. It's a spooky, slightly mysterious term, but you know them – hand-painted shopfronts, weather-worn billboards and bits of calligraphy that have somehow survived decades of redevelopment and repainting. The project is the work of designer Billy Potts and photographer Ben Marans, who have spent the past few years documenting remnants of the city's commercial past, from pawn-shop signs in Kowloon City to the red-and-white checkerboard once used by pilots landing at Kai Tak. They've created a virtual map ( ), held exhibitions and built a community via Instagram. It's the kind of nostalgia Hong Kong loves, paired with an effort at preservation in a city that's always changing. That same tension between progress and preservation runs through Christopher DeWolf's feature on Hong Kong's municipal services buildings, and the related Venice Biennale of Architecture exhibition. DeWolf revisits these multi-storey complexes that have long housed libraries, sports facilities, markets and cooked food centres under one roof. They were once hailed as symbols of efficient, egalitarian urban planning. But as the government demolishes and redevelops some, a debate is emerging: are we losing more than just buildings? For the exhibition's curators, the answer is yes. There's a different lens on history in Paul French's profile of Old Master Q. The comic strip, created by Alfonso Wong Kar-hei in 1962, was once a fixture of Hong Kong pop culture and still holds nostalgic appeal for many who grew up with it. The character is instantly recognisable: the long coat, the bad haircut, the pratfalls and slapstick that somehow doubled as social commentary. Wong's son Joseph, who took over the strip, has preserved his father's legacy while nudging the character into the digital age. There's even an app. Of course there is. But the spirit remains charmingly old school. We also head to Germany this week, where Peter Neville-Hadley takes us to Chemnitz, a former East German city once known as Karl-Marx-Stadt. Often passed over in favour of more photogenic neighbours, Chemnitz is now one of three European Capitals of Culture for 2025. Its programme this year ranges from classical concerts to street art, with many events taking place in former factories and public squares. It's a sharp contrast to another German city, Rothenburg ob der Tauber – postcard-ready and reliably packed with tourists. One quick programming note: as I mentioned last issue, we'll be on pause in print next week, but back the Sunday after. You'll still find us online, as ever. And, drumroll please … the crossword is back. We know it's long been a part of your weekend routine and as of this week, you can find the PostMag quick crossword , alongside the SCMP cryptic, in the SCMP app and online. Happy puzzling.
South China Morning Post
08-08-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Ghost signs resurrect bygone Hong Kong
Focus your eyes, there, across the road, at layers upon layers of cream paint on the opposite wall, and don't blink. See that hint of green? It's the remnants of an old advertisement for 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, onto which others can add their own finds. After review, of course.
