Everyday Architecture in Context: Public Markets in Hong Kong (1842-1981) (Chinese U of Hong Kong Press, 2023)

Aug 1, 2024

Dr. Carmen C. M. Tsui, an architect and urban historian from Lingnan University, discusses her book on the historical significance of Hong Kong's public markets from 1842 to 1981. She examines how these everyday structures mirror the city’s evolving socio-political landscape. The conversation dives into the impact of government policies on market vendors, the gender dynamics that favored male traders, and the architectural shifts prompted by health crises. Tsui reveals how markets serve as a microcosm of urban history and community life.

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Intro

00:00 • 3min

Everyday Architecture: The Significance of Hong Kong's Public Markets

02:38 • 12min

Gender Dynamics in Hong Kong's Public Markets

14:22 • 2min

Revamping Hong Kong's Public Markets

16:43 • 7min

Sanitation and Architecture: The Evolution of Hong Kong's Public Markets

24:01 • 20min

The Significance of Everyday Architecture: A Focus on Hong Kong's Public Markets

44:13 • 4min

How do public markets, as ordinary as they seem, carry the weight of a city’s history? How do such everyday buildings reflect a city’s changing political, social, and economic needs, through their yearslong transformations in forms, functions, and management?

Today’s book is: Everyday Architecture in Context: Public Markets in Hong Kong, 1842-1981 (Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2023), by Dr. Carmen C. M. Tsui. Integrating architecture and history, the book invites readers to go through the growth and governance of colonial Hong Kong by tracing the past and present of public markets as a study of extensive first-hand historical materials. Readers witness the changes in Hong Kong markets from hawker pitches to classical market halls to clean modernist municipal complexes. This book offers a new perspective of understanding the familiar everyday markets with historical contexts possibly unfamiliar to most, studying markets as a microcosm of the city and a capsule of its history.

Our guest is: Dr. Carmen C. M. Tsui, who is an architect and urban historian. She is an associate professor in the Department of History at Lingnan University, HKSAR. She obtained her Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialization in the history of architecture and urbanism.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell (and why) and what happens to those we never tell.

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