This surprisingly detailed, well-observed pictorial depiction of the scene looking up Pottinger Street from the south-adjacent pavement of Queen’s Road Central is reproduced in: Sasek, Miroslav, This Is Hong Kong, W.H. Allen 1965.
The yellow and red coloured signage, comprising the Chinese characters 鏞記酒家 (prn. Yung Gei Jau Ga) that announce the presence of the famous Yung Kee Restaurant, is seen rising above 32 Pottinger Street in the left-hand side of the scene.
The text accompanying the image somewhat randomly mentions that: In Hong Kong today live about 3,700,000 people, 99 per cent of them Chinese. They speak mainly Cantonese. By contrast, the approximate 2026 population of Hong Kong is approaching twice that of 1963 – 7,500,000 souls.
Date picture taken
1963 (year is approximate)
Shows street(s)
Comments
Re: The signs
Hi there,
I suppose it was drawn? It would seem the artist may not know how to read (or write) Chinese at all. Quite a few of the business signs are drawn with nonexistent characters.
T