5 minute history lesson
Hong Kong’s Hollywood road, the famous “antique street”, was completed in 1844 and was the 2nd road to be built in Hong Kong, after Queens Road Central. These were the very earliest days of the colony, and its role as gateway to the east was only just starting to become established.
Central waterfront (near where Des Voeux Road would be today). This image was taken in the 1860’ies by a British man named John Thomson, (1837-1921) who worked in the colony at the time. Original image can be found here.
At that time, Hollywood Road was quite close to the coastline (significantly more so than today, due to reclamation of the harbor) and its near proximity to the shoreline, meant the area was never short of foreign merchants and sailors on their way back to Europe.
Partial clip of an 1845 Map of Hong Kong’s Hollywood road from the National Archives in London. This section is from the digitized version on the very cool website Gwulo: Old Hong Kong Notice how close Hollywood road is to the coastline?
Many of these merchants and sailors would offer up for sale antiques and artifacts they had acquired during their travels in China. In fact, in 1860, after the looting of the old Summer Palace in Peking (Yuanming Yuan), rare objects began to increasingly show up in Hong Kong to be sold as “decorative arts” in exchange for cold, hard cash. Robert Swinhoe, a British interpreter present at the time of the looting, makes mention of French soldiers with “a string of splendid pearls” which were later sold in Hong Kong.
Everybody had some rare curios to show me, asking me their worth, as, being an interpreter, and having the eunuch with me, they looked upon me as quite a connoisseur. One French officer had a string of splendid pearls, each pearl being of the size of a marble (this he afterwards foolishly disposed of at Hong Kong for 3,000l.); others had pencil-cases set with diamonds; others watches and vases set with pearls
The King’s Dragoon Guards, sailed for Hong Kong via Tianjin on 7th of November, 1860 after taking part in the looting & destruction the Summer Palace. Its crew would have surely brought looted items with them. Only 3 years later, a large vase taken from the Summer Palace was sold in Bridport, UK at the Bradpole Bazaar in order to fund church building improvements. The vase was presented by a Rev. William Beach, who had been the chaplain to the Bishop of Hong Kong (see the Dorset County Chronicle page 8, July 30th, 1863).
Items pictured above were brought back by Captain James Gunter who commanded the ‘G’ Troop of the King’s Dragoon Guards.
At this point, Hong Kong was already becoming a transit point and a gateway. Thus Hollywood Road and Hong Kong began its early role as an antique market. This also marked one of the first of several key points in time, when antiquities began to pour out of China. But it was not the only time.
The looting of the summer palace was but one instance when antiquities flowed from China and despite modern day nationalist narratives, the Chinese were just as involved in the looting and selling of precious goods. During the Boxer Rebellion (1899 – 1901) when allied troops entered Beijing they saw widespread looting. One German account, based on the notes of an allied commander name Alfred Waldersee states that:
Chinese participated in much of the robbery and plundering. Chinese officialsstole right and left, especially in the Palaces, and naturally tried to put theblame upon the foreign troops. European and American curio-buyers alsoplayed a great role. Vast quantities of stolen property fell into the hands of theChinese and were sold by them to soldiers.. at the shops of the regulardealers, but as soon as the few articles they had on display were disposed of.others immediately took their places. 3
With such close proximity to China and its mixed east-west population, it’s not surprising that interest in Hong Kong, in Chinese culture was strong. Local newspapers regularly reported on Chinese “antiquities related topics” such as the controversies surrounding Hungarian-British archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein and even exhibitions abroad of Chinese antiquities and relics, of which many had passed through Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Free Press in 1933 talks about an exhibition of Tang dynasty tomb relics.
Of course, the city bore little resemblance to the gleaming jumble of skyscrapers and buses we think of as Hong Kong today. Quite a different Hollywood road!
During this period of time, antique shops were neighbors with brothels, cinemas, night bazaars and newspapers. But onward into the early nineteen hundreds, the antiques trade continued to flourish in Hong Kong.
Quick Trivia:
Supposedly Hollywood road, got its name from the plentiful Holly trees growing near the road.
Nearby Cat Street, is said to have gotten its nickname from its dubious past: at one point stolen goods were often on offer for sale here and locals referred to such sellers as “Rats.” And those who purchased such goods? You guessed it! They were referred to as “Cats.”
Next Up:
Books about The old summer palace
Books about Hong Kong
