Transnational Urban Redevelopment of the Post-Colonial Hong Kong
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CARESCAPES: TRANSNATIONAL URBAN REDEVELOPMENT OF THE POST-COLONIAL HONG KONG Shu-Mei Huang A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2012 Reading Committee: Robert Mugeraurer, Chair Victoria Lawson Jeffery Hou Manish Chalana Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Built Environment ©Copyright 2012 Shu-Mei Huang University of Washington Abstract CARESCAPES: TRANSNATIONAL URBAN REDEVELOPMENT OF THE POST- COLONIAL HONG KONG Shu-Mei Huang Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Robert Mugerauer Director, PhD Program in the Built Environment, University of Washington Professor at Urban Design and Planning, College of Built Environments Drawing upon the massive redevelopment catalyzed by the government-led urban renewal in Hong Kong in the past two decades, this research pays attention to how biased normalization of care and dependency contributes to a neoliberal regime of urban redevelopment that dictates more than 200 urban renewal projects. It examines the ways in which the regime reconfigures the daily existence of urban citizens, and moreover, the intense competition among Pearl River Delta (PRD) cities. Taking a transnational perspective from below, it reveals how the denial has affected a particular population on the move and more importantly, unsettled the civil society. By theorizing “carescapes” as a heuristic device, it trace the ways in which the transnational circulation of rent/capital travels across borders at the cost of care and needs. It illuminates the multiple displacements of care: the displacement of reproductive space and nested dependency relations; the displacement of urban residents to make room for the elite visitors; the displacement of citizens on a transnational scale, including both the underprivileged migrants and the elite expatriates who struggle to stay put in the liquid labor market. Keywords: Carescapes, Care Ethics, urban renewal, citizenship, migration, Hong Kong List of Figures Fig. 1.1 Map of Pan-PRD 24 Fig. 3.1 Tenement buildings in Sham Shui Po to be redeveloped by URA 56 Fig. 3.2 Richfield buying out properties in old neighborhoods 85 Fig. 3. 3 Cross-border planning action plan under the idea of Livable Bay Area 91 Fig. 3. 4 Breakdown of the revenue in past 10 yeas in Hong Kong 93 Fig. 4.1 Around the Qre Plaza, on Queen’s Road East 96 Fig. 4.2 Old area and New area in Wan Chai 97 Fig. 4.3 The Nullah Lane in 1910 99 Fig. 4.4 The Blue House (Oct 2010) 99 Fig. 4.5 Around the Pacific Place 103 Fig. 4.6 The Pawn 109 Fig. 4.7 URA H9 Tai Yuen Street/Wan Chai Road 114 Fig. 4.8 The Bazaar and the Zenith 115 Fig. 4.9 Around the Blue House 117 Fig. 4.10 Dumbbell proposal developed by H15 Concern Group 125 Fig. 5.1 Chi Residence 159 Fig. 5.2 Locating Serviced Apartments in Hong Kong 161 Fig. 5.3 The Archive in Wan Chai 166 Fig. 5.4 Branding The Archive 168 Fig 5.5 Serviced Suite hidden in tenement apartment in Sheung Wan. 171 Fig. 6.1 Cleaners in Hong Kong 177 Fig. 6.2 The Shunning Street in Sham Shui Po 184 Fig. 6.3 A Simple Life. 189 Fig. 6.4 Tenement buildings near Po On Road in Sham Shui Po 195 Fig. 6.5 Inadequate rental housing in Sham Shui Po 197 Fig. 7.1 Sham Shui Po District 198 Fig. 7.2 New and Old in Sham Shui Po 201 i Fig. 7.3 Streetscape in Sham Shui Po 205 Fig. 7.4 Beacon Lodge 206 Fig. 7.5 Vista 207 Fig. 7.6 Street scene around redevelopment sites 207 Fig. 7.7 Common practices of property advertisement 208 Fig. 7.8 Independent property agencies in Sham Shui Po 209 Fig. 7.9 A typical ad of sub-divided suites. 210 Fig. 7.10 The coffin rooms 213 Fig. 7.11 The hybrid urbanism in Sham Shui Po 214 Fig. 7.12 Spatial divisions in Sham Shui Po 215 Fig. 7.13 Street Bazaar in Sham Shui Po 217 Fig. 7.14 Shopping and recycling in Sham Shui Po 218 Fig. 7.15 Non-stop Sham Shui Po 219 Fig. 7.16 The Carnival of Life Stories 223 Fig. 7.17 SRCG’s community reach out 230 Fig. 7.18 Shunning Road Project 232 Fig. 7.19 Rooftop dwelling where the Halprin’s shared with the elderly lady 234 Fig. 7.20 The Way We Are 244 Fig. 8. 1 Migrant Cities in Pearl River Delta 246 Fig. 8.2 “Watch out for locust” 248 Fig. 8.3 Trajectories of flow that brought about mainland women in HK 270 Fig. 9.1 High-rise residential buildings in Yuen Long, New Territories 274 ii List of Table Table 1.1 Typologies of Immigration/Access to Right of Abode in Hong Kong 15 Table 3.1 Changes regarding LDC Compensation Package for affected property owners 69 Table 4.1 Summary of land use of LDC projects finished under LDC 101 Table 4.2 LDC Projects in Wan Chai (1988-1999) 101 Table 4.3 URA Projects in Wan Chai (2001-2011) 102 Table 4.4 Rate and rent of properties after redevelopment by URA 104 Table 4.5 Private Domestic -Average Rents By Class 104 Table 4.6 Median Monthly Domestic Household Rent and Median Rent to Income Ratios by 105 Type of Quarters, 2001, 2006 and 2011 Table 4.7 Selected Projects which made profit during 2001-2009 107 Table 4.8 Summary of annual balance of URA 107 Table 4.9 Constitution of ethnic minorities who fall to the category of “South Asians” 122 Table 4.10 Beds Provided by the Elderly Home 134 Table 4.11 Aging population (65+)/sum of population in the area 134 Table 6.1 Trend of Job Vacancies in Hong Kong (1991-2002) 175 Table 6.2 Major job vacancies demanded by production of space (2012) 176 Table 7.1 Median Monthly Income from Main Employment in Sham Shui Po and Wan Chai 198 Table 7.2 The profile of “West Kowloon Dragons” 200 Table 7.3 Comparing averaged rent of URA/HS projects and existing rentals in Sham Shui Po 202 Table 7.4 LDC-URA Projects in Sham Shui Po (2001-2011) 203 Table 7.6 The Five-Year-Plan for building public housing (2011-2016) 244 Table 8.1 “Mainland babies”--babies born to mainlander mom in Hong Kong 250 iii Table of Content Introduction 1. Dependency, care and the city......................................................................................................1 2. Drifting from Pearl River Delta to Hong Kong: 30 years in a glance.........................................3 3. Care, border crossings, citizenship..............................................................................................5 4. In Search of Languages for Care: “Carescapes” and Landscape of Care....................................8 5. Structure of the dissertation.......................................................................................................11 Chapter One Nested-Dependency Relations Across the Border(s) 1.1 City on the move and citizens living within care.....................................................................14 1.2 Struggle over dependency and autonomy................................................................................18 1.3 Remaking of the city of Hong Kong........................................................................................21 1.4 Urban redevelopment in transnational processes....................................................................26 Chapter 2 Research Journey and Methodological Notes 2.1 Research questions...................................................................................................................30 2.2 A relational view on “right to the city” with logic of care.......................................................31 2.3 Reframing citizenship with feminist ethic of care...................................................................34 2.4 Methodological notes and more theoretical underpinnings.....................................................39 2.5 Research journey......................................................................................................................49 Chapter 3 Tenants Living on the Edge 3.1 Tenants on the edge..................................................................................................................54 3.1.1 Disappearing rent control................................................................................................54 iv 3.1.2 Housing market as a belief..............................................................................................59 3.1.3 Building Home Ownership.............................................................................................61 3.2 Evolving forms of urban redevelopment.................................................................................64 3.2.1 Emergent private redevelopment and real estate industry..............................................64 3.2.2 Land Development Corporation.....................................................................................67 3.2.3 Years in Transition..........................................................................................................71 3.2.4 Building up authority of urban renewal.........................................................................73 3.3 Property regime of Urban Renewal Authority........................................................................74 3.4 Forced eviction and repetitive displacement.....................................................................83 3.4.1 The discourse of deterioration and Compulsory Sale for redevelopment......................83 3.4.2 Forced eviction and redevelopment................................................................................86 3.5 A City for hundred million citizens? rent, tax, and redevelopment.........................................89 3.5.1 A better home in a world-class city?...............................................................................90