“History is written by the victors.” Whose stories and what stories are celebrated, distorted, or vanished forever are always under the shadow of power relations and manipulations. The project team went back in time to juxtapose the conjuncture from the Qing Dynasty to the Colonial Regime and then the post-handover “HKSAR, China”. We tried to deconstruct those “matters-of-fact” about border and to reimagine the relationship between the border and us:

How do we understand the “Northeast”/”New Territories” and “Frontier”/”Closed Area”?

The Northeast is perhaps considered as a remote periphery for most Hong Kong people. For the techno-bureaucracy and businessmen, it may be just one of the many real estate projects. Still, it is an unsoothable pain to the villagers deeply rooted in this place and those profoundly involved “outsiders”.

The New Territories was established in 1898. Its name retained its colonial tint to this day. Have you ever wondered whose “New Territories” this is? Will it disappear or be dismantled?

“Bin1 ging2 gam3 keoi1” (「邊境」禁區) is officially known as the Frontier Closed Area, or commonly named the Border Area in colonial government archives. After Hong Kong returned to China, the term “Border” was replaced by “Boundary” in the public domain, and the border area now became the “Northern Metropolis”.

Since the Frontier Closed Area was set up in 1951, the colonial government surrounded it with layers of fences, control points, and entry inspection facilities. The area was subject to curfew for many years: no visitors were allowed, no interviews nor photographs.

Residents must apply for a Closed Area Permit and present it through the checkpoint.

The borderland dwellers finally had the uplift of these restrictions since 2012. Yet to our dismay, the current epidemic has now imposed an even larger scale lockdown and security measures on the whole territory of Hong Kong (Note: patrons are required to sign-in “LeaveHomeSafe” and carry with their “Vaccine Pass” upon entry to this premise).

History may not have a fair verdict now, but it shall come back one day. We will persevere until the end.

An ametuer geographer who obtained his Bachelor and Master Degrees at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interest lies in borderlands, both local and overseas.