藝評

圖片說明: 尖沙咀訊號山山上的教堂彌撒

Caption: Church service atop Tsim Sha Tsui’s  Signal Hill


(Please scroll down for English version)

窄窄的床墊鋪在簡陋的木地台上，木地台的高度刻意高於正常的床高；我想，木地台之下，應僅有足以容下一個行李箱的空間。除了入口處的幾平方呎，這個小房間內唯一的地面空間應該就是在床下。夾在小得像郵票一樣的洗手間和睡房另外幾道牆之間，這張床正正就是一副棺木的比例。我曾經跟隨香港社區組織協會參觀，這個房間就像我看過環境最差的劏房，也不比香港臭名昭彰的籠屋好多少。然而，這卻是一家「持牌旅館」內的廉價房間。

忽發奇想，我決定在尖沙咀過一晚夜，來一次留港渡假；這是一個完全即興的決定，而我只帶了一支牙刷和一套替換的衣服。就是一個星期六晚上七點，我到達尖沙咀，這裡已沒有多少可負擔的住宿選擇。我沒有在網上預訂，也不想花大多時間到處走來走去找房間，於是賓館林立的重慶大廈便順理成章地成為我找房間的地方。

我和自己25年前第一次踏足香港時所做的一樣。重慶大廈大堂迫滿了非洲人、內地旅客，還有兜售餐廳和酒店的人。我一一忽略他們。我記得要避免走到A座和B座，因為那邊的電梯隊特別長。我由C座其中一個高層單位開始，我邊看著不同賓館邊敲門。多間賓館都已客滿，又或掛出請貴客移步到位於多層以外的登記櫃枱。很多背包客都會同意，在支付住宿費用前先親身看看廉價酒店房間或賓館的情況是理智的做法。然而，互聯網擾亂了簡單有效的檢查酒店房間方法（例如自來水是否暢順、風扇是否正常運作、床單是否清潔等，但網上廣告卻對這些問題避而不談）。網上訂酒店可能很方便，但卻引致了不透明的訂價，而且充斥著令人懷疑的客戶認可留言，更破壞了面對面議價的機會。但是，儘管我已嘗試事先親身視察的方法，我仍然得接受當日尚餘的供應，一個質素惡劣的房間。我只能說當晚並非有利買家的日子。周末在尖沙咀找旅館房間的遊客多不勝數，實在繁忙得很。

我跟自己許下承諾，下年內每一個月都要在不同的香港地區過一晚夜。在某個區內過夜然後在大清早起來，會讓我對一個地方有新的體會。我有很多年沒多少時間往尖沙咀逛，因為我不喜歡那些新落成的大型重建項目，也不愛看到小巷攤檔消失；這個本來令人行得滿心歡起的地區，因為地面被車輛交通佔據，每次都被迫在地下行人通道穿梭。可喜的是，去年出現了兩次罕見的行人勝利，分別是重新開放半島酒店前的行人過路處，以及政府收回讓地產商新世界發展享有整個尖沙咀海濱的管理權。這些都是城市規劃倡議者樂見的常識勝利。

人們很多時都會忘記尖沙咀素來都是香港最國際化的地區。舊有的九龍站是歐洲長途火車（途經西伯利亞和中國）的終站。因為鐵路線的關係，半島酒店和很多其他酒店都在區內開設；當然，在海底隧道和港鐵開通以前，天星小輪曾經是主要的交通樞紐，也是該區酒店林立的一大因素。九龍公園曾經是軍事用地，英國軍旅在此駐紥。而外國人則在九龍各處居住：昂船洲、彩虹、九龍塘和獅子山下的斜坡。尖沙咀因為交通方便，也有很多夜間娛樂選擇，所以是各人聚腳的地方，特別是在天星小輪在晚上停航之後。

香港作為自由港，也曾經是韓戰和越戰時期軍隊休息娛樂的地點之一，加上1970年後廉價國際航班興起，都令尖沙咀成為亞洲其中一個主要戰後購物和遊客熱點。

網上的聊天室可以讀到不少來自那個年代的回憶：以下是反映尖沙咀區內交織著各種文化與活動的典型對話：

- 「康和里是其中一條在尖沙咀消失的街道。我記得1950年代時，那裡有一間酒吧，名叫『The Sportman’s Arms』。」
- 「那條街我也認識。我們住過蘭宮酒店。」
- 「很有魅力的小街道，種了幾棵老榕樹。還有一間叫『一品香』的上海麵店，就在樹下。」
- 「你應該是說『千里香』吧？因為一品香位於金巴利街，在加拿芬道附近。」
- 「一整條行怎會消失掉？」
- 「蘭宮酒店的東主是桂華山，是有名的福建人。」
-  而（很可能是半開玩笑地說）：「我從姐姐口中得到有力的證據， The Ship Inn 就在蘭宮酒店對面。而Waltzing Matilda酒吧則在The Ship Inn對面。它的東主是一位名叫Bill Ellis的英國人，是一位海員，與本地女孩Lily Wong結了婚，兩人開設了無上裝酒吧，而且相當成功。」|

到了星期天早上，我徒步走到訊號山山頂，那裡正舉行一場菲律賓人的教會彌撒。相對於山下街上的繁囂，這是尖沙咀另一項令人喜愛的活動。 


原文刊於《明報周刊》，2018年1月6日



One Night in Tsim Sha Tsui

by John Batten

The narrow mattress lay on a roughly constructed wooden platform, intentionally higher than the usual bed height; under there, I suppose, there was just enough space for a stored suitcase. Apart from a few square feet at the entrance the only other free floor space in this small room was under that bed. Hedged between the postage-stamp sized bathroom and the bedroom’s other walls, the bed was exactly of coffin proportions. It was similar to some of the worst divided-flat spaces I have seen, and not much better than Hong Kong’s notorious cage-homes which, courtesy of the Society of Community Organization I have visited. This, however, was a cheap room in a ‘licensed guest house’.

On the spur of the moment I had decided to stay a night in Tsim Sha Tsui. I wanted a holiday-in-Hong Kong; it was an entirely spontaneous decision and I only took a toothbrush and a change of clothes with me. Arriving in Tsim Sha Tsui at 7pm on a Saturday night left me with scant choice of affordable accommodation. I had not booked anything online and did not wish to spend much time walking around looking for a room. Chungking Mansions with its many guest houses was the obvious place to search for a vacancy.

So, I did exactly as when I first arrived in Hong Kong twenty-five years ago. Chungking Mansions’ lobby was crowded with Africans, mainlanders, and restaurant and hotel touts – I ignored them all. I remembered to avoid Blocks A and B with their long elevator queues. Starting on one of Block C’s higher floors, I knocked on doors looking at different guest houses. Many guest houses were full or their doors were closed with a sign indicating a reception desk many floors away. As backpackers appreciate, seeing a budget hotel room or guest house before paying is wise. The internet, however, has even disrupted the simple efficiency of checking-out hotel rooms (Does the water run? Does the fan work? Are the sheets clean? etc – internet listings are silent on these questions). Convenient it maybe, but online hotel booking sites have resulted in opaque pricing, dubious endorsements and destroy the opportunity for face-to-face negotiations. However, despite trying my see-first approach, I still had to accept the poor quality room on offer – it was simply not a buyer’s night. Saturdays in Tsim Sha Tsui are just too busy with tourists looking for a room.

I have promised myself to stay overnight in a different Hong Kong district every month over the next year. Staying overnight and awaking in the early morning gives a new experience of a place. For many years, I had rarely spent much time in Tsim Sha Tsui as I disliked the new, huge redevelopments, the loss of street stalls in narrow alleys, and being forced to use underground passageways because of the dominance of cars in an area that should be a pleasure to walk around. Two rare victories for pedestrians were seen last year; the reinstatement of the pedestrian crossing in front of The Peninsula Hotel and government backtracking to give management rights of the entire Tsim Sha Tsui harbour waterfront to the property developer, New World Development. These were worthy victories for common sense by urban planning activists.

It is oft-forgotten that Tsim Sha Tsui has long been Hong Kong’s most cosmopolitan district. The old Kowloon Station was the very last railway station on the long-haul, via Siberia and China, from Europe. The Peninsula Hotel and many other hotels were located there because of the railway line – and the ‘Star’ Ferry, the major transportation hub before the MTRC and Cross-Harbour tunnel opened. Kowloon Park was military land, housing British army troops in their barracks. And foreigners lived throughout Kowloon: Stonecutters Island, Choi Hung, Kowloon Tong, and on the slopes below Lion Rock. Tsim Sha Tsui was the place to go because of its transportation links and late-night entertainment area, especially after the ‘Star’ Ferry stopped for the night.

Tsim Sha Tsui also became one of Asia’s major post-war shopping and tourist destinations because of Hong Kong’s free-port status, as one of the rest-and-recreation places for troops during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and with the availability in the 1970s of cheap intercontinental air flights.

Memories from that era can be read on internet chat groups – this is a typical conversation capturing the area’s mix of cultures and activities:

- “One of the streets that disappeared from TST is Cornwall Avenue. I remember a bar there, ‘The Sportman’s Arms’ in the 1950s”
- “I know the street. We stayed in the Astor Hotel.”
- “Charming little street with a couple of old banyan trees. A Shanghai noodle place, Yat Pun Heung was just under a tree.”
- “You could be referring to 'Chian Lee Heung', cause Yat Bun Heung was located on Kimberley St, near Carnavon Road.”
- “How does a road disappear?”
- “The Astor Hotel was owned by Mr Kwei Hua San, a well-known Fujianese.”
-  and (probably said tongue-in-cheek), “I have it on good authority from my sister that The Ship Inn was across from the Astor Hotel. Also, the Waltzing Matilda Bar was across from The Ship Inn. It was owned by an Englishman, Bill Ellis, a seafarer who married a local girl, Lily Wong. Together, they later opened a topless bar which was very successful.”

On Sunday morning I walked to the top of Signal Hill and a Filipino church service was in progress. Away from the bustle of the streets below, this was another endearing Tsim Sha Tsui’s activity. 


This opinion piece was originally published in Ming Pao Weekly on 6 January 2018