拜拜香港，再會啦!

There's no part of the city that's alien to me. Its tiny streets and lanes feel most familiar. Its colorful wall murals are hugely jarring to the faded old bricks, concrete and cement, but not unwelcome. I'm just tickled that nowadays, wall murals are used as a well to band a community together in a sort of identity. It used to be called 'graffiti'. Sanctioned graffiti have been redefined as 'wall murals', and firmly placed in the realm of mainstream art/

There's a certain je ne sais quoi to have these murals pop out around the city and back alleys that make me smile each time I see them. I didn't hunt them down. I purposely avoided memorizing the addresses and location of these wall murals. I wanted to stumble upon them. Well, Sheung Wan has plenty of them adorning the walls.

While I've never been in love with the city, Hong Kong is always a happy jaunt. It's scary how fast its social fabric is shifting, and how the political changes have swept through society till it has rocked the very core of steel-willed Hong Kongers who've built an identity over two generations prior to 1997. This is not the 'price of progress'. It feels like, an inevitable change in the make-up and outlook, the overall vibes and such that still has plenty to do with its economic tradeoffs.

It's been great catching up with the friends, watching shows at the Arts Festival, strolling its streets and even getting into an exercise routine. Heh. I leave with a little heartache (bye bye Leica Q), but with more insights gained, again. Traveling always opens my eyes to joyful little things elsewhere in the world. Hong Kong always gives me that bit of nostalgia in a way that clinical and sanitary Singapore never does.

324 Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei.
Italian artist Pixelpancho's wall art for art festival HKWalls 2017.