"Ring up for an appointment" : Empirical & oral evidence of commercial & other freedoms in the heyday of the City

Lawrence Wai Chung LAI; Stephen Nicholas Guy DAVIES; Prudence Leung Kwok LAU; Nixon Tit Hei LEUNG; Vincent Nok Hang CHAN; Mark Hansley Yang CHUA

doi:10.1016/j.cities.2023.104232

"Ring up for an appointment" : Empirical & oral evidence of commercial & other freedoms in the heyday of the City

Lawrence Wai Chung LAI^*, Stephen Nicholas Guy DAVIES, Prudence Leung Kwok LAU, Nixon Tit Hei LEUNG, Vincent Nok Hang CHAN, Mark Hansley Yang CHUA

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

Abstract

Informed by economic concepts of product competition, this paper uses publicly available and accurate business information on establishment names and addresses obtained from the Yellow Pages of the contemporary Hong Kong telephone book and census socio-economic data backed by oral testimonies, to dispel the myth that the “Kowloon Walled City” was an incarcerated ghetto. The use of this imagery in the title for this City as a built up, politically sensitive zone levelled to the ground to make way for a public Chinese garden shortly before Hong Kong was returned to China, is treated as a form of ‘product differentiation’ in the academic research marketplace. As a contribution to planning theory, the paper uses the City as a show case of how academic branding, through descriptors, creates images of places and offers a countervailing image. Technically, it demonstrates the immense archival value of telephone directories and business chronicles apart from census data as sources of socially significant data for urban studies and informed re-interpretation of subjective imageries of an urban place.

Original language	English
Article number	104232
Number of pages	15
Journal	Cities
Volume	135
Early online date	14 Feb 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2023.104232
Publication status	Published - Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors are thankful to Dr. Conrad Kui Shing Lam for advice regarding the medical and educational aspects of the City; Dr. Justin Y.H. Chan for introducing Mr. L for interview; Dr. Sr. Ken S.T. Ching for the production of Fig. 1; Queenie Wing Sze for drawing Figs. 7 and 8; Dr. Adam C.L. Lin, Department of Architecture, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, for Fig. 9; and Bryan Ho Wai Lee, Catherine Sau Wan Hui, and Sarah Wun Yi Cheng for their assistance in searching for information on firms from archival photos and telephone directories.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023

Keywords

Kowloon Walled City
Freedom of trade
Telephone directories
Academic product differentiation
Media titling

Access to Document

10.1016/j.cities.2023.104232

Cite this

@article{cd9d3fbaa628468eb2ad8284cc70404f,

title = "{"}Ring up for an appointment{"} : Empirical & oral evidence of commercial & other freedoms in the heyday of the City",

abstract = "Informed by economic concepts of product competition, this paper uses publicly available and accurate business information on establishment names and addresses obtained from the Yellow Pages of the contemporary Hong Kong telephone book and census socio-economic data backed by oral testimonies, to dispel the myth that the “Kowloon Walled City” was an incarcerated ghetto. The use of this imagery in the title for this City as a built up, politically sensitive zone levelled to the ground to make way for a public Chinese garden shortly before Hong Kong was returned to China, is treated as a form of {\textquoteleft}product differentiation{\textquoteright} in the academic research marketplace. As a contribution to planning theory, the paper uses the City as a show case of how academic branding, through descriptors, creates images of places and offers a countervailing image. Technically, it demonstrates the immense archival value of telephone directories and business chronicles apart from census data as sources of socially significant data for urban studies and informed re-interpretation of subjective imageries of an urban place.",

keywords = "Kowloon Walled City, Freedom of trade, Telephone directories, Academic product differentiation, Media titling",

author = "LAI, {Lawrence Wai Chung} and DAVIES, {Stephen Nicholas Guy} and LAU, {Prudence Leung Kwok} and LEUNG, {Nixon Tit Hei} and CHAN, {Vincent Nok Hang} and CHUA, {Mark Hansley Yang}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors are thankful to Dr. Conrad Kui Shing Lam for advice regarding the medical and educational aspects of the City; Dr. Justin Y.H. Chan for introducing Mr. L for interview; Dr. Sr. Ken S.T. Ching for the production of Fig. 1; Queenie Wing Sze for drawing Figs. 7 and 8; Dr. Adam C.L. Lin, Department of Architecture, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, for Fig. 9; and Bryan Ho Wai Lee, Catherine Sau Wan Hui, and Sarah Wun Yi Cheng for their assistance in searching for information on firms from archival photos and telephone directories. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023",

year = "2023",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1016/j.cities.2023.104232",

language = "English",

volume = "135",

journal = "Cities",

issn = "0264-2751",

publisher = "Elsevier Ltd",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - "Ring up for an appointment" : Empirical & oral evidence of commercial & other freedoms in the heyday of the City

AU - LAI, Lawrence Wai Chung

AU - DAVIES, Stephen Nicholas Guy

AU - LAU, Prudence Leung Kwok

AU - LEUNG, Nixon Tit Hei

AU - CHAN, Vincent Nok Hang

AU - CHUA, Mark Hansley Yang

N1 - Funding Information: The authors are thankful to Dr. Conrad Kui Shing Lam for advice regarding the medical and educational aspects of the City; Dr. Justin Y.H. Chan for introducing Mr. L for interview; Dr. Sr. Ken S.T. Ching for the production of Fig. 1; Queenie Wing Sze for drawing Figs. 7 and 8; Dr. Adam C.L. Lin, Department of Architecture, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, for Fig. 9; and Bryan Ho Wai Lee, Catherine Sau Wan Hui, and Sarah Wun Yi Cheng for their assistance in searching for information on firms from archival photos and telephone directories. Publisher Copyright: © 2023

PY - 2023/4

Y1 - 2023/4

N2 - Informed by economic concepts of product competition, this paper uses publicly available and accurate business information on establishment names and addresses obtained from the Yellow Pages of the contemporary Hong Kong telephone book and census socio-economic data backed by oral testimonies, to dispel the myth that the “Kowloon Walled City” was an incarcerated ghetto. The use of this imagery in the title for this City as a built up, politically sensitive zone levelled to the ground to make way for a public Chinese garden shortly before Hong Kong was returned to China, is treated as a form of ‘product differentiation’ in the academic research marketplace. As a contribution to planning theory, the paper uses the City as a show case of how academic branding, through descriptors, creates images of places and offers a countervailing image. Technically, it demonstrates the immense archival value of telephone directories and business chronicles apart from census data as sources of socially significant data for urban studies and informed re-interpretation of subjective imageries of an urban place.

AB - Informed by economic concepts of product competition, this paper uses publicly available and accurate business information on establishment names and addresses obtained from the Yellow Pages of the contemporary Hong Kong telephone book and census socio-economic data backed by oral testimonies, to dispel the myth that the “Kowloon Walled City” was an incarcerated ghetto. The use of this imagery in the title for this City as a built up, politically sensitive zone levelled to the ground to make way for a public Chinese garden shortly before Hong Kong was returned to China, is treated as a form of ‘product differentiation’ in the academic research marketplace. As a contribution to planning theory, the paper uses the City as a show case of how academic branding, through descriptors, creates images of places and offers a countervailing image. Technically, it demonstrates the immense archival value of telephone directories and business chronicles apart from census data as sources of socially significant data for urban studies and informed re-interpretation of subjective imageries of an urban place.

KW - Kowloon Walled City

KW - Freedom of trade

KW - Telephone directories

KW - Academic product differentiation

KW - Media titling

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150361360&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cities.2023.104232

DO - 10.1016/j.cities.2023.104232

M3 - Journal Article (refereed)

SN - 0264-2751

VL - 135

JO - Cities

JF - Cities

M1 - 104232

ER -

"Ring up for an appointment" : Empirical & oral evidence of commercial & other freedoms in the heyday of the City

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this