Michael Sloan - Hong Kong / January

top

Hong Kong / January

posted:January 30, 2013

These drawings were completed in January as we enter the seventh month of our year-long adventure in Hong Kong. It feels like time is passing very quickly for us here. Lately I've been exploring areas in the New Territories near where we live, a world apart from the teeming harbor districts of Kowloon and Central:

Waiter at a waterfront restaurant in Sai Kung, 5:30 PM. By 6:30 all the tables will be filled, a throng of customers will be waiting on the sidewalk, and this waiter will have no time to stand still.

Butcher at Tai Po market, Hong Kong. This reminds me of growing up in Boston and visiting the Italian neighborhood in the North End where butchers hung fly-riddled rabbits and skinned cow's heads with bulging eyes from hooks in their storefronts. I was both horrified and fascinated by these sights and their accompanying smells, so brutally different from the antiseptic, cellophane-wrapped meat products at our local Star market.

Sai Kung harbor. The boats are packed so tightly together that I could use them as stepping stones to cross the harbor without getting my feet wet.

Players at my son's rugby tournament. The two boys in the foreground show the reluctance that I'd feel if I had to go head to head with this beefy challenger.

I've admired the facade of this restaurant in Tai Po Market for a while, especially the art-deco quality of the rounded corner, and the vintage neon sign with the steaming cup.