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Written by: Zeng Xuewen
2019-12-15 16:54
Last updated: 2019-12-15 17:00American astronaut Rockman Tang set foot on the moon for the first time in 1969. That year, the English boy, Redge Solley, in his early twenties, also started his own adventure, holding a Pentax camera and heading for Hong Kong, where there was little riot. Half a century later, he was holding a photo exhibition in Hong Kong recently at the age of seventy. He unveiled the film that had been left in the Australian locker for fifteen years and hung it in the gallery in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
For decades, he has made several rounds of flights between Hong Kong and London, and plans to return home to visit relatives next year. For everything about himself and Hong Kong, he said he would borrow the words of his wife, "fate." Beginning with adventure and finally turning his head, he wore a velvet blazer and talked about the old Hong Kong half a century ago in the gallery.
Photo: Huang Baoying
Half a century later, when asked why he chose to come to Hong Kong, Edge Solley laughed that everything was fate. (Photo by Huang Baoying)
The story between Redge and Hong Kong is a bit long. Half a century ago, Edge was just a twenties advertising art director, working for J. Walter Thompson Advertising, a large advertising agency in London. One day, he opened the Times and found an advertisement for the recruitment of artistic directors in Hong Kong. The boy in London thought, "Why not try it?"
At that time, Edge didn't even know where Hong Kong was on earth. He then asked relatives and friends next to him. Some people heard that Hong Kong should be in Japan, and some uncles had gone to Malaysia and Hong Kong in the Far East during World War II. Some even said that he had recently read the novel "The World of Susie Wong" Know that there is a place in Hong Kong called Wan Chai. He smiled and said that in the 1960s, there was no social media and the Internet, and he collected materials and read books in the library. In the end, as a young man, he did not bury himself in "Hong Kong" on paper, and decided to start his own adventure. He said goodbye to his family and friends, and took a flight to Hong Kong. It was September 1969.
At that time he was the artistic director of an advertising company. The camera was part of his job, but it became a joy of living in Hong Kong. Every shutter shuttered the mottled lands of the Oriental Isle. (Photo by Huang Baoying)
Hong Kong 1969: The post-riot period of the dark
Around the end of the 1960s, Asia changed with the Cold War. Vietnam is in a hot war, Japan is at the second security struggle, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution is sweeping the country. In Hong Kong in 1969, the city had just gone through the June 7 riots. From the peaceful and orderly Europe to the trance, Redge was immediately attracted to the small town, holding a camera to photograph the mottled island.
In the 1960s, there were a lot of American sailors on the shores of Wan Chai. Hong Kong was once regarded as a place of "R & R" (vacation and relaxation) in the Far East by Western countries. (Photo by Huang Baoying)
At that time, there were many bars in Wan Chai, and American sailors who came with the Vietnam War regarded Hong Kong as a place of joy. From time to time, Redge's camera can find soldiers. However, his vision does not stop at The World of Suzie Wong. From the banner of the "20th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" on the exterior wall of the Bank of China building to the fragment of life in the high-density stupid area of Chai Wan, he accidentally fixed the complex Hong Kong in the post-riot period. He pointed out that Hong Kong was recovering from the riots in 1969. Although people were a little nervous, they had confidence in the future.
The older generation believed that taking pictures would take away the soul, so Edge occasionally took pictures of the old woman covering her face. (Photo by Huang Baoying)
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Addicted to Tenement and Grass Roots
Redge said that colonial architecture in old Hong Kong resembled London. Therefore, when he came to Hong Kong, he always looked for different pictures, such as the old tenement house and the life of ordinary citizens. He smiled and said that Hong Kong had no MTR and undersea tunnels, no supermarkets, fast food and air conditioning, and life was very different from today. At that time, telephones were not yet widespread, and grassroots gatherings required a lot of people to make calls. Televisions were still expensive appliances, and people love to watch TV outside home appliance stores. He said that the older generation believed that taking pictures would take away the soul, so he occasionally accidentally took pictures of the old woman covering her face.
In the bookstore, Edge Solley's (left) 60's collection should be placed next to He Fan's collection. The chairman of the Hong Kong Collectors Association, Zhang Shunguang, believes that Edge Solley's work presents a rare Hong Kong 1960s. (Photo by Huang Baoying)
Film has been hiding Australian lockers for 15 years
However, old photos of the walls of the exhibition hall today are another historical accident. That year, when Edge came to Hong Kong to develop, it was discovered that the new company was not as big as the old one, and taking pictures became a recipe for adjusting the frustrated adventure. Six months later, he moved to Sydney, Australia to work for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). These records of old Hong Kong records have been left deep in his Australian lockers.
When Redge left Australia, he left the old filming of Hong Kong in the depths of the lockers. Later, Film recovered and recovered, and he sighed, "I can get them back with pure luck." (Photo by Huang Baoying)
"I got them back purely by chance." Redge said that when he left Australia in 1975, film negatives remained in Australian lockers. Fifteen years later, he returned to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation with his friends to visit him. Someone returned him the filming left in the locker when he left. He said that those film films were unprocessed film at that time, and he could almost lose them forever. Later, he went back and forth to Hong Kong to develop, and later, he was buried in the old Hong Kong for 15 years in Australian lockers, hanging on the walls of Wan Chai.
Redge said, "When you live in a place, you will not find it is slowly changing, but when you look back you will find that there have been many changes and many beautiful buildings have disappeared, which makes people feel a bit sad." (Photo by Huang Baoying)
Watch Hong Kong's Changes
Redge has been associated with Hong Kong for half a century. Prior to his return, he had been a creative director in the British Hong Kong Government Information Office for many years and married a Hong Kong woman. Over the years, he has traveled to Hong Kong and London from time to time and settled for several years. He laughed and said that he had a European family and a Hong Kong family and had to serve both sides. He returned to Britain in 2012 with his wife, but returned to Hong Kong four years later. Today, he and his wife plan to return to their hometown next year to visit relatives. The return date is uncertain. During the visit, he naturally spoke half-salty Cantonese, and laughed that learning a little Cantonese helped him integrate into the local community.
In recent years, Redge has published his own photography collection, showing 1969 to the public. He said that the first episode focuses on Central and Causeway Bay, while the next episode focuses on grass-roots Hong Kong, with more photos of places such as Chai Wan and Cheung Chau. (Photo by Huang Baoying)
"One of the things you can feel from my photos is the community spirit," he said. Sham Shui Po today is very much like Hong Kong when he first met. "When you live in a place, you will not find it is slowly changing, but when you look back you will find that there have been many changes and many beautiful buildings have disappeared, which makes people feel a bit sad."
The young man who ventured across the ocean to Hong Kong at that time has grown into a gentle gentleman over seventy years old. Beginning with adventure and finally turning his head, Edge Solley looked at the black-and-white photos he had taken half a century ago. He said, "That was my good old days."
Redge and his wife are planning to return home to visit relatives next year. He laughed and said that when people return to Britain, they will forget Cantonese, but once they return to Hong Kong, everything will naturally return to them. Hong Kong was his second home in the half century. (Photo by Huang Baoying)
"Hong Kong 1969" Part 2
Date: December 13, 2019 to January 5, 2020
Time: 2pm to 7pm
Venue: EastPro Gallery, Room A, 9 / F, Hailian Building, 223 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
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