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Written by: Huang Wenxuan
2020-10-31 18:00
Last update date: 2020-10-31 18:00
The Royal Theater, which has been standing in North Point for more than 60 years, is famous at home and abroad for its unique arched truss.
In 2015, the theater began to report the news of the acquired ownership, and the people worried that another historical building would be demolished into a skyscraper; until three years ago, it was upgraded from a third-class historical building to a first-class historical building, and its historical value was affirmed.
A month ago, the developer invested 4.776 billion yuan in the imperial capital, promising to protect the theater in the future.
The fate of the Huangdu Theater has taken a turn for the better, from near death to rebirth. Wu Yunyi, who grew up in the Huangdu Theater, is behind the scenes.
She is a conservationist of architectural heritage. She has defended Wan Chai’s Tongde Custody and Conservation campaign, but unfortunately she ended in failure. Five years later, she finally succeeded in fighting to retain the royal capital. She came to this conclusion: "If you want to conserve, you must be early Pay attention to historical buildings."
Photography: Zheng Zifeng
The Royal Theater, which has been standing in North Point for more than 60 years, is famous at home and abroad for its unique arched truss.
(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
Five years ago, New World Development began to acquire the property rights of theater merchants. The incident has been brewing for several years, and the news of the people's request to preserve the imperial capital is endless.
Until the beginning of this month, New World announced that it had successfully bid for the Royal Theater. The Chief Executive Officer of New World Zheng Zhigang emphasized that the Royal Theater will be preserved "with physical and spirituality."
The restoration project will only be completed in 2026. Before the rebirth of the imperial capital Nirvana, come and visit the theater.
The theater turns into a billiard room
Wu Yunyi has been engaged in architectural heritage conservation for many years. She led us into this almost deserted theater building, opened the locked front door, and stepped up the stairs. The table in the billiard room was covered with dusty billiard bats.
The Royal Theater was completed in 1952. After changing hands in 1959, it was renamed Xuan Gong Theater. It was closed in 1997. Three years later, it was converted into a billiard club until it closed last year.
The billiard room still retains the seat of the old theater hall today, but the ceiling is very short, and it does not look like a theater should have a pattern.
At the reception desk of the billiard room that closed last year, the schedule on the wall still shows the previous qualifying list.
(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
Wu Yunyi has the same question. She asked the architect who transformed the theater into a billiard room, "In order to save construction costs, the billiard room did not change the structure of the theater. Only the seats in the theater were enclosed by enclosures, and the platform and With the addition of fake ceilings, it has become the current billiard room." The inadvertent insertion of willows in the past led to the restoration of most of the original appearance of the Royal Theater in the future.
Like ordinary theaters, Huangdu Theater also has three rows of stairs on the left, center, and right for people to go up and down. Wu Yunyi said that the stairs have not been refurbished, as they looked back then.
(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
Climb two more stairs to the super-class area of the theater.
The upper floor is equipped with men’s and women’s toilets exclusively for super-class guests. The signage of the year was still intact on the wall. The stairs and the wall paint peeled off. A glass mirror fell on the ground and was incompletely broken-time seemed to be still On February 28, 1997, the day the Huangdu Theater closed.
The upper floor is equipped with men's and women's toilets exclusively for super-class guests, and the signs of the year are still hanging on the wall intact.
(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
Huangdu Theater specializes in Jiahe films and old neighborhoods often join in
Wu Yunyi grew up in the shopping mall of the Royal Theater. She clearly remembers that the last time she watched in the Royal Theater was the 1997 New Year movie "A Good Man" starring Jackie Chan.
"The movies shown in the Imperial Capital are all movies from the Golden Harvest Cinemas. There were several theaters in North Point back then, and different theaters would show different theaters. My family likes to watch theaters. We usually watch them once a month. Shuttle between different theaters in North Point," she said.
Back then, the movie industry was booming, and the shopping malls of the Royal Theater were thriving. Nine out of ten of them were shoe shops. Wu Yunyi's mother was one of them.
In 1984, her mother moved from North Point Jianwei Shopping Centre to the Royal Theater Shopping Centre. She took her daughter's name, Yunyi, and opened the "Wendy Company" to sell children's clothing.
Wu Yunyi asked her mother why she didn't use her brother's name as the store name. She smiled and said, "She said that my name is more suitable for selling children's clothes."
The shopping malls of the Royal Theater used to extend in all directions, and the children from the shops in the alleys quickly became acquainted with them. The children explored different corners of the mall in groups, which was their unique pleasure in the mall.
Wu Yunyi remembered her childhood memories with endless sources: "Opposite the shop is the elevator lobby where the Huangdu Theater has super seats. If no one is in the theater, a large group of children will play in the lobby. An aunt used to drive the elevator. She often walks over to chat with us when she has free time, while her husband sells fruit on Xuhe Street, and he fries chestnuts in winter. I like to eat chestnuts and they often ask me to eat..."
"The failure of [Wan Chai Tong Tak Berhad] I deeply feel that if conservation is to be done and attention is to be gained, it must be done as soon as possible."
Architectural heritage conservationist Wu Yunyi
At that time, the Huangdu Cinema was thriving, and nine out of the ten were shoe shops. At present, only the last tailor shop is left in the market until the end of the year.
(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
From living in the imperial capital to embarking on the road of conservation
Being immersed in the atmosphere of the old community from a young age made Wu Yunyi unconsciously like old things.
Japanese manga is popular among classmates, but she loves to read the old nostalgic girl comics "Thirteen O'clock" and Old Master, and is also addicted to watching Cantonese opera actors Chen Baozhu and Xiao Fangfang, but she never dared to start with her peers. Care about me".
When choosing a course in university, she naturally chose the Department of Architecture, "I am interested in old things and interested in design. The Department of Architecture seems to be satisfied." After graduation, she went to work in the Architectural Cultural Heritage Research Center of CUHK. The road of cultural conservation.
Wu Yunyi said that when she was in the mall, she occasionally went to the store to help, "I remember I saw a mother-in-law who got her feet coming to buy children's clothes and shoes!" (Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
In 2015, when news of the demolition of the Wanchai Tongde Abbey came out, a private group asked Wu Yunyi to extend a helping hand and write a building evaluation report for Tongde Abbey to prove its value. This was the first time she participated in a private conservation operation.
However, the last third-class historical building in Hong Kong was finally demolished in a flash of thunder. Many people began to reflect on whether the pace of conservation work in Hong Kong came too late. "That failure, I feel so deeply , If you want to preserve and gain attention from others, you must do it as soon as possible." She said with regret.
Turning over old newspapers and returning to the old place to "seeking roots"
Less than half a year after the Tongde arrest incident, the fate of development fell on the Royal Theater.
Wu Yunyi learned the lesson and immediately prepared non-stop for the preservation of the imperial capital.
She flipped through the old newspaper for three months and found the news about the opening of the Xuan Palace Theater, and found that the theater had an unprecedented full-page advertisement for the shocking event of the year. "One of the more shocking things was to find that Teresa Teng was in the royal capital. Performed!"
The roof truss of the imperial capital is made of concrete. Wu Yunyi, who is from the Department of Architecture, explained: "Generally, buildings are supported by trusses, but architects usually store the trusses in the building to prevent exposure, but the roof of the imperial capital is upright. It’s exposed, probably because the architect deliberately did it.” (Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
After growing up, Wu Yunyi rarely set foot in the Imperial Theater again. This time conservation seemed like a "root-seeking journey."
Looking through the life in the imperial capital one by one, she found many things that she didn't pay attention to when she was a child: the design of the truss projecting on the roof is unique in the world, and the materials are also made of concrete, not ordinary iron frames.
She wrote all her findings in the evaluation report submitted to the Office of Antiquities. After a year of discussion, the ancient advisory committee finally approved the upgrade of the Huangdu Theater from a third-level historical building to a first-class historical building. "At that moment, I was sitting in the ancient office. I’m so excited to watch the live broadcast in the listening room of the meeting!"
"Hong Kong as a whole is relatively backward in conservation. Singapore, like Hong Kong, only began to pay attention to conservation in the 1970s, but they will have a conservation area, such as streetscape conservation, limiting the height of new buildings, and not destroying the entire conservation area. Hong Kong Now it’s a little bit of conservation."
Architectural heritage conservationist Wu Yunyi
Lessons learned from failures "Conservation must be as early as possible"
Wu Yunyi contributed a lot to the imperial capital's success in securing conservation.
But when asked why she felt that the Huangdu Theater had successfully stayed this time, she said modestly: "I think it is the cooperation of the time, the right place, and the harmony of people." She went on to explain, "It was an election year, and many people were willing. Speaking for the Royal Theater; and it is a theater in itself, and many people will go to the theater. Its function is closely related to the folks, and it has created a lot of people to support reservation."
The new owner of the Royal Theater, New World Development, contacted Wu Yunyi two years ago and invited her to express her opinions on the preservation of the Royal Capital.
Many friends reported to Wu Yunyi that she was worried that the development of the imperial capital would become commercialized in the future. Wu Yunyi was not too pessimistic. Instead, she believed that at least a developer who is willing to take on the responsibility of conservation is a good start.
(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
This is an unprecedented time that the Imperial Capital has been retained by a private developer.
But looking back at the overall history of conservation in Hong Kong, this seems to be just the beginning.
Wu Yunyi said: "Hong Kong as a whole is relatively backward in conservation. Singapore, like Hong Kong, only began to pay attention to conservation in the 1970s, but they will have a conservation area. For example, for streetscape conservation, they will limit the height of new buildings and not destroy the entire conservation area. Wait, Hong Kong is now conserving one by one."
However, regardless of the failure of Tongdeba or the success of the Royal Theater, Wu Yunyi has reached the same conclusion: conservation cannot be delayed.
She thinks what the people can do is to appreciate the existing historical buildings more, "Don't wait for the last second to pay attention."
The Royal Theater was successfully protected by a private developer. What will be the fate of the remaining historical buildings?
(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
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