A vibrant city in 360

16 Apr A vibrant city in 360

“HK360: Disappearing Hong Kong” was the winner of the 2020 Emerge Media Awards Video Short category.

As we found out very quickly through this unique series, the city has so much culture, so much diversity – there is so much to take in. According to HK360’s YouTube channel, a group of 16 students and one faculty member from Ryerson University’s international journalism course told stories of “Asia’s most dynamic and complex places to learn more about the efforts to preserve Hong Kong’s heritage and culture.”

Adli Wahid / Unsplash

The four videos tackle a variety of topics including the disappearing fishing villages, Hong Kong’s wet markets, the resurgence of Cantonese opera and the traditions of Kung Fu in the city. The unique perspective of watching these 360-degree videos is that you are truly immersed in the storytelling. 

Viewers get a sense of what it is like to live in the city. In one video entitled “HK360: A Walk Through Hong Kong’s Wet Markets,” viewers see the hustle and bustle of the city’s famous fresh seafood and produce markets. According to HK360’s YouTube channel, wet markets have existed for a long time, with “many of its stalls having been passed down from generation to generation,” and remain an important piece of Chinese culture. 

“They mirror an elite North American farmer’s market,” notes the video description. 

In another video called “HK360: Disappearing Fishing Villages in Hong Kong,” viewers saw the complete opposite of hustle and bustle. Instead, the students took viewers to the western side of Lantau Island to a small fishing village called Tai O.

Keith Hardy / Unsplash

The village was once a very busy fishing community where many small boats filled with fishermen and their families propelled down the tight water channels looking for fish to sell. Today, most of the fishing is recreational according to the video. 

The village now attracts locals and tourists, who get a better understanding of how the fishermen live in houses that are built on wooden stilts on the water. In the video, the team travels to the local fish and seafood market called the Tai O Street Market. 

The narrator of the video said that while the village is busy with many stores and stands selling dried fish, “many of the fishermen at these markets are not even from Tai O.”

A woman interviewed by some members on the team said that “a decline in fishing has been caused by many factors including overfishing, the construction of the new airport on the island, land reclamation and climate change.” Throughout the video, the viewer is taken to multiple fishing villages that are quickly disappearing. 

To watch the videos in the series, please click here.