Sham Shui Po’s night market is one of the renowned tourist places within Hong Kong due to its signature frantic, hectic atmosphere. It was also my first tourist place that I visited when I first arrived in Hong Kong. Recalling my memory, the market was very noisy and busy with tourists and merchants. The air is filled with many sounds such as oil boiling, people bargaining, kids laughing, and children laughing. The whole place is full of live energy, which is one of the prominent characteristics of Sham Shui Po night market. Seeing people buying and selling fake items with cheap prices was a new cultural experience for me. 

Later on when I was kicked out of university residence, I lived near the market for a year. When I come back home after going out or leaving the house in the morning, the market was so different from what I had seen when I first came here. Especially during the late night, the quietness that fills the whole marketplace was somewhat satisfying as if I’m listening to an ASMR. This drastic difference in sounds was what made me feel so interested about this place.

The sound was recorded twice through stationary recordings and soundwalk: from the MTR exit to the end of the market road. In the recordings, it is mostly just ambient noises with man-made sounds like shutter closing, cars and a small group of people talking. However, the raw recordings had parts with only ambient noises. For parts like these, I have filled in significant sounds from the second recordings. The reason for this is because the aesthetics comes from not only the ambient sounds, but the small sounds that fill the quiet, empty atmosphere.

The purpose of this recording is to make the audience feel the aesthetics of a calm marketplace. We live in such a densely populated city that is easily exposed to noise pollution. Unlike the busy, chaotic hours where people are all crowded in such narrow roads, this recording is to show the contrast of the busy hours and the quiet ‘behind-the-stage’ sounds. The aesthetics of the muted silence is enhanced due to the comparison of the volume difference.