“Soundth” Asian
Background:
In the previous mid-term project, my group explored Sham Shui Po, a very old district in Hong Kong. There, I found my final project idea, which is exploring South Asian people. According to statistics by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, South Asians are one of the largest ethnic minorities of HK resident groups. They contribute to more than 30% of the whole ethnic minorities population in Hong Kong.1 They mainly live in Yau Tsim Mong District, followed by Yuen Long District. Most common races of south asians from Hong Kong are Indian, Nepalese, Pakistani. 2 However, there is one race that is not often brought up by Hong Kong locals when they talk about South Asians, which is the Bangladeshi.
Introduction:
To make this work interesting, I interviewed my friend, Tanvir Rakan from Bangladesh to talk about places that represent South Asian. He notices when Hong Kong people talk about South Asians, the immediate word they remember is Chungking mansion.
The building opened in the highly accessible central business district of Tsim Sha Tsui in November 1961.3 It is also a hub of small businesses and guesthouses, attracting a diverse mix of ethnic minorities, including traders, workers, tourists, and asylum seekers. It was like home to many of the minorities. This mix has earned it the nickname “Ghetto at the Center of the World,” based on Gordon Mathews’s important 2011 study about the place.4 Tanvir said indeed Chungking mansion is a place that gathers south asians people but he said it definitely does not best represent south asian groups, at least not for his race.
He suggested a restaurant place that is very hidden but often filled with south asian people, especially his race. The place is located in a very small house in a residential building. There is a small kitchen inside the house and also tables and chairs for diners. The place usually does not accept foreigners but only South Asians. The Bengali Auntie, who is the owner of the place, did not want to disclose the address of the “restaurant”, that’s why a 360 video couldn’t be recorded. Tanvir asked the owner of this place and restaurant and she invited us over to do the recordings.
Idea:
For this project, I recorded both Chungking Mansion and the auntie’s house. I aim to capture both a very stereotypical place that is crowded and a place that is quieter and not recognised
1Neighbours in numbers: Understanding Ethnic Minority Community in Yuen Long and Kwai Tsing. 香港社會服務聯會. (n.d.).
https://www.hkcss.org.hk/neighbours-in-numbers-understanding-ethnic-minority-community-in-yuen-long-and-kw ai-tsing/?lang=en
2少數族裔人士Ethnic minorities. (n.d.-b). https://www.census2021.gov.hk/doc/pub/21C_Articles_Ethnic_Minorities.pdf 3A fortunate place. The secrets and truth inside Chungking Mansions. (n.d.). https://multimedia.scmp.com/chungking-mansions/index.html
4香港中文大學. (n.d.). https://chinaculturalgeog.com/page.php?id=31&main=31
by the locals. This project will give the audience an experience of being South Asian through sound.
Equipments:
Zoom H3-VR was used for mostly ambience background sound and Zoom H4N + stereo shotgun microphone was used for recording directional dialogues and ambience sound. The Ricoh 360 camera was used for Chungking Mansion but not for the Auntie’s house.
Audio Path:
Chungking Mansion (front door) —> Chungking Mansion (Inner space)—> Auntie’s house
Sound Captured:
Chungking Mansion:
Natural sound: Buses outside the front door
Dialogues: Vlogger introducing and talking to the camera, people greeting in the middle of the corridor, guest room service promotion
Human-made sounds: people singing, people talking in phone
Bengali Auntie’s house:
Dialogues: Conversations between auntie and my friend
Human-made sounds: onion cutting, food washing, cooking, food mixing
Reflection:
The project to me at first at the Chungking mansion feels like a third person perspective looking into the South Asian community. It felt like just a typical experience of a local walking into a place filled with South Asians. But after getting a closer look and interacting with the Bengali Auntie, which is at my later half of the project, I feel like I got to know the race a little more, the food they eat and their lives, got to know how different Chinese cuisine is so different with Bengali cuisine as they use onions a lot (Auntie uses at least 15 onions a day) while Chinese cuisine uses garlic and ginger more. I discovered so many cultural differences and had culture shocks after these sound recordings.
Reference:
Neighbours in numbers: Understanding Ethnic Minority Community in Yuen Long and Kwai Tsing. 香港社會服務聯會. (n.d.).
https://www.hkcss.org.hk/neighbours-in-numbers-understanding-ethnic-minority-community-in-yuen-long-and-kw ai-tsing/?lang=en
少數族裔人士Ethnic minorities. (n.d.-b). https://www.census2021.gov.hk/doc/pub/21C_Articles_Ethnic_Minorities.pdf A fortunate place. The secrets and truth inside Chungking Mansions. (n.d.). https://multimedia.scmp.com/chungking-mansions/index.html
香港中文大學. (n.d.). https://chinaculturalgeog.com/page.php?id=31&main=31