I had talked about the Blue House, best example of urban conservation in the world two days ago. And today I want to talk about the Green House, a completely failure of urban conservation!
(For my old post about Blue House, please check: @aaronli/hong-kong-snapshot-40-blue-house-best-example-of-urban-conservation-in-the-world-40)
Green House is located at Mallory Street in Wan Chai. It is a block of ten tenement houses built in 1912-1926 with history of 100 years. It is now listed as Graded Ii historic buildings. The name of Green House comes from its green color wall. The 4-floors Tong Lau (tenement in old HK style) is the earliest Tong Lau with strong Western flavor. The floors are connected with timber staircase. And also the Chinese tiled pitched roofs, French doors, patterned floor tiles and ornamental iron balustrades are built in Western style. 100 years passed, Green House is now one of the most valuable historical and cultural assets of HK.
早兩天說了灣仔藍屋的保育活化成功例子，今次就要說說同在灣仔，綠屋的保育失敗例子！
綠屋位於灣仔茂蘿街，由10幢唐樓合組而成，建於1916-1922年間，約有一百年歷史是香港二綠歷史建築。綠屋一共四層，因其綠色的外牆被稱為綠屋，是香港最早期搭配了西方建築特色的唐樓，以木樓梯連接各層，而其他的金字瓦頂、法式門窗、地磚、鐵花欄河等西式特色，都是當時唐樓少有。經過百年歷史、人情，讓綠屋成為香港重要的歷史文化資產。
The old green house 綠屋
(photo from wiki)
2005, HK government announced the conservation project of Green House. Not intended for redevelopment, the project was carried out to restore as fully as possible the original appearance of the tenement houses while giving them a “new life”. And now, it becomes the “Comix House Base”, I call it nondescript.
2005年，香港政府宣佈保育活化綠屋，在不重建的情況下，還原其原來的外貌特徵，賦予其「新」的生命。結果，就成為了我們眼前不倫不類的「動漫基地」。
The result of the conservation of Green House is the “Comix House Base”. It’s the first conservation project with cultural and creativity as the theme of the conservation. But seems the Government forgot the restore the original appearance of Green House. We cannot see the original appearance of Green House anymore. I can’t even recognize it was a Tong Lau!
The wall is now black and white. The architect said it is to restore the colour when the tenement houses were built. OK fine. The Green House is black and white color. And we look inside. We can’t see anything related to the old green house – glass wall, flyover. It’s now like a commercial building. Conservation!?
綠屋今天是「動漫基地」，是香港首個以文化創意為主題的活化項目，樓高四層的動漫基地，雖掛著「綠屋保育」的名義，卻已完全見不到綠屋的舊貌。
外牆由綠色變成黑白色，建築公司表示是還原緣屋建成初時的顏色，但綠屋形象已深入民心，倒顯得格格不入。至於裡面卻不做還原，而是來個大翻新，落地玻璃、架空天橋，和普通商廈沒有分別，這叫保育？
Wow! Modern Building!
這真的是唐樓？
The three main points of conservation are buildings, histories and communities. And this project did nothing about the three points. I would say it’s the best example of “fake conservation” in HK. Luckily, it didn’t become a shopping mall. It is now the “Comix House Base” and let comics and animation artists of HK have a house base. Really luckily? Not really.
The lobby of Comix House Base shows a display board introducing the history of HK comics and animations. And that’s all. You can’t see any more introduction anymore. Not even a famous work by HK comic and animation artists. There is a big picture drawing all the famous characters of HK Comics and Animation in the piazza. But you will never know who they are because of no description.
保育的三大意義：建築、歷史、社區，三者都不能保存，可說是香港「假保育」的最佳例子。尤其，綠屋被改建成「動漫基地」，讓香港動漫文化能有一個大本營，算是不幸中的大幸事。真的不幸中的大幸嗎？未必。
走進動漫基地，大堂展示著香港動漫數十年的歷史，然後，沒有了，再也沒有關於香港動漫的資料和介紹。地下有一個露天廣場，掛著一塊巨型壁畫，畫上香港多年來著名的動漫角色，不過，對香港動漫沒有認識的人不會知道他們是誰，因為沒有介紹。
The only introduction of HK comics and animations in the whole Comix House Base”
整個場館唯一介紹香港動漫的展板
any meaning of you don’t introduce the characters?
遊人根本不認識這些角色，放上來有用嗎？
The 1st floor is a restaurant. Let’s skip it. And nothing on the 2nd floor except a small comic salon at the end of the floor. You can read comic there but seems comics from Japan and Korea are even more than those in HK. Coming out from the comic salon, I found a description board about the Kitchen of the green house. Oh! I was at the kitchen of green house. Take a look at the photo below, you can really recognize it’s a kitchen? It is called conservation!?
走上一樓，是一家餐廳，略過不提。至於二樓，是一大片空地，走進裡頭才會發現一家「動漫沙龍」，可免費供閱漫畫，不過日本漫畫比香港漫畫還多。走出來的時候偶然發現介紹展板，噢！原來這裡是綠屋本來的廚房，你不說我真的不知道！這個就叫做綠屋的保育！？
Comix Salon 動漫沙龍
And it was the kitchen. Sorry I didn’t get it
這裡是綠屋的廚房…
Nothing again on the 3rd floor. And the 4th floor, there was a photography exhibition. Photography? Related to Comics and Animations? And I saw a description board again about the roof top of Green House. It was in between the photography works. Haha funny.
三樓又是空空如也，至於四樓，則是一個攝影展。攝影展？跟動漫有關嗎？看著一幅幅攝影作品時，偶然見到牆上又出現介紹了！但你不說我還以為是攝影作品之一。
empty lobby of the 2nd and 3rd floor m
二樓和三樓空空如也
The description board is placed between the photos
攝影作品與展板放在一起
And I found some description boards blocked by other stuffs….
隱在角落的展板，讓誰看？
The comics and animations of HK have a great history. HK was one of the biggest comics output of the world and exacly the biggest comics output among the Chinese community. For animations, “My Life as McDull” was awarded the Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festlival, Annect, France in 2003. In 2007, “TMNT” grossed $95.6 million worldwide. Recent, HK comics is having a tour exhibition in Japan, London and also City of Brussels. We can see the power of comics and animations of HK.
香港動漫擁有輝煌歷史，香港漫畫曾和美國及日本齊名，是華人社區最大的漫畫出口地。至於香港動漫近年亦屢創佳績，先有2003年《麥兜故事》在法國安錫國際動畫電影節得到最佳電影獎，再有2007年《忍者神龜》獲得接近一億美金的票房。最近，香港漫畫更在日本、倫敦、布魯塞爾等地巡迴展覽，可見香港動漫的力量。
My Life as McDull 麥兜故事
TMNT (2007) 忍者神龜
But this great result can’t let HK have a real “Comix House Base”. I found an article about the “Comix House Base” in the web. It mentioned due to the bad promotion and operation management of “Comix House Base”, the numbers of visitor are bad. Because of the problem of rental fee, many Comics and Animations workshops and studios moved away from Comix House Base. And now Comix House Base is only an empty shell.
(The article I found on web (in Chinese): http://bkb.mpweekly.com/%E8%A8%AD%E8%A8%88%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/%E3%80%90%E6%B4%BB%E5%8C%96%E5%BB%BA%E7%AF%89%EF%BC%8C%E8%89%B1%E9%9B%A3%E5%89%8D%E8%A1%8C%E4%B9%8B%E4%B8%89%E3%80%91%E7%81%A3%E4%BB%94%E5%8B%95%E6%BC%AB%E5%9F%BA%E5%9C%B0%EF%BC%8C%E6%B2%92%E6%9C%89)
不過，這些成績卻不能讓香港有一個真正的「動漫基地」，我在網上看了一篇關於動漫基地的報導，它提及到「動漫基地」缺少宣傳及營運不善，人流量極少，很多本來的動漫工作室都因租金問題搬離動漫基地，導致動漫基地不成基地，空有動漫之名。
(我在網上看到的文章: http://bkb.mpweekly.com/%E8%A8%AD%E8%A8%88%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB/%E3%80%90%E6%B4%BB%E5%8C%96%E5%BB%BA%E7%AF%89%EF%BC%8C%E8%89%B1%E9%9B%A3%E5%89%8D%E8%A1%8C%E4%B9%8B%E4%B8%89%E3%80%91%E7%81%A3%E4%BB%94%E5%8B%95%E6%BC%AB%E5%9F%BA%E5%9C%B0%EF%BC%8C%E6%B2%92%E6%9C%89)
I believe this Tong Lau next the Comix House Base is worth more to visit
我覺得旁邊這唐樓更有參觀價值
There are often speech and workshops in Comix House Base. And they are the only things related to Comics and Animations. So now, Green House is not Green House anymore, and Comix House Base is not really a “Comix House Base”.I believe, we can only see such kind of conservation farce in HK.
現在，動漫基地只偶然會有動漫的講座或專題，其他時間可謂人跡罕至。綠屋，因所謂的「保育」，屋不成屋，不倫不類，這樣的保育鬧劇，我相信只有香港才能出現。
Comix House Base 動漫基地
Address: 7 Mallory Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island
Opening hour: 10:00 – 20:00
地址：香港灣仔茂蘿街7號
開放時間：早上10時至晚上8時
!steemitworldmap 22.2773711 lat 114.1738424 long d3scr
謝謝你能抽空閱讀這篇文章，我平日喜歡分享香港的故事，希望大家多多支持，我會繼續努力！
Thanks for spending your time to read my articles. I like to share stories of Hong Kong. I wish you may support me and I will keep going!
