Jumping on Walled City bandwagon

Officials and lawmakers have been tireless in putting forward ideas since Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Xia Baolong told the city's tourism minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung to make everywhere in Hong Kong a tourist hotspot.

Their most recent suggestion is to reproduce the cinematic settings of Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.

All of a sudden, Hong Kong has become so rich in hotspots that even many locals are unaware of.

The enthusiasm should be congratulated - at the very least, they are willing to seriously discuss a problem with a view to solving it with new ideas.

If Xia had not raised the issue when he and Yeung met in Beijing earlier this month, would the lawmakers and officials have put so much effort into generating new ideas?

It confirms once again that a comment from on high is stronger than a thousand words uttered by others. Even so, it can still be a genuine challenge for those below to make everywhere in the city a true tourism hotspot.

Consider Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In that has captured so much attention of late.

The film, set in the now-demolished Kowloon Walled City, is a neo-noir film in which the presence of one or more superheroes is an essential ingredient.

That superhero role goes to actor-singer Louis Koo Tin-lok, who plays the character Cyclone, a fierce character fighting to protect residents in the Walled City from crime lord Mr Big, played by martial artist Sammo Hung Kam-bo.

The film is a rare success among both critics and cinema goers and, clearly, this is why people in local political circles have been quick to exploit the film's initial success.

And why not, as it fits right in with what Xia has asked them to do? It is about political correctness as the tourism minister faces a situation that must be giving him a nasty migraine.

Before Covid, inbound tourism accounted for 3.6 percent of GDP and 6 percent of total employment. It has now been decimated despite many mainlanders visiting Hong Kong after the border reopened.

The suggestion to recreate the Walled City setting is great, as was the fever over the city's legendary kung-fu artist Bruce Lee Siu-lung.

Making every corner a tourist hotspot is not entirely new - in the past, there had also been calls to preserve Lee's former home in Kowloon Tong as a memorial.

But in 2019, the building was torn down to make way for the development of a private residential club.

It is also too late to save the Kowloon Walled City as its fate was sealed during the Sino-British negotiations on Hong Kong's future.

The site was not even used for public housing - it was erased to become a park for the public as if it had never existed.

It is nice to hear Yeung and so many others calling for new life to be breathed into the Walled City.

The question is: will the enthusiasm diminish quickly as happened with Bruce Lee?