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local communities. "Ethnic neighborhood" can potentially refer to either or both concepts. If this were not so, if we could not separate neighborhood from sub-neighborhood or neighborhood from community, how else could we explain the appellation of North Point, a neighborhood over 2/3 Guangdongese,2 not only as "Little Fujian" but as "Little Shanghai" as well?
From "Little Shanghai"
Although it is hard to imagine now, North Point 50 years ago was a semi-rural area. Extensive landfill projects, however, soon led to North Point's emergence by the end of the 1930s as a center of light industry and commerce as well as of entertainment. The population remained small, however, and prior to the Second World War North Point was the least crowded spot on the northern side of Hong Kong Island (Wai 1957: 2-5).
Much of the area was destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Post-war reconstruction coincided with the late 1940s arrival of the first wave of Central Chinese to North Point: those who had the means to flee the Civil War raging in the north of China and had chosen to come to Hong Kong for a "temporary" stay while they waited for the fighting to cease. As a newly developing, uncrowded and semi-exclusive area, North Point appealed to these relatively affluent immigrants.
When Shanghai and the surrounding provinces of Zhejiang (Chekiang) and Jiangsu (Kiangsu) were overrun by Chinese Communist forces in 1949, a new wave of "Shanghaiese" descended upon Hong Kong although even at this early date North Point was not the destination of all Shanghaiese; the wealthiest went to the most exclusive areas of the colony while the bulk of the predominantly middle-class Shanghaiese proceeded to North Point and lent a decidedly bourgeois flavor to the area.
By 1950 "Little Shanghai" was well established. Restaurants, tailor shops, beauty parlors and other businesses were all set up by Shanghaiese to serve the area's essentially Shanghaiese population. Even today on a walk around North Point one can spot many old and fading signboards of a "Shanghai Tailor," a "Shanghai Beautiful Woman" Beauty Parlor, a "Shanghai Peacock Laundry Service" as well as a couple of well-known and well-frequented Shanghai restaurants. The Shanghai population clustered within a block or so of King's Road, North Point's main thoroughfare, both Fort Street
"LITTLE FUJIAN (FUKIEN)”
113
local communities. "Ethnic neighborhood" can potentially refer to either or both concepts. If this were not so, if we could not separate neighborhood from sub-neighborhood or neighborhood from com- munity, how else could we explain the appellation of North Point, a neighborhood over 2/3 Guangdongese,2 not only as "Little Fujian” but as "Little Shanghai” as well?
From "Little Shanghai”
Although it is hard to imagine now, North Point 50 years ago was a semi-rural area. Extensive landfill projects, however, soon led to North Point's emergence by the end of the 1930s as a center of light industry and commerce as well as of entertainment. The population remained small, however, and prior to the Second World War North Point was the least crowded spot on the northern side of Hong Kong Island (Wai 1957: 2-5).
Much of the area was destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Post-war reconstruction coincided with the late 1940s arrival of the first wave of Central Chinese to North Point: those who had the means to flee the Civil War raging in the north of China and had chosen to come to Hong Kong for a "temporary" stay while they waited for the fighting to cease. As a newly deve- loping, uncrowded and semi-exclusive arca, North Point appealed to these relatively affluent immigrants.
When Shanghai and the surrounding provinces of Zhejiang (Chekiang) and Jiangsu (Kiangsu) were overrun by Chinese Com- munist forces in 1949, a new wave of "Shanghaiese" descended upon Hong Kong although even at this early date North Point was not the destination of all Shanghaiese; the wealthiest went to the most exclusive areas of the colony while the bulk of the predo- minantly middle-class Shanghaiese proceded to North Point and lent a decidedly bourgeois flavor to the area.
By 1950 "Little Shanghai" was well established. Restaurants, tailor shops, beauty parlors and other businesses were all set up by Shanghaiese to serve the area's essentially Shanghaiese population. Even today on a walk around North Point one can spot many old and fading signboards of a "Shanghai Tailor," a "Shanghai Beautiful Woman" Beauty Parlor, a "Shanghai Peacock Laundry Service” as well as a couple of well-known and well-frequented Shanghai res- taurants. The Shanghai population clustered within a block or so of King's Road, North Point's main thoroughfare, both Fort Street
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