I love wandering wet markets
By Neville Fan
I love wandering wet markets, especially the one situated near my living place which is a rapid developing district In New Territory of Hong Kong!
There are approximate 75 public wet markets managed by government and over 100 private wet markets in Hong Kong.
To make a rough estimate, there are tens of thousands of wet market stalls in Hong Kong. Wet market Stalls not only sell fresh meat, fresh fish, poultry, fresh vegetables, fruit , flowers and a wide choice of daily commodities such as clothing and household items but also attach cooked food stalls.
Wandering inside these markets could be a big feast for the eyes and absolutely time consuming! Seething with mass of ‘Kaifong” (means neighborhood) , regardless of sex, ages and clothing, watching their buying and selling is very enjoyable and fascinating.
Believe it or not, one reason I am big on taking photos in the market place is that each time after the finish of the shooting and wandering, I must try the famous and delicious noodles in the wet market. I treat it as “positive reinforcement” of photographing in noisy and chaotic! However, It is a shame I can’t go there from time to time since the pandemic of the coronavirus .
Government regulates the “Regulation and Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering)” which prohibit the social group gathering of no more than 4 persons and tables available for use should be a distance of at least 1.5 metres as effective buffer between one table and another table at the premises.
Otherwise, you may discharge liability for the offence by paying a fixed penalty of HK$2,000 (approx. US$260). I’ve observed and guess over 95% of the people wearing protective face mask in the public sector.
Once you left home, you must put on your protective face mask, prepare the anti-bacterial hand sanitizers and even the goggles. After all, I am going out in one of the most densely populated city in the world. Taking photos in the wet market these days makes me feel strange. I almost couldn’t grasp their expression! Suddenly feel like taking photos of AI robots!
They have almost the same appearance on faces and I can’t figure out the interesting story of expression behind the face mask. That’s the most difficult, embarrassing challenge but intriguing occasion encountered.
Every coin has its two sides, I look up my archive and find not so many people wearing face mask was captured, these shoots taken in these pandemic certainly enrich my archive of my market place project.
In Chinese word “Crisis”(危機) which composes of two single character “Danger”(危) and “Opportunity”(機). Crisis=Danger + Opportunity. It illustrates the exact situation in recent daily lives, it doesn’t matter whether in oriental or western society.
These photos some were taken before the 19-20 coronavirus pandemic, others are recently shot.
Stay healthy and Happy in these pandemic days, infected not by the decease but optimism!
Neville Fan
