Global Perspective: Chung King Mansions

Available for over a year

The international documentary series Global Perspective this year has the theme of Islands. The 'island chosen by RTHK is an infamous Hong Kong tenement building, in Kowloon’s teeming Nathan Road. Chung King Mansions has a colourful past, and who knows what future. Built as luxury residential flats in the early 1960s, these days it's a haven for asylum seekers, commercial travelers from the Africa and the developing world and anyone who needs a cheap place to stay. Chungking Mansions stands out like a shabby island from its more luxurious surroundings: with a thousand owners and bad past management it has been impossible ever to get agreement on what to do with it. Meanwhile the wiring could burst into flames at any minute, it thrives as a business community, appears to be self-sufficient and is an international melting pot which has been a law unto itself. Chung King Mansions is produced by Sarah Passmore of RTHK Radio 3.