The building was designed by Hong Kong architect Steven Yue, There are two blocks altogether containing 624 units originally each between 400 and 600 square feet.[1]
History
Before Kiu Kwan Mansion was built, the site of the building was occupied by the Commercial Press Print-works. Completed in 1934, it was the largest printing house in Hong Kong at the time. Subsequently the company moved its operations back into Mainland China during the 1960s, and the site was redeveloped into Kiu Kwan Mansion in 1966.[2][3]
In its early days, the building has been associated with leftists involved in the 1967 riots, who used the building as their residence and base of operations.[1] Local media often labeled it and similar buildings as 'leftist buildings' or 'communist strongholds'.[4]
One of the main features of the building is the Wah Fung Chinese Goods Centre founded in 1963, an eclectic emporium of Chinese-made goods, with a Fujian flair, which occupies the ground, first, and second floors of the building.[5] It was one of two Hong Kong branches and the city's largest department store when it opened, and especially attracted many Fujianese and Shanghaiese immigrants in the area to shop or find work there.[6]
During the 1967 riots which lasted between May and December of that year, Pro-communistleftists demonstrated against the colonial establishment, leading to 51 killed, over 800 injured, and over 8000 bombs detonated.[7] At the time there was a high concentration of Fujianese in the building and North Point, many of whom who supported the leftists. This naturally led to the building becoming a leftist stronghold, utilizing the labyrinth-like features of the Chinese Goods Centre to deter police crackdowns. Many residents were displaced due to the operations of the leftists.[1]
After police cordoned off the building at 6:40am of 4th of August 1967, they started to crack down on it and the neighboring Metropole Building. Being the largest raid since May, altogether seven companies of riot policemen, seven platoons of British soldiers, a number of plainclothes police officers and three helicopters were deployed.[8] A team containing members of the police and army was dispatched on the rooftop of the building by Royal Navy helicopters, while another team accessed the building through the rear stairs of the Chinese Goods Store. Traps with glass bottles, live wires, explosives, and hidden mines of bottled gas bombs lined the staircases and ground floor arcades, while a makeshift watch tower was found in a hidden corner in the staircase.[1][8]
Some key figures of the leftist movement were arrested during the raid, including Wong Kin-Lap, Deputy director of the All-Circles Anti-Persecution Struggle Committee, and headmaster of the leftist school Hon Wah College. And Ng Lun-wah, manager of the Chinese Goods Centre.[8] At the time, Wong was caught unprepared. Despite then being detained at the Victoria Road Detention Centre for 17 months, he stated that he had no regrets for involving in the 1967 riots.[9]
Kiu Kwan Mansion was refurbished in 1996 and 2007.[citation needed]
^Pang, Amy (March 2019). Chan, Tara (ed.). North Point, Hong Kong: Oral History [北角香港：口述歷史] (in Chinese and English). Translated by Tse, Winnie. pp. 73–74.
^García Moro F. The Death and Life of Hong Kong’s Illegal Façades. ARENA Journal of Architectural Research. 2020; 5(1): 2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ajar.231
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