Re_ Victoria City

Re_ Victoria City

Re: Victoria City is based on the former British military base located at the peak of Tai Mo Shan in Hong Kong. The site was originally a radar station and surveillance base established by the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom during the Cold War and was once the front line for monitoring military movements on the Chinese mainland. According to declassified British government documents, the military used this radar system to track aircraft movements, which successfully predicted China’s first atomic bomb test. This military facility serves as a witness to the British colonial power’s extended reach in Asia and its strategic control over the geopolitical situation.

The work retraces this former classified military base, traversing through abandoned military facilities and historical sites. Through the fragmented memories of British soldiers stationed in Hong Kong and soldiers of Chinese descent who served in the British Army, it evokes identity conflicts and phantoms of history under the colonial system. The British Army was stationed in Hong Kong for 156 years, and countless Commonwealth troops and ethnic Chinese British soldiers served there, who were witnesses and enforcers of the historical colonial process.

With the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, military sites like this one have gradually been forgotten and abandoned, but the imprints of history they hold remain quietly hidden in the mountains and forests. By returning to this historical site, the objective is to inspire the audience to reflect on colonial legacies and how history can be interpreted in multiple ways from a contemporary perspective.