As I told a friend the other day: “If you see someone taking photos of the buildings behind us, chances are they’re tourists coming to see the Monster Building.” 

I’m a Quarry Bay kaifong, or local, and every time I visit a neighbourhood bakery or florist, I see people – mostly in their 20s and 30s and speaking in different languages – strolling along King’s Road. Some ask for directions, some take photos from the opposite side of the street. I can tell instantly that they are searching for the Monster Building.

For us locals, it’s just one of the ordinary residential structures of the 1960s. We didn’t call it Monster Building until it was introduced to a global audience by the Hollywood blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction.

YouTube videos of what was probably the world’s most spectacular fashion runway have been seen by millions.

The overlapping of the city’s physical and cinematic space helps boost the city’s cultural identity and image. 

On Valentine’s Day came the two-week Chubby Hearts campaign presented by the Hong Kong Design Centre, with the giant balloons flying over different parts of the city. Photos of the big red hearts have flooded social media. The design centre reveals the locations of the photos every morning on its website.

So far, the big red hearts have visited, among other places, the flower market in Mong Kok and Lam Tsuen in Tai Po. I hope they will also overfly more mundane neighbourhoods in Kowloon and the New Territories and make yet more people appreciate the charm of our cityscape. 

Since travel resumed after Covid curbs were lifted, a common justification for failing to spend weekends and public holidays locally is that Hong Kong does not have much to see. This is a laughable statement which only reveals the speakers’ ignorance. Hong Kong has much to see and to contemplate. The collective vitality of its people makes our city a rich place to explore.