Theatre Lane in Central remains one of the last sites where Hong Kong’s shoe-shiners quietly work, a fading trade rich in cultural memory and human connection. Once a familiar part of everyday street life, the number of practicing shoe-shiners has dwindled to just six, their presence now overlooked by a rapidly modernising city. This project responds to the urgent need to recognise and preserve this intangible heritage. Through visual storytelling and public engagement, the work aims to document, honour, and reintroduce the social and historical value of shoe-shiners to a wider audience before it disappears entirely.
Visual Communication & Graphic Systems
2018
Ethnography
Amid the narrow corridor of Theatre Lane, a small community of aging shoe-shiners continues their quiet craft. Their tools—polish tins, wooden blocks, worn brushes—tell stories of precision, repetition, and dignity. Each station reflects individuality, yet together they form a shared rhythm of labor. Through casual chats, gestures, and practiced hands, this street scene preserves a fading tradition. This living archive reveals resilience, human connection, and the cultural textures of Hong Kong’s vanishing informal trades.
A shared pile. A held story. A shifting system. A lived corner.
+61 481 756 123 AUS +852 6310 9922 HK
© 2025