On Hing Travel Agency Fictional Archive of Disappearing Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong, shaped by rapid transformation and precarious land ownership, is a city where erasure defines its urban landscape. Amid this flux, a place I once called home was demolished, prompting the question: “How can one return to a place that no longer exists?” This thesis explores the transformative potential of disappearance, reframing it as a generative force that creates space for imagination, resistance, and continuity. Through On Hing Travel Agency (OHTA), demolished buildings "travel" into fictional worlds, becoming vessels of memory and imagination. Rooted in Hong Kong’s literary tradition—where fiction resists erasure and archives aspirations—the project employs fiction as both a tool of preservation and a site for belonging. Fictional destinations, inspired by Hong Kong novels, such as The Permanent City (1959), The Floating City (1986), and The Vanished Cities (2010), reflect pivotal historical moments while offering pathways to reconcile personal loss and master alternative spatial logics. The project culminates in the Lost Traveler’s Guide to Hong Kong, a publication curating maps, brochures, and layered narratives to immerse travelers in speculative thinking. By bridging the past and future, real and imagined, OHTA is a attempt to demonstrates how fiction can reclaim agency within the politics of disappearance, transforming loss into a catalyst for new narratives and creative engagement. Even in absence, Hong Kong’s disappearing spaces retain their resonance, generating new narratives and underscoring the creative potential of loss.