Will Hong Kong’s street culture die with our aging street hawkers, asks June Ng.

Hong Kong’s hawkers are a dying breed. Take 82-year-old Lai Hoi-choi, the city’s oldest motorcycle ice cream vendor, who made headlines earlier this year when his soon-to-expire vendor license almost forced him into retirement. Or Man Yuen Noodles, the 80-year-old dai pai dong on Elgin Street that was moved indoors in 2005 because its license was nullified upon the death of the licensee. As more vendors retire or die, taking their licenses with them (no new licenses are ever issued), our unique street culture is increasingly under threat.

At present, there are 6,531 fixed-pitch hawker licenses, 28 of which are for dai pai dongs, and 590 itinerant Hawkers Licenses, 30 of which are for ice cream vendors on bicycles or motorcycles.  According to the current licensing policy, fixed-pitch hawker licenses can be taken up by any immediate family member of the licensee, such as a parent, spouse, son or daughter. The exception to this rule is the dai pai dong license, which can only be transferred to a spouse. Meanwhile, itinerant hawker licenses can’t be transferred at all.
But limited transferability of the licenses isn’t the only problem. The government hasn’t issued new hawker licenses since the 1970s, and from 2002 to 2007, it has been actively encouraging hawkers to turn in their licenses in exchange for compensation. It cites environmental hygiene as a reason to pull hawkers off the streets, but as usual, the government’s single-mindedness means that other considerations such as cultural heritage fall by the wayside.

But a new review may mean new hope for the future of our street stalls. In June, the Food and Health Bureau, together with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, began revisiting the existing policy on hawker licensing. The two departments are now exploring the feasibility of issuing new licenses, especially for mobile ice cream vendors and ice cream vans. When it comes to the succession and transfer of licenses for dai pai dongs, they’re considering making the process more flexible if the stalls are deemed to have cultural value.
Tsang Kam-ming, President of the Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories Hawkers Associations, suggests that the succession of licenses should be relaxed to include co-workers of the licensees.
“Not all hawkers have immediate family members, but they do have assistants that have been working with them for years. If the licensees die or retire, the people that have been working with them for years become unemployed.”

Paul Zimmerman of Designing Hong Kong is an advocate of preserving street vending culture, but is very pessimistic about the review. “It’s in the wrong hands. They’ve taken the wrong scope and consulted the wrong people,” he says. “It’s not a public consultation; the government is only seeking opinions from two sources: the hawker associations and the district council. But the former only protects the interests of existing vendors, and the latter only responds to local residents’ complaints. This limits the discussion to a very narrow scope.”

Zimmerman believes that the Home Affairs Bureau or the Commerce and Economic Bureau should look at the situation more broadly, rather than just focusing on the hygiene conditions. He also suggests that outdoor seating and the use of public space for selling intangible products, such as broadband or phone contracts, should be included in the review.

Also under consideration is whether fix-pitched licensees should be allowed to rent adjacent vacant pitches in order to expand their business area, an idea that Tsang welcomes. “The government should also create more traffic-free zones for hawkers like those in Temple Street or Ladies Market in Mong Kok,” he adds.

And then there’s the matter of issuing new licenses. Given the dire economic situation and rising unemployment, hawker’s pitches may begin looking increasingly appealing to some people.

Legislator Cyd Ho Sau-lan agrees with issuing new licenses, but only if the plan is carried out with care, ensuring pitches are well equipped and accessible. Tsang however remains skeptical about inviting inexperienced people to join the business.

“Being a hawker is very complicated, and newcomers might lose the little money that they have due to inexperience, harming them in the long run.” There are roughly 10,000 fixed pitches in Hong Kong and about 3,000 of them are vacant. But instead of renting them out to the newcomers, Tsang suggests that the government should consider giving new licenses only to those with prior experience.

But until the review is brought to Legco some time in 2009, the future of our street stalls remains precarious. Let’s hope the government does the right thing and opts to preserve this essential part of our local culture.