When retired civil servant Chan Ka-kui heard that his dilapidated but historic home was to be conserved as a heritage building, he volunteered immediately to set up a museum in the premises. He wanted the pre-war tenement block known as the Blue House to be preserved – but on the residents’ own terms. Today, the museum, which displays everyday objects from the 1950s and 60s salvaged from rubbish dumps, has become a tourist attraction.
“I’m fighting to give me and my neighbours a chance to decide our own fate. Whether we stay or go, it should be our decision,” says Mr Chan, who is 78 and – apart from a brief period during Japan’s second world war occupation of Hong Kong – has lived in the Blue House all his life.
