Hong Kong’s “dragon gates” are a series of skyscraper gaps that allow dragons to fly from mountains to sea through gigantic residential high-rises. In a city where the cost of a flat’s square meter can reach more than US$ 35.000, these tycoon voids are both capitalist and premodern.
From Its Mouth Came to River of High End Residential Appliances (Jon Wang, 2018) is a short film where the narrator relates his personal involvement with geomancy, remote-selves, and therianthropy (the mythical ability to change forms) in Hong Kong. And it is also a study of the ambiguity of real state architecture since, in some rare cases, it can agree and disagree, acquiesce and denounce, be an accomplice and betrayer of the hegemonic policies of the housing market.
It has long been said that these rectangular gateways obey the purposes of feng shui, the ancient Chinese system that calls happiness and fortune through the environment of an individual. Such openings would act as a portal to the monsters that live in the forests just behind the towers – blocking the dragons’ path to the waters of Hong Hong Bay could bring unhappiness to the residents of those colossi.
Now, are these such generous voids really for dragons?
From Its Mouth Came to River of High End Residential Appliances – Vimeo link