User:223.16.55.170/The Cartful

The Cartful 車仔檔 , also known as portable stall and mobile stall, is a style of hawker stall originated from the street vendors selling inexpensive street food, like eggette, Tang cong bing糖葱餅, and cart noodle, in the 1950s.

History

During the 1950s(香港1950年代), Hong Kong has been experiencing economic downturn, meanwhile, refugees from the Mainland China fled to Hong Kong constantly after the establishment of The People's Republic of China(中華人民共和國), leading to a drastic increase in population of Hong Kong. People struggled to make a living, they then started to operate mobile hawker stall using wooden carts with a low production cost. With the portable carts, street vendors could get away in time from being arrested by the police. As time goes by, in the 1970s and 1980s, a wide variety of products are sold in these mobile stalls. Besides food and snacks, household goods, clothing and kitchenware could be found in the carful in place like Sham Shui Po.

Relationship with Hong Kong

The cartful fully reveal Hong Kong spirits  : diligent and fast. With little capital and time, owners can earn a huge profit from the whole day sales by moving their cart around without paying high rent. This traditional hawking style is dying out because of the government policy and modernization. As the law prohibits unlicensed hawking, many mobile stalls have demolished. Yet, the government sets up markets in different districts like Tin Sau Hui (天秀墟) and Wan Chai Tai Yuen Street (太原街)in order to gather the mobile stalls back. Some of the citizens support the government plan since they think it is cleaner and quieter without the mobile stalls on street; others object to the inhumane government policy due to the reminiscence of the cartful.

References

Category:Hong Kong