High 5

Tai Kwun's unique design - replete with heritage architecture and traces of Hong Kong's colonial past - is once again under the spotlight in its fifth anniversary year, writes Chitralekha Basu.

'See you in court," says Ami Ki with a chuckle. A tour guide at the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts, she is leading a small group through the free Hidden Spaces Tour. A hush descends on what was once the basement holding area for prisoners on remand, as tour members await their turn to check out the court room of the Central Magistracy. With an all-clear signal from the guide, they file up a narrow, rail-less flight of steps, strictly one at a time, before passing through a trap door to find themselves in the dock.

Hidden Spaces is part of Tai Kwun's fifth-anniversary celebrations. Once the site of Hong Kong's Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison, Tai Kwun's unique heritage and architecture - sprawling courtyards, imposing masonry walls and colonial-era buildings with red brickwork-and-bone facades - have figured prominently in its programming since the compound was revitalized and adapted into a cultural center in 2018. The anniversary party, which kicked off in the last week of May, similarly draws attention to Tai Kwun's one-of-a-kind environment and crucial role in Hong Kong's history, through exhibitions, tours, and a bunch of performance-art programs. Five years since Tai Kwun was turned into a public facility, evidently there is still more to discover.