20 Wednesday August 21, 2019
LIFE
By Bi MengyingC
lose to the Lama Temple, the
Wudaoying hutong (a narrow
alley) in Beiijng is packed with
independent cafes, trendy bars and
boutiques selling handmade jewelry;
and then there is Delia, a vintage
clothing shop opened by Lau Hui-fai,
a Hongkonger, about a decade ago.
Walking into the shop, it seemed
more like a museum that a store. In
addition to clothing and accessories,
there were also books, vinyl records,
posters and many other interesting
objects that I couldn’t identify lying
around. Behind each of these items
lies a great story.Vintage museum
Many of the huge colorful posters
hanging down from the ceiling were
educational materials, such as a
periodic table that looked like it was
made for a high school chemistry
class back in the 1970s. There were
also many hand drawn slides for
old-style projectors that were used for
English class. I randomly picked up
one and looking closely saw a picture
of several students talking in front of
the gate to a school. Below
the picture was writ-
ten “I am going to
school.”While Lau collected some of the
items at flea markets in Beijing,
many of which do not exist any
longer, some of items were brought
from Hong Kong such as a Gucci
dress from the 1990s and designer
clothes by Vivienne Tam, who was
born in Guangdong Province and
moved to Hong Kong.
“I think she was the first Chinese
designer who introduced Chinese
elements to the world stage of fash-
ion,” said Lau.
Pointing to a backpack on the
shelf, an Italian brand no longer in
production, he noted that back when
he was in high school, the brand was
worn by the cool, rich kids. Most
students like him could not afford
something like it until they started
working.
“That’s why it has sentimental
value for me. But I’m guessing many
people today who buy this brand of
bag do not know the entire story,” he
added.Looking elsewhere
Lau is such a delightful character.
The first time I met him, he put two
stools outside his store
so we couldsit and talk. He kept smoking and
laughing the whole time. His candid
laughs was contagious, and I felt like
I was talking with an old friend.
Lau was born in Hong Kong
in 1978. His parents had moved
to Hong Kong from Guangdong
Province in South China. They’d
frequently take him back there to visit
family while he was a child.
“I grew up during a time that was
open to everything. For instance,
my elementary school was a Chris-
tian school. My middle school was
a Catholic school. I grew up with a
diversity of cultures,” he said.
An open-minded explorer, Lau
decided to move to Beijing in 2003.
“There was SARS [Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome] at the time.
The economy was not promising in
Hong Kong. The entire society of
Hong Kong was in a bad mood. And
just like other ordinary young people,
I wanted to get out of the place where
I had lived for more than 20 years
and see other places. Because of
people like Dou Wei [a musician
from Beijing], I always thought
that Beijing must be a cool
place,” he said.
A few years after mov-
ing to Beijing, Lau took
over a coffee shop at the
Wudaoying hutong.
“I had been working
in design and had many
items such as clothing,
books and paintings that
I had collected from flea
markets or brought hereon my own. I wondered whether I
could open a store to display them.
Even though vintage stores were
already popular in other countries,
there were few in Beijing back then.
I was trying to experiment... and I
think much of the designs and litera-
ture from before the Internet is really
intriguing,” he said.‘Opened my mind’
When Lau first got to Beijing, he
rented a room in a siheyuan (a tradi-
tional Chinese courtyard residence)
right next to the Forbidden City.
Winter in the capital was severely
cold for a Hongkonger like himself,
especially since his stove and heater
at the time were coal fired. Lau was
greatly relieved when natural gas
pipelines were installed five years
after he moved in.
Communication also wasn’t easy
for him at first, since he only spoke
Cantonese. There were few young
people from Hong Kong at the time.
As the years passed, however, this
gradually changed as more and more
Hongkongers came to Beijing for
business or study.
“To some extent, Beijing has a
more diverse culture than Hong
Kong, particularly after the Olympic
Games... So many people from dif-
ferent nations as well as people from
different ethnic groups... Beijing has
been open to outsiders. I came and I
stayed. Different people come here to
be Beijingers. Living here exposes me
to different cultures. It opened my
mind,” he said.Introducing
the past
Vintage shop
owner brings bit of
Hong Kong to Beijing
Page Editor:
xuliuliu@
globaltimes.com.cnLau Hui-fai in his Delia
vintage shop in Beijing
Top: Items in the Delia
vintage shop
Photos: Bi Mengying/GT