Capital M Book Talk: City of Darkness Revisited: Kowloon Walled City

Date: Jan 18 - 4 pm

Venue: Capital M, 3/F, 2 Qianmen Pedestrian Street, Beijing

Price: 75 yuan

The idea of an unplanned and unregulated city attracts and repels in equal measure. What would a city look like without the contributions of architects, urban planners, municipal engineers and civil administrators? The messy and exhilarating answer to that question first appeared in 1993, in the book City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City, by photographers Greg Girard and Ian Lambot. Between 1986 and 1992 Girard and Lambot photographed the Kowloon Walled City, one of Hong Kong's most extraordinary and most misunderstood communities. Before its demolition in 1993, it was the mostly densely populated place on the planet: over 35,000 people living in 300 interconnected high-rise buildings crammed into a single Hong Kong city block. After nearly 20 years in print their influential book is being updated with unpublished photographs, new essays, interviews, maps and drawings. In addition to providing the most detailed record of life in the Kowloon walled city, the new book looks at the unexpected ways the walled city has influenced a generation of filmmakers, production designers, architects, urban planners, writers, visual artists and others intrigued and inspired by the idea of a self-organizing yet unplanned city. Reservation is required via phone or e-mail.

Contact: 010-6702-2727

E-mail: reservations@capital-m-beijing.com

Website: m-restaurantgroup.com