Shau Kei Wan: Traces of the Sea - Urban Renewal Fund

Objective	Shau Kei Wan: Traces of the Sea – Memories of the Vanished Shoreline is a cultural heritage-led urban regeneration initiative that reconnects the community with a coastline that has gradually disappeared through land reclamation and urban development. Once a thriving fishing settlement where temples, boats and the sea shaped everyday life, Shau Kei Wan has evolved into a dense urban neighbourhood, leaving many of its maritime stories hidden beneath the modern city. The project uncovers these forgotten relationships through a series of temporary, community-led and low-impact interventions, including public art, participatory workshops, documentary screenings, cultural walks and interactive installations. Rather than reconstructing the past, it invites residents to rediscover how the sea continues to exist through collective memory, intangible cultural heritage and the everyday narratives of local people.
Activities	Memories of the Vanished Shoreline At its core, the project views heritage as a living process rather than a static monument. By encouraging participation across generations, it transforms public spaces into places for storytelling, making and shared reflection. Through these small yet meaningful interventions, Shau Kei Wan: Traces of the Sea proposes a sustainable and replicable model for cultural heritage-led urban regeneration, demonstrating how cities can recover invisible histories and strengthen local identity without relying on large-scale physical transformation. Project Information: Through public art, murals, and signage for the heritage trail, the local cultural context of “temples, fishing, and coastline” in Shau Kei Wan will be re-presented, enabling residents and visitors to appreciate, in their daily street environments, the connections between the historical coastline, fishermen’s livelihoods, and temple worship practices. No fewer than 1,800,000 participants are expected. Organise 17 intangible cultural heritage education and community cultural events, including school workshops, oral history sharing sessions with the elderly, community guided tours, film screenings, and exhibitions. These events are expected to benefit no fewer than 2,000 participants, fostering intergenerational exchange and community identity.

Objective

Shau Kei Wan: Traces of the Sea – Memories of the Vanished Shoreline is a cultural heritage-led urban regeneration initiative that reconnects the community with a coastline that has gradually disappeared through land reclamation and urban development. Once a thriving fishing settlement where temples, boats and the sea shaped everyday life, Shau Kei Wan has evolved into a dense urban neighbourhood, leaving many of its maritime stories hidden beneath the modern city. The project uncovers these forgotten relationships through a series of temporary, community-led and low-impact interventions, including public art, participatory workshops, documentary screenings, cultural walks and interactive installations. Rather than reconstructing the past, it invites residents to rediscover how the sea continues to exist through collective memory, intangible cultural heritage and the everyday narratives of local people.

Activities

Memories of the Vanished Shoreline

At its core, the project views heritage as a living process rather than a static monument. By encouraging participation across generations, it transforms public spaces into places for storytelling, making and shared reflection. Through these small yet meaningful interventions, Shau Kei Wan: Traces of the Sea proposes a sustainable and replicable model for cultural heritage-led urban regeneration, demonstrating how cities can recover invisible histories and strengthen local identity without relying on large-scale physical transformation.

Project Information:

Through public art, murals, and signage for the heritage trail, the local cultural context of “temples, fishing, and coastline” in Shau Kei Wan will be re-presented, enabling residents and visitors to appreciate, in their daily street environments, the connections between the historical coastline, fishermen’s livelihoods, and temple worship practices. No fewer than 1,800,000 participants are expected.

Organise 17 intangible cultural heritage education and community cultural events, including school workshops, oral history sharing sessions with the elderly, community guided tours, film screenings, and exhibitions. These events are expected to benefit no fewer than 2,000 participants, fostering intergenerational exchange and community identity.