Why the Hungry Ghost Festival celebration at Hong Kong’s Wah Fu Estate is under threat
An extensive estate redevelopment plan could spell doom for one of the city’s more notable Hungry Ghost Festival celebrations
The annual Hungry Ghost Festival celebration held at the Wah Fu Estate in Hong Kong’s Pok Fu Lam neighbourhood is at risk of disappearing.
The celebration, which has been on hold since 2020 due to the pandemic, returned at the end of August, but there is a chance the ceremonial traditions and practices, held in Wah Fu (II) Estate’s higher blocks, will disappear during the redevelopment of the entire estate.
Announced in March 2024, the multiphase project will see tenants of the low-income housing estate relocated to new homes in tranches as new residential blocks are built. The process of moving residents back into the new estate is expected to last until 2040-41.
The annual resident-initiated celebration at Wah Fu Estate is an important part of the estate’s history that unites the community, says Gary Wong Pui-fung, the academic in charge of a project called Preserving the Ghost Festival at Wah Fu Estate and Collaboratively Envisioning Its Future.