Shop Cats of Hong Kong & Shop Cats of China, Marcel Heijnen
(Thames & Hudson, April & September 2021)
Dutch photographer Marcel Heijnen lived in Hong Kong in the 1990s and left for Singapore around the Handover. When he returned in 2015, he was happy to see that some parts of the territory hadn’t changed much. Sai Ying Pun (“Western”), the area where he moved, still enjoyed small mom and pop shops, many of which housed a resident cat or two. Heijnen captured dozens of cats in the vibrant photos that make up Shop Cats of Hong Kong. A second book, Shop Cats of China, is the result of travels to ten cities in the Mainland.
In both books, many photos are accompanied by haiku by Ian Row, while Catharine Nicol provides historical background, which include such details as the different myths behind the absence of a cat in the Chinese zodiac and that cats were revered in Egypt and domesticated there around 940 BC.
The photos in both books feature crowded shops, many selling dry goods, including rice, noodles, and apothecary items. In an early photo in the Hong Kong book, an older man is sprawled over a folding chair, his arms and legs stretched out as he sleeps. He’s wearing a plain white t-shirt and dark work pants. On the floor next to him is a matching cat—white with black ears—resting with his head on the floor, peeking behind wrapped parcels of what seems to be dried pig bladder or fish maw. The accommodating haiku appropriately reads:
Too hot, too humid
Too hard to do anything
Too lazy to lunch
Also interspersed throughout the books are several profiles of shop cats. One in the Hong Kong book is Ah Dai, or Number One, a hefty white cat with spots of brown stripes splashed across his back and head. He works at a rice shop, sometimes guarding the front door, other times resting on top of more than a dozen large white rice bags piled up almost to the ceiling. In another photo, Ah Dai stretches as if just waking up while the human owner reclines in another folding chair, feet propped up on a little stool.
Dutch photographer Marcel Heijnen lived in Hong Kong in the 1990s and left for Singapore around the Handover. When he returned in 2015, he was happy to see that some parts of the territory hadn’t changed much. Sai Ying Pun (“Western”), the area where he moved, still enjoyed small mom and pop shops, many of which housed a resident cat or two. Heijnen captured dozens of cats in the vibrant photos that make up Shop Cats of Hong Kong. A second book, Shop Cats of China, is the result of travels to ten cities in the Mainland.
In both books, many photos are accompanied by haiku by Ian Row, while Catharine Nicol provides historical background, which include such details as the different myths behind the absence of a cat in the Chinese zodiac and that cats were revered in Egypt and domesticated there around 940 BC.
The photos in both books feature crowded shops, many selling dry goods, including rice, noodles, and apothecary items. In an early photo in the Hong Kong book, an older man is sprawled over a folding chair, his arms and legs stretched out as he sleeps. He’s wearing a plain white t-shirt and dark work pants. On the floor next to him is a matching cat—white with black ears—resting with his head on the floor, peeking behind wrapped parcels of what seems to be dried pig bladder or fish maw. The accommodating haiku appropriately reads:
Too hot, too humid
Too hard to do anything
Too lazy to lunch
Also interspersed throughout the books are several profiles of shop cats. One in the Hong Kong book is Ah Dai, or Number One, a hefty white cat with spots of brown stripes splashed across his back and head. He works at a rice shop, sometimes guarding the front door, other times resting on top of more than a dozen large white rice bags piled up almost to the ceiling. In another photo, Ah Dai stretches as if just waking up while the human owner reclines in another folding chair, feet propped up on a little stool.
But not every human is sleeping in the Hong Kong book. In one, a man stands on his toes atop a wooden stool while his wife stands by. The cat in this dry goods shop is difficult to spot as it blends in with the items in the store. Other photos present similar issues: the cats are often difficult to spot as they camouflage into their surroundings.
As Catharine Nicol writes in the introduction of the Hong Kong book, shop owners like cats on their premises because they keep mice (and rats) away. Some owners have adopted cats, while some cats just showed up and stayed. The cats all seem to be well fed; some are even a little overweight. For one cat perched just in front of a shop’s entrance, Row writes:
Where did my youth go?
I once had style, grace and form
Now I’ve just got form
Heijnen explains in the introduction of the China book that he wondered if cities on the mainland also enjoyed the same shop cat phenomenon as in Hong Kong. He traveled first to Guangzhou and was pleased to see shop cats there. Over four years he went on to travel to nine more cities in China, “some with more shop cats than others”, although the photos don’t indicate which city is which. But the Hong Kong book also doesn’t show which shop is in Sai Ying Pun and which is in Sheung Wan or other districts; Heijnen evidently prefers to focus on the cats and the aura of the shops, rather than their physical locations.
Both books show shops that have yet to be destroyed by mass development and gentrification. Through his carefully curated photos, Heijnen records these traditional ways of life that have remained constant over the years. Should these cities be bulldozed in the name of progress, the shops will be gone and the owners and employees may need to seek other forms of employment. The cats will move on, but to where?
As Catharine Nicol writes in the introduction of the Hong Kong book, shop owners like cats on their premises because they keep mice (and rats) away. Some owners have adopted cats, while some cats just showed up and stayed. The cats all seem to be well fed; some are even a little overweight. For one cat perched just in front of a shop’s entrance, Row writes:
Where did my youth go?
I once had style, grace and form
Now I’ve just got form
Heijnen explains in the introduction of the China book that he wondered if cities on the mainland also enjoyed the same shop cat phenomenon as in Hong Kong. He traveled first to Guangzhou and was pleased to see shop cats there. Over four years he went on to travel to nine more cities in China, “some with more shop cats than others”, although the photos don’t indicate which city is which. But the Hong Kong book also doesn’t show which shop is in Sai Ying Pun and which is in Sheung Wan or other districts; Heijnen evidently prefers to focus on the cats and the aura of the shops, rather than their physical locations.
Both books show shops that have yet to be destroyed by mass development and gentrification. Through his carefully curated photos, Heijnen records these traditional ways of life that have remained constant over the years. Should these cities be bulldozed in the name of progress, the shops will be gone and the owners and employees may need to seek other forms of employment. The cats will move on, but to where?
Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong.
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