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Shopping is a national sport in Hong Kong. Gleaming shopping malls mark the city’s skyline and elegant boutiques line its narrow streets; Virtually every prominent design label lists an iconic outpost in the city.
But some traders still prefer the classic rather than the next big thing. “I love the timelessness of vintage designs,” says Chau Chi Pang, owner of homewares concept store Hak Dei, which sells everything from traditional bamboo steamer baskets (from HK$50, about £5 ) to ceramic chopsticks (around £1.80). “The items I sell have been used for generations, but today people don’t always appreciate this kind of quality anymore.”
Chau opened Hak Dei near his home on Wai Chi Street in northeast Kowloon in 2016 after hitting a wall in his career as a magazine designer. “I wanted to open a store that sold practical, everyday objects,” says Chau. “Durable and simple, without extra frills. Many of them are still in production, but they have been largely forgotten.” For the concept, he decided to play with the aesthetics of old Hong Kong grocery stores that sold sundries and kitchen utensils. The name “Hak Dei”, which in Cantonese means “black land”, refers to the rubber-tiled playground that it overlooked from its original store.
In 2019, Chau moved into a converted 1960s residential building on Kowloon’s Shanghai Street, and now neighbors the same grocery stores he was first inspired by. He kept the shelves of his shop intentionally busy to mimic its appearance: almost every square inch of the space is filled with copper teapots (around £135), bamboo-handled ladles (around £8) and enameled plates with floral motifs ( around £22). .
Chau sources most of its products from across Asia. There’s glassware, both new and vintage, from Japan, including borosilicate milk cups and bowls from Fire-King Japan (from around £40). The sturdy metal tool boxes (from around £13) come from Osaka-based TOYO Steel, which has been around since the 1960s. Among their best-sellers are the Chinese glass soup spoons (from about £1 .40) and ceramic bowls with hand-painted rooster motifs (from about £4.50) of the type found in almost every Cantonese home. There are classic matchbooks from Thailand adorned with prints of popular naga creatures (around £1), colorful plastic bags from Taiwan (around £5.50) and the same white cotton tea towels with red lettering (around £5.50). £1.20) which you will find in Old School Restaurants in the city. Only a handful of local makers have stood the test of time: colorful jelly cups from veteran Kowloon plastic goods producer Star Industrial and thermoses from 1940-founded brand Camel (from around £28) are a few. of the few products that still sport the Made in Hong Kong label.
Chau’s passion for specialty coffee and outdoor adventures has also inspired a small nook of high-quality camping gear and coffee utensils, including yolk-yellow plastic boxes designed to carry eggs (around £4, 60), leather water pouches, portable pour kits, and LED flashlights from established brands like Coleman, Stanley, and Coghlan’s. It’s all part of Chau’s effort to keep alive the nostalgia associated with Hong Kong grocery stores. “Young people who come to buy coffee or outdoor gear discover classic kitchen utensils,” Chau says. “And many customers from the older generation end up taking home a modern coffee kit.”
An elderly customer who has been a regular customer since the store’s relocation visits us like clockwork every Sunday to pick up new arrivals, whether it’s a brass sake cup or a lantern. “We call it ‘Sunday old man,’” Chau says. “I feel like he is my future self, which pushes me to keep searching for new items so I don’t disappoint him.”
Hak Dei, 618 Shanghai Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong; hakdei.com