Neon lighting on the heritage list?
China Daily: Bid to keep neon lighting glowing
For my last blog of the year, I thought it would be fitting to look back, as you do at the end of a year, but in this case look back in time. On my recent trip back from China, while waiting in the lounge for my connecting flight from Hong Kong to Perth, I read the local paper and found this interesting article, called “ Bid to keep Neon glowing in Hong Kong”.
While reading the article, it struck me how much LED technology has taken over our lives! I remember Honk Kong from my early travels in the eighties and how impressive and overwhelming the neon signs were. You were literally walking the streets under a canopy of flashing neon signs, whilst taking in the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong street life with vendors approaching you every step of the way. That typical street life was very much dominated and driven by the neon signs…
Some people capitalised early on the new LED technology. One of the early LED lighting vendors in Singapore called himself the Neon King as he reasoned that people would still be looking for neon signs as LED was still in the early adoption stage. In this way he could capture the potential neon lighting clients and offer them the LED equivalent instead. We eventually worked together on outlining the Suntec Towers with “neon” lighting, as one of the early LED applications.
To read that that a group of enthusiasts is making waves to keep neon lighting part of our heritage was unexpected but heartwarming, it made total sense. So much of our (architectural) heritage has made way for modern buildings and technology that actioning on conserving the old neon lighting technology and in this case the famous Hong Kong street signs is a laudable effort that deserves attention and support. The skills of making neon lights and signs in particular is a dying art!
In the same spirit we can probably list the incandescent light bulb as a candidate for heritage protection as well and perhaps there are many more old lighting technologies we could propose for heritage conservation? I would love to hear any suggestions!
Wishing all my readers a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!
