Hong Kong is a highly developed cosmopolitan city with a high greening rate in its urban areas. There’s always a connection between me and the trees in the community. I was thinking of how tree planting here contributes to the cultural image of this city.

When I was looking into the history of greening policy in Hong Kong, I found that there were no considerations about cultural image building. Ecology and effectiveness are greater concerns in urban planning. But people living in this city were just clever enough to turn plants into cultural symbols. Through literary creations, metaphor making, commemorations, we share a collective memory and build up an imaginary cultural meaning of this place.

The Bauhinia, an original ecological species, was first discovered in the 1890s and moved to the Béthanie sanatorium; it is now our city flower representing Hong Kong. Palm tree planting is a perceived symbol of Orientalism, which reminds us of our colonial history. Bombax ceiba is a plant from south Asia; its colloquial name is Hero Tree, referring to the soldiers of China. Acacia. Is a symbol of nostalgia in the literature of Taiwanese writer Yu Kwang-chung.

These four trees represent the indigenity, colonialism, exile and nostalgia of people in this place. They will witness how the city develops.