Introduction
During the second half of the twentieth century, Hong Kong’s neon signs held significant meaning, representing the city’s rich history and encounters with different languages and cultures (Kwok 2018a). The streets were filled with thousands of glowing signs for restaurants, nightclubs, pharmacies, and pawn shops. These signs extended horizontally into the streets, competing for space and creating a soft, luminous atmosphere at night. For decades, the appearance of Hong Kong was shaped by these handmade signs, which, to a large extent, signified the progress and energy of the city (Ribbat and Anthony 2013), leading to Hong Kong’s reputation as a “neon city” (Macgregor and Price 2002) and “the Pearl of the Orient” (Kwok 2018b: 73). Once unimaginable, the absence of neon signs in Hong Kong has become a stark reality today. Since the 2000s, the relentless redevelopment of old neighbourhoods, stricter government regulations, and the widespread adoption of LED advertisements ...