The Chinese Association is celebrating the Hong family, and all they have contributed to the Brixton community in the last 56 years by converting their family store into a museum of memories.
Brixton, South Africa (23 November 2020) – As South Africans, we are very community orientated, we learn a lot from the things we see on a daily, the people we encounter as we grow and the lessons we learn from our elders. The South African Chinese community is a close-knit community that celebrates each other and supports each other. The Chinese community is proof that coming together is the biggest statement any community can ever make.
The Chinese Association recently opened the Behind The Window Exhibition, an exhibition that’s aimed at celebrating a Chinese family that came to South Africa to seek greener pastures, during times of war in China. The Hong family came to South Africa, and they took over and ran a small corner shop in Brixton for 56 years, the shop was originally owned by the Greek man by the name Mr Resow. Getting ownership of the shop proved to be a difficult task during the apartheid era.
The apartheid laws made it difficult the Hong family to run their business as they were constantly harassed by the police, they had to register the shop under Mr Resow’s name just to ensure that the shop kept running and that they got all the required legal documents. The transition from China to Johannesburg was not easy for the Hong family, and yet they managed to stick it all out and successfully continued to run the Corner shop.
The Hong family really became a very important part of the Brixton community, with the uncle running another shop a few blocks up the road, the Caroline Supply Store became a pillar within the Brixton community.
The Hong family is grateful for the warm welcome and loyalty they received from the Brixton community in the years they were there, Vernon Hong is particularly grateful for the guidance and helpful nature of the Brixton community. The Chinese Association (TCA) was created to protect the interests of the Chinese people in South Africa, but TCA also believes in keeping together, supporting each other, and celebrating each other as often as possible. This is the best way for TCA to cement its values in its people and celebrating the Hong family and the corner shop is just another way to show unity and appreciation.
You can visit the exhibition and see all the memories until the 29th of November 2020 between 11 am and 4 pm. The exhibit is at 166 Caroline Street, Brixton, Johannesburg.
Sources: TCA
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Memories, Memories, Memories.
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