Photos by Ryan Lai
The jackfruit festival – an event in Wang Chau to celebrate the “king of the fruits” harvest – was held for the last time on Saturday. The fourth annual festival took place in an area of Yuen Long where residents of three villages face eviction this week to make way for a planned public housing estate.
As well as celebrating the less-controversial cousin of the durian, the festival also sought to draw attention to the plight of villagers trying to defend themselves against forced demolition.
The event included stores peddling locally-made products such as jackfruit jams and mead, and saw a lineup of local music groups and performance art. Some stores also presented second-hand personal goods sold by the local villagers in anticipation of their eviction.
Despite the villagers’ attempts to defend their homes since 2017, the eviction date for the roughly 400 villagers has been set for this Wednesday.
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