Towers of glass and steel project the futuristic image of a Hong Kong that has traditionally discarded its own past on a path to establishing its place in the world as a major global entrepot. Physical remnants of yesterday have often been obliterated in collision with a society whose eyes were firmly fixed on visions of tomorrow and the hope it held.

Yet while the all-consuming modernity of Hong Kong’s 21st century urban milieu has erased much tangible evidence of old Hong Kong, even now potent reminders of days gone by often remain hidden in plain view, where they speak of a less frenzied way of life that resonates in times of pandemic and strife.

Shot circa the 1970s and collected in a new book, Hong Kong: Back in Time (2021, FormAsia), photographer Frank Fischbeck’s evocative imagery returns us to a place that is both instantly familiar and strangely foreign, a city so far removed from and yet so similar to the one in which we live today.