37-760: Times Square ( Chinese : 時代廣場 ) is a luxury shopping centre and office tower complex in Causeway Bay , Hong Kong . The complex, owned by Wharf Properties, part of The Wharf (Holdings) Limited group, opened on 13 April 1994. The site was previously occupied by the original Sharp Street tram depot of the Hong Kong Tramways , another of the Wharf's subsidiary operations acquired in 1974. The Executive Council approved Tramways' plan to relocate its depots to Sai Wan Ho and Sai Ying Pun in July 1986, on
74-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
111-468: A day for use of the Causeway Bay piazza dating back to 1993. Commentators describe it as a landmark lawsuit which may have significant implications for other property owners if it is successful. The company believes that it has not charged more than what is allowed in the deed, but welcomed the case saying it would ultimately provide for guidance on the proper interpretation of the relevant clauses in
148-736: A lawmaker in the by-election . In a public forum held between the HKU president and college faculties and students dated July 18, 2019 during 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests , Leong claimed that "Violence may sometime be THE solution to a problem", which was refuted by the President Xiang Zhang . After the Civic Party failed to form a new executive committee in December 2022, Leong stated the party would be dissolved in 2023. He also announced his intention to retire from politics after
185-613: A standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
222-476: A very attractive part of town". The developer's debt levels and the uncertainty over sovereignty also rendered project financing more problematic. Now it is considered prime property in the heart of Causeway Bay. The project consists of 83,700 m of retail space, and two office towers with 102,300 m of accommodation. Times Square is considered the first of its kind, the first "vertical mall" in Hong Kong. Due to
259-812: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
296-505: Is common practice for owners to allow naming buildings after its important tenants and giving illusion of ownership. The entire complex remains owned by Wharf, but western and eastern office towers of the complex have been named "Shell Tower" and "Tower One" respectively. Both towers were designed by the architect firm Wong & Ouyang. Tenants of Tower Two: Mirroring the ball drop event hosted by its namesake in New York City ,
333-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
370-703: The Kensiu language . Alan Leong Alan Leong Kah-kit ( Chinese : 梁家傑 ; born 22 February 1958), SC is a former member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council , representing the Kowloon East geographical constituency and former chairman of the now-disbanded Civic Party . He was also vice-chairperson of the Independent Police Complaints Council . Leong graduated with an LLB from
407-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
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#1732790371944444-623: The University of Hong Kong and an LLM from Hughes Hall , University of Cambridge . He was chairman of Hong Kong Bar Association from 2001 to 2003. As chairperson of Hong Kong Bar Association, he mobilised many barristers to participate in the July 1 protests . He won a seat in the Legislative Council in the 2004 election . In January 2011, Leong was elected the second leader of the Civic Party, replacing Audrey Eu . Leong
481-481: The 800-member Election Committee. In January 2010, Leong and other four lawmakers, Albert Chan , Tanya Chan , Leung Kwok-hung and Wong Yuk-man resigned their seats to force by-elections, in which they all stood, which they called on to be treated as a referendum to press the Chinese Central Government into allowing universal suffrage in Hong Kong. On 16 May 2010, he was re-elected as
518-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
555-587: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
592-566: The argument that the HK$ 3.5 million in operating costs savings would allow for tram fares to be held down. Additionally the noise of maintenance and tram movements at night was said to have long been a nuisance to surrounding residential buildings. The area was predominantly residential, and the Town Planning Board insisted that the project did not include any more residential space. In July 1987, Wharf unveiled draft plans to redevelop
629-499: The deed of dedication concerned. Times Square is served by Causeway Bay station of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system. There is an underground passage which directly links the building, and exit A1 opens into the ground floor podium level. It is also accessible by tram in the direction to Happy Valley or Shau Kei Wan . Lastly it is served by various bus and minibus routes. The Times Square Marketplace Mall
666-559: The government quid pro quo with property developers. Alan Leong lamented the poor quality of some of Hong Kong's public open spaces, and said he hoped that a Legco review would result in a "more transparent and predictable system". The Secretary for Justice, filed a writ in the High Court on behalf of the Government against Times Square Ltd and its parent company Wharf Group, seeking to recover rental fees of as much as HK$ 124,000
703-406: The ground floor was set aside for public access, pedestrian passage and passive recreation. However, the company has the right to organise exhibitions there, and charge fees. The exact details of the concessions to the developers were not made public. Between July 2003 and March 2005, a corner of the piazza was leased to Starbucks Coffee . The company claimed it was an "unintentional oversight" that
740-422: The high land price in Hong Kong, and the higher yield on retail property, Times Square departs from the common western model of the flat shopping mall. The space allocated to retail is configured over 9 storeys. The mall and lifts to the office tower are accessible by long escalators linking the ground floor podium and the first level of the mall. The ground floor features Hong Kong's only spiral escalator. In 2015,
777-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
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#1732790371944814-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
851-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
888-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
925-475: The newly refurbished shopping centre was completed, with new express escalators inserted into the tall atrium and reconfiguration of service and car park access to facilitate a new anchor store. The anchors of the shopping centre are Lane Crawford and city'super . Emperor Cinemas renovated the UA Cine Times Cinema at Times Square in Causeway Bay and opened for business at end of 2021. It
962-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
999-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
1036-444: The plaza in front of the building formerly hosted New Year's Eve festivities, in which an apple was " dropped " approaching midnight via 22 m (72 ft) of signage . The event was held from 1993 to 2014; in 2015, Times Square discontinued the event in favour of an afternoon concert series over the holiday season. Under the terms of a Deeds of Dedication signed with the Government, 3,010 square metres (32,400 sq ft) of
1073-833: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
1110-401: The site into 1,600,000-square-foot (148,600 m) of office and retail space. Following the relocation of Wanchai depot, the site was surrendered to its associate in 1988. In 1991, the concrete plans were announced: the project would create 186,000 m of retail and office complex, an estimated construction cost of HK$ 2 billion. At the time, this part of Wanchai/Causeway Bay was deemed "not
1147-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
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1184-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
1221-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
1258-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
1295-401: Was featured in the 2003 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life where a department store that is marked as 'closed for renovation' is secretly hiding a biological weapons production plant. 22°16′42″N 114°10′56″E / 22.27833°N 114.18222°E / 22.27833; 114.18222 Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are
1332-723: Was nominated by the Civic Party as its party candidate for the Chief Executive election in 2007. He was also supported by the pan-democrats , including the Democratic Party . Leong later secured 132 nominations and became the first Pan-democracy camp candidate to succeed in joining the Chief Executive election. In the end Leong lost to Donald Tsang in the CE election on 25 March 2007, gaining 123 votes from
1369-479: Was quickly corrected after notification was received from the Buildings Department. In 2008, controversy was again sparked following complaints that private security guards attempted to stop people lingering in the public area, and building management apologised for their "over-zealous" guards. Since then, there has been a wider campaign in Hong Kong to re-examine provisions for public open space, and
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