38-576: Portland Street ( Chinese : 砵蘭街 ) is a popular street in Kowloon , Hong Kong . The street is the location of the business and retailing skyscraper complex, Langham Place , numerous restaurants and its red-light district . Running north–south and parallel to (and west of) Nathan Road , a main thoroughfare up the Kowloon peninsula, Portland Street extends through the districts of Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok in Kowloon . Approximately three-quarters of
76-564: A 167,000-square metre (1.8 million-square foot) shopping centre, theatre, hotel and office tower complex opened on Portland Street near the Nelson Street intersection in July 2004. The complex has its own MTR station access (Mong Kok station exit C3). Outside one of the complex's east entrances is a large 'jumbotron' broadcasting news and entertainment shows for pedestrians below. Since its opening, Langham Place and surrounding areas has become
114-509: 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
152-466: A lot of negative media attention for many acid attacks on Sai Yeung Choi Street from December 2008 through January 2010. The area was the site of protracted demonstrations during the 2014 Hong Kong protests , including the gau wu campaign, and was also the site of the 2016 Mong Kok civil unrest . Mong Kok preserves its traditional characteristics with an array of markets , small shops, and food stalls that have disappeared from other areas during
190-545: A mile (one and a fifth kilometres) in length, it spans between Boundary Street in the north and Man Ming Lane, at one block past Waterloo Road in the south. The street is directly accessible by the Prince Edward , Mong Kok and Yau Ma Tei stations of the MTR , Hong Kong's subway system. Except for a few small parks, the entire two-lane street is highly urbanised with dense pedestrian and motor traffic throughout most of
228-721: A popular night-time destination for both locals and tourists. Some had predicted the massive upscale development would gentrify the area and drive away the Portland Street sex trade. However, after several years of operation, Langham Place's impact on the nearby sex industry remains minimal. The Portland Street segment between Argyle Street and Bute Street is home to over 50 retailers selling home renovation materials and supplies such as toilet utensils, tiles, and wallpapers. Other establishments along Portland Street includes fast-food restaurants, congee /noodle shops, convenience stores and working class residential highrises. Near
266-613: 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
304-869: 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;
342-670: Is also a street in Edinburgh named Portland Street which is not far from Pitt Street and Dundas Street (as mentioned above, Hong Kong's Portland Street is also nearby Pitt Street and Dundas Street). In both cases it is not clear if there is any relation or relevance to the Hong Kong Portland Street. Mong Kok station Exit C2, C4, E1 22°19′05″N 114°10′08″E / 22.31815°N 114.16898°E / 22.31815; 114.16898 Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are
380-490: Is unclear why the street was bestowed in his honour although, as a former British colony , many of Hong Kong's streets and institutions were named in memory of prominent English historic and political figures. Surrounding streets with similarly naming scheme include Pitt Street , Bute Street , Arran Street , Hamilton Street , Dundas Street and Waterloo Road . There is a street in London named Great Portland Street . There
418-493: 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
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#1732772907095456-865: The Kensiu language . Dundas Street, Hong Kong Mong Kok (also spelled Mongkok , often abbreviated as MK ) is an area in Kowloon , Hong Kong . The Prince Edward subarea occupies the northern part of Mong Kok. Mong Kok is one of the major shopping areas in Hong Kong. The area is characterised by a mixture of old and new multi-story buildings, with shops and restaurants at street level, and commercial or residential units above. Major industries in Mong Kok are retail, restaurants (including fast food) and entertainment. It has been described and portrayed in films as an area in which triads run bars, nightclubs, and massage parlours . With its extremely high population density of 130,000/km (340,000/sq mi), Mong Kok
494-640: 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
532-588: The Soy Street intersection during the evenings, there are often unlicensed food stands and professional Chinese Chess players plying their trades. Further south, there is a small public playground at the Changsha Street intersection. Portland Street was named after William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1783 and between 1807 and 1809. It
570-519: The 2013 film Young and Dangerous: Reloaded are also set in Mong Kok. The literal Chinese title of the 1988 film As Tears Go By by Wong Kar-wai is "Mong Kok Carmen". Part of Robert Ludlum 's 1986 novel The Bourne Supremacy was set in Mong Kok. The area is known locally for a youth subculture, the Mong Kok culture . Mong Kok was one of the main sites of the 2014 Hong Kong protests . Banks, jewellery stores and clothing stores were closed as
608-555: 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
646-587: 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,
684-457: The area as early as the western Han dynasty (206 BC to AD 8 ) to Jin Dynasty (266–420) . The area used to be a Hakka settlement, with about 200 villagers according to Bao'an records in 1819. The heart of the present-day Mong Kok is along Argyle Street near Sai Yeung Choi Street whilst the proper Mong Kok used to be to the north, near the present-day Mong Kok East station . Mong Kok
722-506: The area: Mong Kok was the setting for the 2004 hit film One Night in Mongkok directed by Derek Yee . The movie portrays Mong Kok, one of the most densely populated places on Earth, as a hotbed of illicit activity. Similarly, the district was also the setting of the 1996 film Mongkok Story (旺角風雲) directed by Wilson Yip , which depicts a young man who becomes involved in a triad gang. The 2009 film To Live and Die in Mongkok and
760-474: The day. Like most north–south streets on the peninsula it is numbered south to north. A section of Portland Street, particularly between Argyle Street and Dundas Street , hosts arguably Hong Kong's most famous red light district (serving mostly local Chinese clientele) and a popular scene in Hong Kong films . There, underneath a dizzying and chaotic array of neon signs , one can find prostitutes from around
798-493: 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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#1732772907095836-725: 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
874-682: 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
912-983: 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
950-677: 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
988-700: 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
1026-525: The past several decades of economic developments and urban transformation. As such, a few of these streets in Mong Kok have acquired nicknames reflecting their own characteristics. Some interesting sites are: Some popular shopping plazas located in this dense area include: Other streets in the area include: The Mong Kok area has many food-booths selling traditional snacks such as fish balls , fried beancurd (tofu) and various dim sum . These fingerfoods are very popular in Hong Kong, especially for folks on
1064-520: The past when it was a coastal region. Its present Chinese name, " 旺角 " ( Jyutping : wong gok ; IPA: [wɔːŋ˨ kɔːk˧] ), means "prosperous corner" or "crowded corner"; however, the English name did not change. For a period, the area was also called Argyle, and this name was used for the MTR station when it opened in 1979. The office building Mong Kok Centre [ zh ] , which
1102-833: 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
1140-569: The run. In addition, there are restaurants serving different kinds of cuisine, ranging from Japanese to Thai and Italian . Built heritage in Mong Kok includes: Educational institutions in Mong Kok include: Mong Kok is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 32. Within the school net are multiple aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money) and Tong Mei Road Government Primary School ( 塘尾道官立小學 ). The main thoroughfares are: Three rail lines serve
1178-636: 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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1216-985: 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
1254-518: 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
1292-587: 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
1330-441: The world (although mostly from mainland China ) serving in hundreds of massage parlours, night clubs, karaoke /hostess bars and brothels . Although prostitution is legal in Hong Kong , law enforcement is often active in this area conducting raids for prostitutes who entered Hong Kong illegally or have overstayed their visas or to search for under-aged prostitutes, pimps, human traffickers and triad activities. Langham Place ,
1368-501: Was an area of cultivated lands, bounded to the south by Argyle Street, to the west by Coronation Road (a section of present-day Nathan Road ), and to the east by hills. To the southeast of Mong Kok is Ho Man Tin and to the west Tai Kok Tsui . On 10 August 2008, the Cornwall Court fire broke out. More than 200 firefighters were involved in the rescue operation. Four people died, including two firefighters. Mong Kok received
1406-503: Was described as the busiest district in the world by the Guinness World Records . Until 1930, the area was called Mong Kok Tsui ( 芒角嘴 ). The current English name is a transliteration of its older Chinese name 望角 ( Jyutping : mong gok ; IPA: [mɔːŋ˨ kɔːk˧] ), or 芒角 ( Jyutping : mong gok ; IPA: [mɔːŋ˨˩ kɔːk˧] ), which is named for its plentiful supply of ferns in
1444-696: Was named after the area, is known in English as Argyle Centre. Mong Kok is part of Yau Tsim Mong District . It was part of the Mong Kok District before the district was merged in 1994. The area belongs to the Kowloon West geographical constituency of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong . Displays at the Chinese University of Hong Kong include antique potteries indicating that there might have been settlements in
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