My father walked past the walled city every day, but he was too scared to enter for fear of being robbed. Was the Kowloon Walled City as dangerous as people thought it was? Also, what are some misconceptions people have about the walled city that should be cleared up?
Oh, hey. I never thought I'd see a question on this sub I'm semi-qualified to answer. That being said, it's been a little too long since I've done much reading on Kowloon to feel confident giving any kind of specific or full answer here.
Instead, I'll point you to Greg Girard and Ian Lambot's City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City, which is likely going to be the primary English source. It's most commonly known as a photo book, but includes copious amounts of text compiling interviews with the city's residents, along with substantial historical information. It's more thorough than one would expect, and covers education, employment, infrastructure, class, culture and the histories of particular buildings such as the central yamen/administrative office (which still stands), which had multiple lives as it was repurposed into different things, i.e. a retirement home run by the Protestant church. The book can be very expensive now, but luckily there was an updated edition in 2014 with apparently (I haven't read it) more information than the original, which can be found for reasonable prices (it's still a very photo-heavy book, so it will still be a bit costly).
As for misconceptions, the popular idea of Kowloon Walled City was as a lawless, dirty, crime-ridden epitome of chaotic urban density and anomie, when in fact many former residents have described a strong sense of community in response to the poverty, density and poor infrastructure. Shared social spaces such as the former yamen seemed to be important, and there were several areas of charity/social work such as the school, almshouse and retirement/community center (most of which I believe were run by the Protestant church? though there were also Hung Shin, Fuk Tak and Tin Hau temples, the latter of which is one of Girard's more iconic images). Although the city's reputation is one of high crime, most residents were ordinary working class Hong Kongers, and several expressed concerns over finding adequate/affordable housing in the wake of the Walled City's inevitable demolition.
Really, I'm a little rusty, but the Girard/Lambot book is a wonderful resource for anyone curious about daily life in Kowloon at the height of the Walled City's population in the late 80s.
Related question: Who built the Kowloon Walled City? Was it just local residents? Shady Chinese construction companies? How structurally stable were the buildings?
