Hawkers in Hong Kong

For many decades, hawking has served as a means for the lower class to make a living in Hong Kong, and allowed patrons to benefit from the convenience and low cost of hawker goods.

running [away from] ghosts) refers to the sudden abandonment of these stalls when Hawker Control Teams (Chinese: 小販管理隊, or 販管隊 in short) are imminent and the vendors are operating illegally or selling prohibited items, such as counterfeit branded goods.

Many of these migrants were unskilled and uneducated, and became itinerant hawkers to earn a living with low operating costs, selling daily necessities such as food and clothing to those of the working classes.

that street hawking discouraged market development, since hawkers paid lower licence fees (HK$1,000-HK$3,000) than shop and stall tenants who also had to pay rents.

[5] Hawker numbers rose with the unemployment caused by the 1973-74 stock market crash and 1970s energy crisis, which led to factory closures and the decline of the manufacturing sector in Hong Kong.

[8] At the same time, members of the community have increasingly valued hawking as an element of Hong Kong's cultural heritage and collective memory, and as a valuable means of support for grassroots people.

[14] On 2 February 2016, in the approach to the Lunar New Year, a conflict occurred when hawkers were prevented from setting up stall at Leung King Estate, so as not to disrupt activity at the nearby shopping mall operated by Link REIT.

[15] On 7 February, Lunar New Year's Eve, multiple hawkers set up stall in Kweilin Street Night Market and were chased away or arrested, as was teacher and activist Siu Lai, who acted in defiance of the policy.

[16][17][18] During the 2016 Lunar New Year, a violent bout of civil unrest dubbed the 'fishball revolution' (魚蛋革命) broke out in Mong Kok in response to the hardline approach taken by the FEHD to crack down on hawking in Hong Kong.