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Meet the diverse group of Hong Kongers who have transformed a COVID-era pastime into one of the most thriving subcultures in the city…
Hong Kong is a city full of contradictions, where towering glass skyscrapers and neon-lit streets meet dense, hiking-ready mountains and sparkling beaches. But it’s not just the landscape that’s paradoxical; us Hong Kongers are equally opposing. Because behind the city’s immediate facade — a mix of corporate grind culture, buttoned-up workdays and tourists queuing up for viral bakeries — hidden pockets of subcultures are not-so-secretly thriving.
To prove that there’s more to Hong Kong than Instagrammable cafes and pineapple buns (not that we don’t love ’em!), we’re on a mission to spotlight the diverse communities that make our city special. To start, we spoke with some very cool four-wheeled friends, who gave us some insight into Hong Kong’s underground roller skating and roller derby scene. Keep reading to discover how these badass Hong Kongers are (literally!) carving up space for themselves in the city — and how that’s paving a way for others to do the same.
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A Community Worth Knowing
For Hana “Ripley”, a 32-year-old teacher and roller derby devotee, it all started back in 2016: “I was first introduced to the skating community when my best friend, and co-founder of Hong Kong Roller Derby (HKRD), Allison ‘Buffy’ King, convinced me to join training one Tuesday night.” Having seen videos of the sport on Instagram, Hana felt “extremely intimidated” at first — that is, until she met the group. They were so welcoming and inclusive, Hana says, that she immediately felt she “had found [her] place in Hong Kong.” By 2017, she started the very first Community In Bowls (CIB) chapter in the city, which encourages roller skaters to conquer skateboarding parks — a typically male-dominated and heteronormative scene.
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Little did Hana know, years later, CIB would become a lifeline for Viva, a 24-year-old event and project manager, during the isolating COVID-19 pandemic. “When I first started roller skating, I thought I was alone,” Viva shares. “But it was like the universe noticed my desire to find other rollers, and my path crossed the CIB crew one day at SuperPark.”
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United By Wheels
What is it about the community that draws Hong Kongers in so quickly, especially for those who feel otherwise isolated? Natasha, a 26-year-old artist who goes by the derby moniker “Tushybushy”, says that, for many of the OGs, it was all about timing: “Because it was illegal to gather in groups during the pandemic, skating was an outdoor activity that allowed you to avoid isolation and meet new people without infringing on lockdown restrictions.”
Coupled with the skating scene’s heterogeneity, Natasha says the group quickly became her primary group of friends: “What I love about our quad community is how diverse our friends are — across language barriers, age groups, interests and identities. There are fathers and mothers and grandparents and university students. There are straight couples and queer couples and straight singles and queer singles. Despite all our differences, we share a love of skate — and at the core of that is our shared experience of feeling free.” Since becoming a part of the scene over 3 years ago, she says, she hasn’t gone a week without skating.
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Jason, a 52-year-old airline staffer and roller derbyist known as “Fake J,” retiterates how easy it is to meet people — from all over the world — through skating. Roller derby is also “a sport that requires grit and strategy, and it’s dominated by women,” he says; in doing so, “they’re showing the world just how strong and smart they are.” Natasha echoes this, saying that the “aggressive, DIY, majority-female team sport” taught her the “raw edge of ‘skating like a girl’.”
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Skating As Self-Expression
Another thing you’ll notice about the skating and derby scene is that artistry informs the sport as much as athleticism. 28-year-old videographer and roller skating instructor Herman, who also became a part of the scene during the pandemic, says that “personal style has always been [his] goal,” because “how you portray tricks and incorporate them into your own moves is its own form of self expression.” Viva agrees: “As a fashionista, I felt an increased ability to express my personality in terms of apparel, but also in my skating style.”
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“Come to any skate rink or skatepark, and you’ll see ten different styles of skating,” Jason explains. “Although we are one, we are different people with different personalities and backgrounds.”
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Taking Up Space In A Metropolis
At first glance, Hong Kong might seem like a challenging place to skate, with its bustling streets and compact urban spaces. Natasha, however, says that this is a common misconception: “Infra-structurally, this is probably the most skate-friendly city in Asia. There are 28 public roller skate-specific rinks across all districts, and most roads are paved and flat concrete. Hong Kong doesn’t seem skate-friendly because the people are not friendly to skating — whether that be the guards at some public skateparks that kick us out or the general self-consciousness that skating and falling is not cool. It’s not about finding spaces to accommodate us, it’s about showing up and taking up space!”
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Nevertheless, the skating community has found creative ways to make it work. “We definitely struggled to get quad skates accepted in gated parks around Hong Kong,” Hana admits. “However, Snooky and Melanie (the founders of former skate emporium Madame Quad), put in a lot of work to get us access and visibility.” Nowadays, the skaters say, there has become a strong community of skaters who are constantly finding unique places to skate — from the Hong Kong waterfront extension, harbourside and the Star Ferry to the Nam Sang Wai “wedding bridge” in the New Territories.
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The Future Of Skating In Hong Kong
So, what’s next for Hong Kong’s roller scene? Hana has her sights set on growth. “I can see skating continue to grow, and I hope to see more people picking up the sport or hobby,” she says. “More access to free indoor skating areas would definitely help, especially during the long rainy seasons.”
Though Viva has since taken up rock climbing, she still feels connected to the skating community. “Whenever I hear mentions of new friends with interests in roller skating, it brings a spark in me, and I do my best to connect them to my CIB family. I also hope that with the opening of Kai Tak, there will be more public spaces for us to expand our skating presence”
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Herman reiterates this with his dream that city fully embraces skating. “I hope people all over the world recognise us,” he says. “I believe the government should embrace the skating community by creating more skateable spaces, such as waterfront parks and promenades. Allowing the community to organise workshops or meet-ups in different locations would also help us promote roller skating to a wider audience.”
Natasha, who’s planning to leave Hong Kong soon, feels differently, and worries about the community shrinking. “It was a huge loss to our English-speaking quad community when Madame Quad, Snooky and Melanie left. Especially in derby (a team sport), every single skater matters.” As for the development of the scene in Hong Kong, Natasha wonders if Hong Kong culture is ultimately antithetical to that of the skate scene: “Culturally and structurally, uniformity and hyper-productivity is encouraged in Hong Kong, whereas skating priorities frivolity and individualism.”
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Nevertheless, the skaters all hope to impart the same message — “life is better on wheels,” which they hope you’ll see for yourself. Curious to learn more about the skate scene? Don’t be shy! They are highly accepting of newcomers, regardless of skill level. Click here to get involved with CIB, or here to check out HKRB!
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Featured image courtesy of Community In Bowls via Instagram, all images courtesy of respective Instagram pages.
