Parker Zheng freezes moments from the impromptu carnival that is Sai Yeung Choi Street on weekends.

Here's where street theater groups learn to get their act together. Musicians cut their teeth on the ever-green Canto pop numbers made famous by movie stars who faded away too soon. Backpackers camping in budget hotels somewhere down the alley collect just about enough to cover the costs of lodging and beer for the night by throwing giant bubbles in the air.

This used to be a meadow, growing watercress. That's how Sai Yeung Choi Street got its name. It's difficult to tell, looking at the close-knit rows of electronic goods stores with illuminated signboards on either side. And then, in 2000, the space became, quite literally, a free-for-all, playing field for street performers, closed to vehicular traffic. In no time it had turned into a haven for the city's buskers. From being just a lane in the city's most congested shopping district, it had turned into a living, pulsating embodiment of a cheerful, boho chic lifestyle, full of fun and music - quite the antithesis of the pin-stripe suit-wearing executives in downtown Hong Kong speaking into their phones even as they seem to be perpetually on the run.

On the flip side, the crowds were too humongous to navigate, making it especially inconvenient for the people living in the hood. Imagine having to make your way home through a scaled-down version of Mardi Gras every single day after work! Since 2014 the street has gone back to being a normal traffic-plying one on weekdays. But come weekend, Sai Yeung Choi Street swings back into carnival mode. Backlit by rows and rows of neon signs, here's where performers of all hues - jugglers, sculptors, impersonators trying to pass themselves off as spirits wrapped in white sheets - have a space to be what they want to be.

basu@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 12/07/2016 page7)