This is one of the “Salute to Hong Kong Old Shops/Stalls” series painted by the artist – According to government figures, of the thousands of newspaper stalls that existed in the 1990s in Hong Kong, only 420 were left in 2017. The practice of newspaper hawking, once a thriving industry familiar to our city’s street, is struggling to survive nowadays. But many who depend on them for their livelihood and many others who see the stands as an important cultural tradition are fighting to keep them going. As suggested by Chong Yuk-sik, who has a doctorate degree in sociology from the University of Hong Kong, “The newspaper stalls present the history of the development of Hong Kong, which is an indispensable street-cultural relic that has to be protected”