Sheren Tang Bemoans The Constant Development of Hongkong’s Beachfronts; Says It’s “Frightening"

Hongkong actress Sheren Tang, 56, who’s been based in China for the past few years, recently returned to Hongkong for a vacation.

On July 25, Sheren shared a picture of a wire fence, with a couple of construction machines in the background. In her caption, the actress shared her thoughts after seeing the changed landscape.

“I recently went for a walk around my neighbourhood. I originally wanted to feel the experience of the beauty of the Sai Kung suburbs, and little did I know… back in 2020, you could still fly kites, go fishing, look for seashells and go for a stroll, but now it’s become a place where buildings are being built, and the beaches have all been given to the property developers. If you don’t buy real estate, you don’t deserve to ‘own’ a beach, you won’t even get to lay your eyes on it,” Sheren wrote.

No more public beaches?

The actress, who seemed to be in the mood for melancholy, added these hashtags: “This beach is so near and yet so far”, “Hongkongers are under great stress, and need the beauty of nature to destress, and for leisure”, as well as “there are so many pile drivers on the beaches of Sai Kung that they scared me".

A number of netizens identified strongly with Sheren’s caption, commenting their experiences.

“When I was younger, there was a big field outside my grandma’s house, it was once a paradise for kids to play during summer vacation, where you could catch loaches, cicadas, pick wild strawberries, and during summer nights you could catch fireflies too. Now, the entire field has become a factory building,” one netizen wrote.

Sheren agreed with the netizen, writing: “That's the price of local development.”

It's not all gone though, Sheren says this is 10 minutes away from her place.

A netizen also brought up Sheren’s role in the 2010 drama No Regrets, where she played Cheng Kau-mui, alongside Wayne Lai, who played 'Waking Brother’.

“One day, ‘Waking Brother’ will marry you with a sea view room [as dowry],” the netizen wrote.

“It turns out that ‘Waking Brother’ has already become a real estate developer. That’s a tyrannical mogul, not a soulmate. What I’m saying is, why is is that the nature that originally belonged to everyone, has all become private property. Do you think I’ll be happy if I had the power to privatise the beachfront. I don’t agree [with the actions] of scalpers, [so] I won’t be happy if someone were to gift me a scalped ticket. As long as I’m able to see [the event], I’m happy,” she wrote in reply.

But don’t worry, she’s not really angry at the netizen. Sheren added another reply after the netizen apologised for their ‘joke’, writing: “I just didn’t want to be misunderstood, I just talk about things as I see them. It’s not whether you’re causing me to be angry or unhappy. I’m not that overly sensitive, you’re overthinking things”.

Photos: Sheren Tang/Instagram