Franz Amann - Happy Valley

This work is about the essence of traveling: Finding yourself in another place and getting along with your new surrounding. Apart from the difficulties one might have with traveling, as Robert Walser describes in his book “the Tanners”, there the main character prefers not to travel at all. Because he finds more enjoyment in “seeing the new in the old”. This work also refers to the story of the “Happy Valley” on Hong Kong Island, and its radical change since the British Army established a military Camp in this rural area in early 1840. Until the British settled, this area was barely inhabited, because of its marshy environment. This was the reason, why malaria spread there, and many soldiers got infected by this disease. Because the death rates got high in early colonial days, the valley became a burial ground for the dead. That’s where the area also got its name from: “Happy Valley”, a common euphemism in the english language for “Cemetery”. Today you’ll still find clusters of cemeteries of many different religions, just next to the racecourse, belted by enormous highway traffic and expensive Skyscraper apartment blocks.
This work is about the essence of traveling: Finding yourself in another place and getting along with your new surrounding. Apart from the difficulties one might have with traveling, as Robert Walser describes in his book “the Tanners”, there the main character prefers not to travel at all. Because he finds more enjoyment in “seeing the new in the old”. This work also refers to the story of the “Happy Valley” on Hong Kong Island, and its radical change since the British Army established a military Camp in this rural area in early 1840. Until the British settled, this area was barely inhabited, because of its marshy environment. This was the reason, why malaria spread there, and many soldiers got infected by this disease. Because the death rates got high in early colonial days, the valley became a burial ground for the dead. That’s where the area also got its name from: “Happy Valley”, a common euphemism in the english language for “Cemetery”. Today you’ll still find clusters of cemeteries of many different religions, just next to the racecourse, belted by enormous highway traffic and expensive Skyscraper apartment blocks.