Lascar Row, better known as Cat Street (traditional Chinese: 摩羅上街; simplified Chinese: 摩罗上街; pinyin: Mōluó Shàng Jiē; Cantonese Yale: Mo1 lo4 seung6 gaai1), is a narrow alley in Mid Levels, Hong Kong that runs parallel to Hollywood Road on the north side. It is a straight alley measuring over 509 feet. "Lascars" were seamen from South Asia, and particularly from the Indian subcontinent, who frequented the area, giving it a reputation for lawlessness and criminal behaviour. There was an Indian police dormitory in this street.
In the past, locals joked that if you had something stolen, you were almost certain to find it for sale back in Cat Street. In Cantonese slang thieves are called rats, and the dealers who purchase goods from the rats are cats. Thus this street is also known as "Cat Street" in Cantonese.
On 11 February 1911 a fire burnt Upper and Lower Lascar Row destroying 16 houses and damaging another 24.
Now Cat Street is mostly occupied by antique shops, and is a popular destination for tourists.
Coordinates: 22°17′05″N 114°09′00″E / 22.284711°N 114.150003°E / 22.284711; 114.150003
Famous quotes containing the words upper and/or row:
“You doubt we read the stars on high,
Nathless we read your fortunes true;
The stars may hide in the upper sky,
But without glass we fathom you.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“One can describe a landscape in many different words and sentences, but one would not normally cut up a picture of a landscape and rearrange it in different patterns in order to describe it in different ways. Because a photograph is not composed of discrete units strung out in a linear row of meaningful pieces, we do not understand it by looking at one element after another in a set sequence. The photograph is understood in one act of seeing; it is perceived in a gestalt.”
—Joshua Meyrowitz, U.S. educator, media critic. “The Blurring of Public and Private Behaviors,” No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, Oxford University Press (1985)