A Future Paved by a Past Preserved
Barricades greeted us at the iconic paifang (Chinese archway) when we arrived at the mouth of the Green Dragon. There, a few security guards instructed us to scan the QR code given and placed green stickers on our shoulders, which allowed us to enter the premises. “Please queue up before the gate—this is for everyone’s safety,” one of the men explains to newcomers. “It’s the standard procedure now.”
Not unlike a beast with its teeth forcibly uprooted, scant stalls were littered both left and right. It was significantly emptier, and quieter than I remembered it being. The entryway to Madras Lane, Petaling Street’s renowned hawker street, was dark and dormant.
Eerily enough, a local florist stall had sympathy flower arrangements placed outside, which added a sense of foreboding to the already heavy air; the pale wash of green that filters through the turquoise roof above us made it as though the street as well as its inhabitants were submerged under water. But despite its muted atmosphere and the pang of bittersweet nostalgia that came with
