Ding Ding Tram

The year is 1974. The location? Around 1,300 feet above New York City. French high-wire artist Philippe Petit is preparing a walk along a cable fixed between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Why? More like why not? He’s come a long way from the streets of Paris where he juggled for a living and entertained crowds by wire walking in the City of Light. It wasn’t a bad gig. It paid the bills (for a while until he got evicted). But it wasn’t the gig. That moment in life when everything comes together and slots into place. Up there on that makeshift tightrope, Petit found his calling. Today, millions of Asians live with their heads and hearts in the sky too. High-rise buildings form the silhouettes of major cities from Singapore to Seoul, Tianjin to Tokyo. Hong Kong is no different. People lead double lives both way up high and down on the ground. Whether it’s by dishing up street food from noon to night or sweeping the roads of yesterday’s dust, each person plays a part in keeping it all moving. There’s no job too small. But what becomes of their dreams up in those high risers at the end of the day? Surely there’s more to life than working your fingers to the bone on the ground below. At what point do you reach your limit and say enough is enough? Surely the cycle is there to be broken. Just for the record, Petit originally gained fame for his high-wire walk a little closer to home between the twin towers of Notre Dame Cathedral. Your dream doesn’t have to be a headline-grabbing physical feat though. There are heroes on many levels and it’s a fine line.