In the historic neighborhoods of Asian cities, cats darting between shops are more than just a common sight—they are the silent sentinels of passing time and cultural heritage. With his distinct perspective, Dutch photographer Marcel Heijnen has frozen the vibrant lives of these "shop cats" in his lens, sketching a warm and intimate portrait of Hong Kong's urban landscape. Having lived in Hong Kong for nearly a decade, Heijnen intimately understands the blending of East and West. Through his delicate portraits of these felines, he captures cats' playful charm but also a deeper cultural essence within a rapidly changing city.
Guardians of the lanes & indispensable partners
In 2016, camera in hand, Heijnen began systematically documenting Hong Kong's "shop cats." He wandered through bustling main streets and quiet back alleys, capturing cats curled up in corners or resting on counters in dried seafood stalls and traditional Chinese medicine shops, quietly guarding their own worlds. He soon realized that these felines were far more than lucky charms for the businesses—they were indispensable companions in the daily lives of their owners.
"I don't speak Cantonese, but these people are super sweet, and they are so loving with their cats," Heijnen shared, "I approach the shops with whatever I can communicate that it's about the cats. Very often, they're quite proud of the cats; they are often immensely proud of their cats. And I've had really beautiful interactions."
Using a compact, unobtrusive camera to avoid disrupting daily business, his thoughtfulness won the trust and support of the community. "The Godfather" of his lens, a legendary cat named "Fe Zai" (Fat Boy), was the perfect embodiment of these neighborhood stars; his passing is still deeply felt by the shop owners today.
A "feline geography" of ten cities
Heijnen's vision didn't stop in Hong Kong. Driven by a deep curiosity about cat culture across Asia, he turned his lens toward the Chinese mainland, visiting cities like Guangzhou and Shanghai, where he discovered even more "shop cats." In 2021, his book Shop Cats of China was published, chronicling the stories of cats across ten different Chinese cities. He observed that in the mainland, cats appeared in an even wider variety of spaces, from hardware stores to ancient temples, woven into the community in diverse ways.
"I feel the cat is a metaphor for the old streets," Heijnen explained. Since a shop cat's original purpose was to catch mice, their presence makes less sense in modern shopping malls or contemporary retail spaces.
A tender archive for old streets and "shop cats"
A decade has passed since Heijnen snapped his very first photo of a "shop cat" on a mobile phone at a street corner in Sai Ying Pun. Over the past ten years, he has traveled through more than thirty cities, accumulating over 6,000 photographs and publishing four works dedicated to these "shopkeepers."
They will not be there forever. Yet, these photographs give these ordinary, inconspicuous, and overlooked little lives their own names and places in the world. In the cracks of a fast-paced urban sprawl, beneath the shadows of concrete and steel, someone chose to kneel, to truly look at them, and to remember them with care.
This is the gift Heijnen leaves behind for this land. Instead of standing at a distance as a mere observer, he sat by these lazy cats and slow-paced old shops at the sun-warmed corners of the alleys. He took those fleeting moments we never pause to notice and laid them out beautifully for all to see, proving that the most touching beauty has always been tucked away in the soft, cozy routines shared between humans and cats.
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