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Hong Kong has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and is one of the most prosperous societies , but much of the population lives in low quality, high-density housing. Through qualitative interviews with long-term residents of public housing, this book explores residents' experience of high-density space. It traces the development of Hong Kong housing forms and analyses how people's expectations of domestic space have been affected by social mobility and shifting cultural values of space, lifestyle, and design. The accompanying award-winning documentary film, A Thousand Pieces of Gold, will enable readers to experience these spaces and listen to revealing interviews with the tenants.
Portrayed as the ‘accidental pioneer of a new kind of urbanism’, Hong Kong’s evolution is traced from its pre-colonial and colonial origins to the contemporary vertical and volumetric metropolis of towers, podia-and-towers, decks, bridges, escalators and other components of multi-level city living.
Law Wing Sang provides an alternative lens for looking into Hong Kong's history by breaking away for the usual colonial and nationalist interpretations. Drawing on both English and Chinese sources, he argues that, from the early colonial era, colonial power has been extensively shared between colonizers and the Chinese who chose to work with them. This exploration of the form of colonial power includes critical discussions of various cultural and institutional aspects, looking into such issues as education, language use, political ideologies and other cultural and political concerns. These considerations permit the author to shed new light from a historical perspective on the complex and hot...
Consumption forms an essential part of Hong Kong people's lives today, but until now little serious attention has been paid to it. This book fills this gap, in a fascinating way. The contributors to this volume explore such topics as: - the coming of shopping malls to Hong Kong - tenants' senses of home in cramped public housing - the experiences of movie-going - alcohol as a marker of social class - the pursuit of fashion - Chinese art and identity among Hong Kong collectors - the dream and reality of owning a flat - Lan Kwai Fong and its mystique - the McDonald's Snoopy craze of fall 1998 - cultural identity and consumption in Hong Kong today This book shows how the detailed ehtnographic study of consumption in Hong Kong can lead to a deeper understanding of Hong Kong life as a whole, as well as of consumption in the world at large.
This book is about the migrations for family reunion that have taken place in post-1997 Hong Kong between mothers and children living in mainland China and their long-absent husbands and fathers, residents of Hong Kong.
Phone-in programs on public and commercial radio channels have been a staple of popular Hong Kong politics since the 1990s. In the absence of a fully democratic system, they have played an influential role in channeling and mediating public opinion. This work examines the phenomenon of talk radio in Hong Kong, using as its analytical framework the idea of remediation. It argues that the circulation and re-circulation of talk radio content through the mainstream media is crucial in explaining the medium’s social prominence and influence. The process has not only widened the dissemination of talk radio content, but also established talk radio as a channel as well as a symbol for free politic...
More than a quarter of a million Muslims live and work in Hong Kong. Among them are descendants of families who have been in the city for generations, recent immigrants from around the world, and growing numbers of migrant workers. Islam in Hong Kong explores the lives of Muslims as ethnic and religious minorities in this unique post-colonial Chinese city. Drawing on interviews with Muslims of different origins, O’Connor builds a detailed picture of daily life through topical chapters on language, space, religious education, daily prayers, maintaining a halal diet in a Chinese environment, racism, and other subjects. Although the picture that emerges is complex and ambiguous, one striking conclusion is that Muslims in Hong Kong generally find acceptance as a community and do not consider themselves to be victimised because of their religion.
Materially grounded analysis of contemporary film, literature, and music in Hong Kong that resists the superficial stereotypes of the global city. Hong Kong is often cast in the role of the paradigmatic global city, epitomizing postmodernism and globalization, and representing a vision of a cosmopolitan global and capitalist future. In Paradigm City, Janet Ng takes us past the obsession with 1997the year of Hong Kongs return to Chinato focus on the complex uses and meanings of urban space in Hong Kong in the period following that transfer. She demonstrates how the design and ordering of the citys space and the practices it supports inculcates a particular civic aesthetic amon...
This is a study of the complex and changing cultural patterns in Hong Kong’s relationship with the neighbouring mainland. From interviews, TV dramas, media representations and other sources, it traces the fading of Hong Kong’s once-influential position as a role model for less developed mainland cities and explores changing perceptions as China grows in confidence and Hong Kong encounters a powerful nation culture in the mainland. Part One (‘Desiring Hong Kong’) examines the history of cross-border relations and movements from the 1970s, focusing on Hong Kong as an object of desire for people in South China. Part Two (‘Consuming South China’), moves to the turn of the century, wh...
This rich collection of essays offers a multi- and inter-disciplinary discussion of "trans-Asia" approaches from critical theory, historical studies, cultural studies to film studies. In doing so the authors lay down the groundwork for a more inclusive knowledge-production and fruitful transnational collaboration. The authors engage with the implications of “trans-Asia” using a range of empirical cases. At the heart of the book is a desire and attempt to give a grounded understanding of what “trans-Asia” approaches are by examining human mobilities, media culture flows and connections across Asia and beyond in four key aspects: cross-border flows and connections; inter-Asian comparison and referencing; transnational and de-nationalized approaches; and cross-border collaboration.