Hong Kong (in China) studies: Hong Kong popular culture as example

Abstract

<jats:p> “China has become a predicament as well as a condition for Hong Kong culture” in the age of China, especially after the signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement in 2003. This has become even more acute for Hong Kong culture in the integration of the Greater Bay Area, which can be seen as incorporating Hong Kong and Macao’s development into the overall development of the country. At this particular juncture, the issue of integration with the Mainland has become a topic that is of utmost importance for any consideration of the future of Hong Kong culture and the city as a whole. In this special context, the transmission of Hong Kong popular cultures in the Mainland are related topics that need to be explored. For example, what are the implications behind the success of Hong Kong directors and producers who took the helm of immensely popular Mainland television series? After Cantopop crossed the border, to what extent did the singers and the songs that they sang in Mainland music reality shows represent Hong Kong? These would be very good case studies of Hong Kong culture in cross-border ventures, and studying their transmissions would have long-term implications for not only Hong Kong culture in particular but also Hong Kong Studies in general. This essay endeavors to use these cross-border experiences as examples to offer a prolegomenon to Hong Kong (in China) Studies, which will in turn contribute to the possibility of generating a cultural studies response to the new configuration of the Greater Bay Area. </jats:p>

Rethinking the Cultural Relations between Hong Kong and China: An Analysis of the Chinese Reception of Stephen Chow’s Films

“…Recently, other scholars of Hong Kong culture are supplying additional examples. For instance, Chu (2020: 111–12) has called for the development of “Hong Kong (in China) studies” to make sense of co-produced cultural products that propagandize for the Chinese state on one hand and smuggle Hong Kong culture into China on the other.…”

Oculus power! Arts and technology’s mediation of postcolonial neoliberal nationalism in Hong Kong

“…Besides technological development, the transformation of content and work practices in Hong Kong’s cinema, television, and popular music industries have been influenced by the close relationship and cooperation between Hong Kong and mainland China, both before and after Hong Kong’s reversion to China in 1997 (Chu, 2020). According to Chu’s argument using popular culture as an example, Hong Kong cultural studies require a reconsideration of the ‘northbound imaginary’, which Hong Kong’s impact on the mainland has changed in a way that is different from the initial proposal of local scholars in 1995 (Chu, 2020).…”

“…Besides technological development, the transformation of content and work practices in Hong Kong’s cinema, television, and popular music industries have been influenced by the close relationship and cooperation between Hong Kong and mainland China, both before and after Hong Kong’s reversion to China in 1997 (Chu, 2020). According to Chu’s argument using popular culture as an example, Hong Kong cultural studies require a reconsideration of the ‘northbound imaginary’, which Hong Kong’s impact on the mainland has changed in a way that is different from the initial proposal of local scholars in 1995 (Chu, 2020). The Chinese Central Government’s policies to integrate HKSAR and Macao into mainland China after 1997, such as the various initiatives to enhance economic and cultural cooperation between the regions within the Greater Bay Area, reveal that Hong Kong cultural studies have shifted from studying culture per se to cultural translations across the boundary (Chu et al, 2020).…”

“…The Chinese Central Government’s policies to integrate HKSAR and Macao into mainland China after 1997, such as the various initiatives to enhance economic and cultural cooperation between the regions within the Greater Bay Area, reveal that Hong Kong cultural studies have shifted from studying culture per se to cultural translations across the boundary (Chu et al, 2020). These initiatives have shifted the ‘northbound imaginary’ from an earlier belief that Hong Kong’s cosmopolitanism accounted for its cultural expansion across the boundary to impact mainland China (Chan, 1997), to the fact that the profit-making mainland market is influencing Hong Kong’s cultural production (Chu, 2020). In this paper, I will make reference to Chu’s ‘northbound imaginary’, and will critically identify how the changes in cultural practices in Hong Kong reflect a transformation from a northbound to a southbound imaginary.…”

“…Nationalism embodied in arts tech productions represents a north-to-south ideological impact that is transforming Hong Kong culture. Referring to Chu’s (2020a) ‘northbound imaginary’ of inter-referencing Hong Kong’s transformation in cultural practices across time, this paper echoes the theme of this special issue as ‘China as method’ in two layers: (1) revisiting the relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China through cultural practices; and (2) examining the changes in the Hong Kong–mainland relationship through inter-referencing Chu’s ‘northbound imaginary’ scholarship and the more recent arts tech development in Hong Kong. Second, in contrast to the current scholarship focusing on human governance in the formation of neoliberal nationalism (e.g., Harmes, 2012; Kaul, 2019; Kawai, 2009), this paper underscores the ‘power’ of techno-cultural material in mediating neoliberal nationalism in Hong Kong, after its reversion to China, through arts tech development.…”