2010/06/01 by Kam Louie · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics #Socioeconomic Development in Asia #Japanese History and Culture #Postmodernism #Architecture #Chinese culture #Variety (cybernetics) #Space (punctuation) #Aesthetics #History #Character (mathematics) #Literature #Sociology #Art #Linguistics #China #Philosophy #Computer science #Archaeology
paper · doi:10.5790/hongkong/9789888028412.001.0001
openalex publication_date 2010/06/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/05
Hong Kong as a world city draws on a rich variety of foundational “texts” in film, fiction, architecture, and other forms of visual culture. The city has been a cultural fault-line for centuries—a translation space where Chinese-ness is interpreted for “Westerners” and Western-ness is translated for Chinese. Though constantly refreshed by its Chinese roots and global influences, this hub of Cantonese culture has flourished along cosmopolitan lines to build a modern, outward-looking character. Successfully managing this perpetual instability helps make Hong Kong a postmodern stepping-stone city, and helps make its citizens such prosperous and durable survivors in the modern world. Many of the chapters in this volume discuss the tensions of English, closely associated with a colonial past, yet undeniably the key to Hong Kong's future. Hong Kong provides a vital point of contact, where cultures truly meet and a cosmopolitan traveler can feel at home and leave a sturdy mark.