Part IIIa: Popularizing Hong Kong: Popular
novel
1. Narrating Hong Kong as an
"imagined community"想像性社群
1.1.
Definition of imagined community (Benedict Anderson)
"It
is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know
most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds
of each lives the image of their communion."
(Imagined Communities: Reflections on the
Origin and Spread of Nationalism [London and New York: 1994], 6-7)
1.2. Print
capitalism 印刷資本主義(e.g. newspaper, magazine, popular
novel) connects the members of the imagined community. It creates a sense of simultaneity with
temporal coincidence.
A(a man) ;
B(A’s wife); C(A’s mistress); D(C’s lover)
|
Time |
I |
II |
III |
|
Event |
A
quarrels with B |
C kisses
D |
A and B
have dinner |
|
|
C cries |
B goes
to shopping |
D plays
tennis |
|
|
D gets
drunk in bar |
|
C sleeps
and has a dream |
A never
meets D but it is supposed that they live in the same “place” or
community.
1.3.
Vernacular language is also used in media for creating the sense of familiarity
1.4. Daily
news reporting covers the stories happening in every corners of the imagined
community and contrasts the local community with others (local news vs.
international news).
1.5. The
rise of the modern novel
2. The
rise of modern western novel
2.1. The
term novel was not fully established until the end of eighteenth century.
2.2.
Realism 現實主義／寫實主義：Novel
narrative functions as representing the reality, the world we are living by
individual sense. Yet, through
novel reading and writing, one enters the imagined community or imagines
oneself connecting with others in a certain boundary.
2.3. The
flourishing industry of publishing parallels to the expansion of reading public
and popularity of novel.
2.4.
Reading novel is a very private or individual practice through which individual
intensifies one's inner self and also imagines one's connection with others.
2.5. Novel
is one of the media connecting individual with social collectivity.
2.5.
Narrative establishes one's subjectivity and collective identification.
2.6.
Modern Chinese novel is a transplanted tradition from the West.
2.7.
Traditional Chinese novel was more or less a way of story telling(說書) since the Sung Dynasty. Story telling is a tradition of making collective memory
radically different from realism focusing upon individual experience.
Watt, Ian. 2000 (1957) The Rise of the Novel.
London: Pimlico.
3. Case I: 我城 (西西，1970s)
3.1. 我城 is my city?
3.2. 我城’s narrative moves along with
the authors’ description.
3.3. The details in the novel reminds the readers
of the relevance to Hong Kong.
3.4. Crowded living environment, playing mahjong,
… …
3.5. The author expresses her feeling about the
“familiar” places in the city: 肥沙嘴, 海港大廈, 地上鐵
3.6. City is a sort of new and interesting
experience deserving examination, observation and description.
3.6. City becomes an object for description from
a personal view and for projection of personal mood.
3.7. There is no continuous and single story
line. And the only element
connecting the fragments is 我城.
City is a pastiche of personal stories and feelings.
3.8. The narrative sounds like a Chinese scroll
picture. Hong Kong is like a scene
in mobility.
4. Case II: 麵包樹上的女人（張小嫻，1990s）
4.1. This novel is a love story, a biography of
women, … … a story about Hong Kong(?)
4.2. The narrative is not descriptive at all;
instead, it is full of dialogues that perpetuate the narrative movement.
4.3. Hong Kong is ordinary common experience
(popular music, lyrics, radio, school life, … … ) rather than deserves highlighting.
4.4. 張小嫻 only mentions about the
familiar place and festival of Hong Kong: 蘭桂坊, New Year, Christmas Eve, … …
5. Case III: 港島之戀
5.1. 「港島」is of no relevance to “Hong
Kong” but only exists in writing and fantasy.
5.2. A personal story of love happens in a place
called “Hong Kong”.
5.3. There is no obvious metaphoric relation
between personal story and the fable about 「港島」
6. Hong Kong is “ordinary”
6.1. “Hong Kong” is not an important theme in
popular novel.
6.2. “Hong Kong” is viewed as a background for
narrative or only a “name”.
6.3. “Hong Kong” becomes so “ordinary” that no
reflection and observation are needed?
6.4. This city is depicted as a platform for
personal growth and interpersonal interaction.
6.5. “Hong Kong” in novel narrative is an
imagined community without sovereignty or single identity.
Appendix:《蛋白質女孩》中王文華的「台北」？