CUS/ GEC 317

Part VI: Criticizing and theorizing Hong Kong

 

1.       Colonialism, nationalism and modernity

1.1.     Hong Kong as a margin of the mainstream Chinese culture

「至香港一隅,蕞爾絕島,其俗素以操嬴居奇為尚,而自放於禮法,錐刀之徒,逐利而至,豈有雅流在其間哉!地不足遊,人不足語,校書之外,閉門日多。」(王韜,轉引自王宏志、李小良、陳清僑1997)

 

1.2.     Hong Kong as a model of modern society

「薄遊香港,覽西人宮室之瑰麗,道路之整潔,巡捕之嚴密,乃始知西人治國有法度,不得以古舊之夷狄視之。乃復閱《海國圖志》、《瀛寰志略》等書,購地球圖,漸收西學之書,為講西學之基矣。」

 

1.3.     Hong Kong as a symbol of colonialism and national shame.

「他們的心思,以為做了中國人是投錯胎的,頂丟臉的,只恨皮膚面孔不像白種人,使他(她)一生的倒霉;但是努力的讀番書講番話,還可以補救一下,這或是他(她)們的志願吧。」(陸丹林1939,轉引自王宏志、李小良、陳清僑1997)

 

「香港雖然各到各處都是中國人,香港人的基礎,始終建立在我們中國人身上,但它已經缺少中國的氣息,失去中國的靈魂。… …大部份的香港居民已像一堆堆從爐鍋裡掏出來的煤渣,精華既被吸盡,剩下來的那點乾枯無用的骸骨就被拋在街頭,連過路的野狗見了也不會對他們回頭了。」(屠仰慈,轉引自王宏志、李小良、陳清僑1997)

 

1.4.     Hong Kong as a miniature of modern China because of the British colonial rule.

香港雖只一島,卻活畫著中國許多地方現在和將來的小照:中央幾位洋主子,手下是若干頌德的『高等華人』和一夥作倀的奴氣同胞。此外即全是默默作苦的『土人』,能耐的死在洋場上,耐不住的逃入深山中。」(魯迅,轉引自王宏志、李小良、陳清僑1997)

 

1.5. Hong Kong as a negative image of human culture and society

「作為土生土長的香港人,我們親眼見過五、六零年代香港社會的黑暗和腐敗情況(更不要說三、四零年代了),自然不可否認上面的描述都是事實。然而,在閱讀了這許多負面的書寫後,我們不能不問一句:這是不是香港的全部?人們要去書寫香港時,是不是唯一的目的就是要暴露它醜惡的一面?這種論述策略的動機在哪裡?盧瑋鑾說過,『香港的憂鬱』,在於人們總『不忘挖她的瘡疤』。」(自王宏志、李小良、陳清僑1997:62)

 

1.5.     Hong Kong as a metaphor for modern Chinese intellectual discourses

 

2.       Cultural Critique of “New” Capitalism

2.1.     In the 70s, the new generation of Hong Kong intellectuals began to criticize Hong Kong society and culture with the theories and jargons of the radical politics of the 60s in the West.

2.2.     Key theorist of “mass culture”: Herbert Marcuse, Eric Fromm, … …

2.3.     Hong Kong cultural industry flourished along with the popularity of pornography, comic books, … …

2.4.     Hong Kong was seen as a model of capitalist culture dominated by commodity-money value and technical rationalization.

2.5.     Examples:《文化新潮》(e.g. 曾澍基)、《號外》(早期)

2.6.     In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a number of young intellectuals joined the cultural industry (including news filmmaking, TV production, newspaper, … …) for struggling against the dominant culture.

 

3.       Culturalizing “Hong Kong”

3.1.     呂大樂(<自成一體的香港社會>)

3.2.     梁款

3.2.1. He accepts 呂大樂’s statements about Hong Kong’s local consciousness.

3.2.2. He rejects “moralism”(道德主義)that sees popular culture as merely a kind of cultural domination imposed by capitalism.

3.2.3. He recognizes the subversive “potentialities” within popular culture, the basis of Hong Kong local consciousness.

3.3.     Rey Chow (Writing Diaspora): “Hong Kong” occupies a position of “in-between”, a kind of politico-historical consciousness in the post-Cold War era.

「香港的歷史使人傾向於一種『邊境性』(border)或『超場』寄生性(parasite)的實踐──一種既對『中國文化』認同但又與中國共產主義政權疏離;對殖民主義反抗但又不願看到全社會的繁榮遭到破壞的實踐。」

(周蕾1997《寫在家國以外》)

 

4.       Hong Kong as a discursive object

4.1.     Hong Kong is emotionally “over-invested”?

4.2.     Hong Kong becomes a separated entity from politico-economic environment.

4.3.     Hong Kong as a culture of disappearance?(Ackbar Abbas. 1997. Hong Kong : culture and the politics of disappearance.)

4.4.     How about the post-financial-crisis era?  (《憂憂愁愁的走了》)

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