CLIT 2028 The City as Cultural Text                     Journal THREE

 

Adventure of MTR-yan

 

Simmel’s “Metropolis and Mental Life” suggests the city as a form of life in which the physical form of the city affects the psychic life of urban-dwellers. The objective area of the city is also responsible in shaping our cognition of spatiality.

 

“What is spatial practice under neocapitalism? It embodies a close association, within perceived space, between daily reality (daily routine) and urban reality (the routes and networks which link up the places set aside for work, ‘private’ life and leisure).”

 

Our conception of the spatiality of Hong Kong is not determined by the map in geography book, but the transport network that we consume daily. I am a MTR-yan and my world is marked by the stations available on the route of MTR. Therefore, I am unable to have a clear mind about the places which are apart from MTR route. 鴨脷洲/西環/土瓜灣/慈雲山/跑馬地/大角咀 are places that I never know where they locate (It is so exotic for me that I even don’t know how to spell them in English!!). For me, they are not part of Hong Kong . Whether I have been there or not, I don’t know.

 

“The specific spatial competence and performance of every society member can only be evaluated empirically. ‘Modern’ spatial practice might thus be defined…”

 

The picture of “ Hong Kong ” maybe totally different from mine for the ones who live in Tuen Mun, Yun Long or…wherever. Their route might be marked by mysterious numbers which is total nonsense for “outsider” like me: E33 charges  for $13, 52X for $9.5, 59A for 10.2, 59S for $12…We are living in Hong Kong at the same space and same time, but our maps are different.

 

“A spatial practice must be have a certain cohesiveness, but this does not imply that it is coherent (in the sense of intellectually worked out or logically conceived).”

 

I am an MTR-yan. I heavily depend on MTR. It marks my map. My understanding of certain locations is “educated” by MTR. For example, I want to go to Park Lane from Cultural Centre, all I have to do is to get to the MTR station, look at the map which tells me the correspondent exit, I can find my way; If I am going from Kowloon Peninsula to Ocean Terminal, I will properly go down to MTR station again and find out the exit. One day, when my friend brought me to have a stroll in Tsim Sha Tsui, I was surprised by my stupidity and idiot of direction. I redraw my map by my feet. Of course I know that the spots are linked; but my cognition of it is fragmented. The map of Tsim Sha Tsui is by no doubt cohesive; but MTR breaks the cohesion into entrances and exits ABCDE (sometimes it is A1, A2, A3).

 

“This association is a paradoxical one, because it includes the most extreme separation between the places it links together.”

 

One day, I met my friend in Causeway Bay but we can hardly compromise where we should meet. “Do you know where HMV is?” “I never interested in HMV and I have no idea where it is. What about at DKNY?” “I don’t notice DKNY either. You must know Toys ‘R’ Us?” “I only know the cinema JP.” In fact, it is all near the E exit of MTR!!!

 

 

Reference:

Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Oxford & Cambridge : Blackwell, 1991. p.38