Representing Local History of Hong Kong through Designing Heritage Tours at Pokfulam

Abstract

This poster presents and discusses how heritage revitalisation intensified the tension between nationalism, decolonisation and the process search of local identity, with reference to the author’s experience of teaching tourism studies by designing heritage tours in Hong Kong. Since the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, the new government launched various programmes to bolster national identity, emphasize the connection with China and promote regional integration with the Pearl River Delta. However, the demolition of Star Piers in 2006 started the debate for local history and local identity during colonial administration. In the last decade, the general public increasingly concerned about the preservation of built heritage. Every time when there is demolition of built heritage, it ironically deepened the public’s understanding of the colonial history of the city. Pokfulam Village is the oldest existing village of Hong Kong that established before British colonisation in 1842. But it lacks any built structure with sufficiently long history to get listed as a declared monument under current legislation. The village is under the threat of demolition as the government lessened the restriction on property development there. Therefore, it served as a perfect site to evaluate the relationship between built heritage, local identity, Chinese nationalism and the colonial past. In this project, students worked with the village representatives to design heritage tours around Pokfulam Village. Opinions from different stakeholders and concerns of local residents over local tours were taken into account in the tour design. The poster board includes the summary of teaching notes, photos and tour design. The experience of designing and organising heritage tours enabled students to engage in the process of representing local history and engaging in the debate on the colonial past. This article concludes by arguing that heritage tourism helped raise the awareness of the general public on how to conserve a “living” village.