The birth of nostophobia and the death of nostalgia : cinematic reconstructions of Hong Kong identity

Abstract

Nostalgia film was a theme that many Hong Kong filmmakers used to explore issues such as identity and history during the transitional period before the Handover. Nostalgia became a popular sentiment again in post-handover Hong Kong. However, the latter gained less scholarly attention due to the diminished interest in Hong Kong after the Handover. This thesis intends to fill the gap here.

To highlight how the China factor influences the formation of postcolonial Hong Kong identity, this research focuses on three films produced between the implementation of Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement and the Umbrella Movement.

Instead of nostalgia, a sense of nostophobia is the central prevailing mood in the films studied in the thesis. Out of fear of violating censorship rules from the mainland, Hong Kong nostalgia is expressed with certain distortions in cinematic depiction. Instead of the linear progress enshrined in typical Hong Kong nostalgia films, these nostophobia films focus on marginal time or space as nowhere could be a place to hold brighter imaginaries of the future for Hong Kong, foregrounding the prevailing sense of despair and frustration in the city under the shadow of China.

Also, this new trend of nostophobia films deconstructs the idea of economic progress and questions Lion Rock Spirit, both of which constitute the core of Hong Kong identity in the official discourse. This deconstruction places them in the opposite of generic Hong Kong nostalgia films before or after the Handover, which created a sense of progress of history and celebrates orthodox ideas of the “Hong Kong spirit”.