Chinese travel writers and the shaping of a Hong Kong countryside aesthetic

Abstract

Recent countryside policies from the Hong Kong government have brought renewed focus on the cultural resources of rural areas, exemplified in the setting up of a Countryside Conservation Office. This dissertation complements the predominant focus on ecology in existing studies of the countryside by focusing on cultural value. Engaging with the work of a group of Hong Kong Chinese travel writers, the dissertation shows how their oeuvre has been crucial in the creation of a distinctive Hong Kong Chinese landscape aesthetic. From the 1930s, these writers advocated local travel in newspaper columns, guide books, and countryside tours. Their enduring legacy is evident today: from recent re-printings of their travel books, to groups leading hiking excursions with more than a hundred and fifty people. Their writing and group activities, the dissertation argues, have influenced social and institutional cultural norms, and thus provide new material for discussion about current approaches to countryside management. Above all, their work underscores the importance of integrating scientific, recreational, and cultural aims in conservation policy. Drawing on cross-disciplinary approaches from conservation, history, and cultural geography, the dissertation sheds light on landscape as a discursive cultural formation. It situates the work of these writers in its cultural, social, and political contexts, with a particular emphasis on the formation of Hong Kong’s country parks. In so doing, the dissertation adds new understanding to the cultural valence of the ‘countryside,’ and supplements past studies that have focused exclusively on historiographies of government-led country park formation, Western travel-writers, and rural villagers.