Hong Kong (Cultural) Studies

Abstract

<p>This essay offers a very brief but critical introduction to the development of Hong Kong Studies from a cultural perspective. Despite its international fame, Hong Kong was long considered “a cultural desert,” and the study of its culture was therefore marginalized in the academy until the 1997 issue brought it to the attention of academic research during the late-transitional period. Notwithstanding this, there were different kinds of researches at the periphery of the academy that were scattered in different units without a strong theoretical thrust as a field. In the light of these efforts, the institutionalization of Hong Kong Cultural Studies since the 1990s—including, but not limited to, academic programs, conferences, journals, and book series—and its discontents will also be discussed in this chapter. It is against this backdrop that Hong Kong Cultural Studies will be explored in relation to its potential development as a field. After the “one country, two systems” framework prescribed that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region would continue to play a special role between China and the world after reversion to its motherland, the paradigm shifts in Hong Kong in recent years have focused on issues related to the city and its culture that should be reconsidered. Given its emerging formation as a global city of modernity with Chinese characteristics, Hong Kong and its culture must be (re-)imagined in a new “one world, two systems” world order. This chapter also endeavors to offer preliminary thoughts on how to theorize Hong Kong Cultural Studies in this special context.</p>