Alt-IPCH inventory : an alternative intangible cultural heritage inventory for Hong Kong based on popular culture

Abstract

This thesis would focus on exploring elements of Hong Kong’s pop-culture, including as expressed in pop-songs, movies and TV advertisements, with specific examples from each element to explain their relevance as an ICH in Hong Kong, The scope would be limited to the four characteristics of ICH, both as the basis for this study and as a comparison to the existing ICH inventory of Hong Kong Popular culture has been a living heritage of the Hong Kong society, as it tells the stories of Hong Kong throughout the decade: the struggle for survival after the war, instability among the society in the 60s, industrial revolution in the 70s, growth in economic confidence but also cultural arrogance in the 80s and the cultural upheaval before the handover as an attempt to search for the locality of Hong Kong people. Hong Kong pop-culture has imposed a significant impact on the formation of place identity, collective memory, and attachment for the general public of Hong Kong. Despite the influence of Hong Kong pop-culture, its intangible values are not getting the respect that it well deserves. As shown by the fact that in 2014, the Hong Kong SAR Government released the city’s first ICH inventory, consisting of 480 items. However, practically all the items are of traditional nature, and naturally, Hong Kong pop-culture is not listed. As such, the author wishes to propose the hypothesis that Hong Kong’s popular culture (pop-culture) is more relevant as Hong Kong’s ICH. To test this hypothesis, the author will produce an alternative ICH inventory for Hong Kong, to demonstrate that these pop-culture items can better comply with the four ICH characteristics, and extending this proof to argue that Hong Kong’s pop-culture has a significant influence on the development of the city’s cultural identity.