Walk into a book : historic literary landscapes as a heritage interpretation means in Hong Kong

Abstract

The term “literary landscape” (文學地景), which refers to the literary image of a place portrayed in literature, first emerged in Hong Kong in 1991. Literary walks have become an interesting way to promote local literature. However, rarely have people considered integrating the idea of literary landscapes into heritage interpretation. This paper introduces the term “historic literary landscape” and suggests interpretive strategies by making use of HLL as well as looks into the opportunities and limitations of promoting them in Hong Kong. Visitors need not to be well-educated or read a lot; the focal point of the interpretive strategies is to make interpretation accessible and understandable to the general public. Visitors are expected to learn informal historical facts and stories about old Hong Kong through looking at what the authors describe because the local authors or the authors who have lived in Hong Kong for a long time tend to be familiar with the city and have different perceptions towards it. Literary image is not a formally-recorded but straightforward description of a place that makes it suitable to be a resource of heritage interpretation. Furthermore, this paper selects, lists and maps historic literary landscapes on Hong Kong Island and serves as an inducement for further study and development of a well-organized historic literary landscape archive to make the historic literary landscape interpretation structured and sustainable.