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This book seeks to transcend the old 'East meets West' polarities. Looking at modern Hong Kong in all its splendour and diversity at the point of its re-absorption into China, it explores the question of a distinct, modern Chinese identity in Hong Kong. Intriguing insights.
List of contents
1: Introduction; 1: Identity; 2: Hong Kong Ethnicity of Folk Models And Change *; 3: Back to the Future; 2: Cultural Studies; 4: Of Mimicry and Mermaids; 5: Resurgent Chinese Power In Postmodern Disguise; 6: Treading the Margins; 3: Gender and Kinship; 7: Negotiating Tradition; 8: Jyuht Fòhng Néuih; 9: Motherhood in Hong Kong; 4: Religion and Beliefs; 10: Traditional Values and Modern Meanings in the Paper Offering Industry of Hong Kong; 11: Sacred Power in the Metropolis; 12: Ghosts and the New Governor; 5: Language; 13: Bad Boys and Bad Language
About the author
Grant Evans, Maria Tam
Summary
Hong Kong has become a by-word for all that is modern and sparkling in Asia today.
Yet tourist brochures still play with the old cliche of Hong Kong as a place where 'East meets West'. Images of so-called 'traditional' China, junks sailing Victoria Harbour or old women praying to gods in smoky temples, mingle with those portraying Hong Kong as a consumer and business paradise.
This collection of essays attempts to transcend the old polarities. It looks at modern Hong Kong in all its splendour and diversity in the run-up to its re-absorption into Greater China in mid-97, through the mediums of film, food, architecture, rumours and slang.
It explores the question of a distinct, modern Chinese identity in Hong Kong, and even when it explores the traditional stamping ground of the older anthropology in the New Territories it finds a dramatically changed context, in particular for women.
This collection presents an intriguing insight into the process of transition from 'tradition' to 'modernity' in this Modern Chinese Metropolis.
