Cultural Con ict in Hong Kong Angles on a Coherent Imaginary Edited by Jason S. Polley, Vinton W.K. Poon, Lian-Hee Wee Cultural Conflict in Hong Kong Jason S. Polley Vinton W. K. Poon • Lian-Hee Wee Editors Cultural Conflict in Hong Kong Angles on a Coherent Imaginary Editors Jason S. Polley Vinton W. K. Poon Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong, Hong Kong Hong Kong, Hong Kong Lian-Hee Wee Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong, Hong Kong ISBN 978-981-10-7765-4 ISBN 978-981-10-7766-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7766-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018934690 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: shansekala Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-­01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore PREFACE Cultural Conflict in Hong Kong: Angles on a Coherent Imaginary is a volume that celebrates as it critiques the current state of Hong Kong soci- ety on the 20th anniversary of its handover to China. Focussing on cul- tural elements appropriated into its social tapestry (i.e. that which has been made into Hong Kong) through the spectrum of its social classes, this volume draws together scholars, critics, commentators, and creators on the vanguard of the emerging field of Hong Kong studies. The collec- tion weaves a patchwork of the territory’s contested local imaginary. Hong Kong today continues to navigate its colonial history alongside its ever- present Chinese identity. The past two decades can ostensibly be defined by the tearing of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s social fabric. At the same time, the place’s international relevance continues to be asserted through commerce and culture. Over this period, Hong Kong has witnessed a dra- matically widening gap between the rich and the poor. According to the South China Morning Post (June 10, 2017, http://www.scmp.com/ news/hong-kong/economy/article/2097715/what-hope-poorest- hong-kong-wealth-gap-hits-record-high), the richest 10% of the popula- tion earn about 44 times more than the poorest 10%. Citizens, however, are not only divided by material wealth, they also disagree about issues of (national) identity. Some categorize themselves as Chinese. Others embrace competing “localist” formulations. Self-classified “Hongkongers” reject any Chinese identity—and this, often, with disdain. Complex and unresolved, mounting disparities in wealth and ideology have com- pounded into cultural divisions and conflicts. In the autumn of 2014, v vi PREFACE these climaxed into the almost season-long Umbrella Movement. This famous clash, along with a series of others not globally reported, exposed that Hong Kong citizens are increasingly in competition with one another. Escalating social tensions centre upon struggles about who speaks for Hong Kong and about how to interpret Hong Kong as community, as culture, and as collective imaginary. In its exploration of the currents and dynamics from around and behind these cultural conflicts, this volume features chapters by specialized aca- demics, cultural commentators, and creative writers. All contributors to this book are frontline observers of Hong Kong’s current tensions. And many of the authors collected herein are personally invested in these socio- cultural conflicts. To facilitate, and at times complicate, the complex Hong Kong identi- ties and imaginaries now extant two decades following the territory’s return to China, this collection is categorized into three interrelated parts: surveillance, sousveillance, and equiveillance. Big Data and biometrics forerunner Joseph Ferenbok and computer scientist and public intellec- tual Steve Mann first coined the latter two terms. Their work popularizes “inverse surveillance,” by which the colleagues mean the ways in which people can digitally record images and actions from below in order to counterbalance classical surveillance from above. Surveillance is, as the word itself suggests, observation from above by an institutional authority, usually with cameras installed higher than eye level. This is a form of monitoring and control (either physically or sym- bolically) from top to bottom, evoking the controlling and/or recording mechanisms of the Panopticon, CCTV, machine-readable identity cards, and other Fritz Lang-, George Orwell-, Philip K. Dick-, and Margaret Atwood-inspired surveillance apparatuses. Such “security” devices, tech- nological and behavioural, force the perpetuation of the status quo, thus maintaining the present social structure so that officially sanctioned social capital remains as such. Sousveillance is an outgrowth of the term surveillance. The morpheme “sur” in French means “over” or “on.” The coinage connotes a form of the abovementioned “inverted surveillance” or “subveillance.” With min- iature, wearable technology and social networking, individuals and collec- tives can (i) monitor, from below, an observer who is above and (ii) capture, from within, a participatory activity. Sousveillance recalls the PREFACE vii documentation and information-exchange practiced by the “gargoyles” in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (1992). The author’s “gargoyles” anticipate the networking of smartphones. Equiveillance designates “equal viewing” and connotes a counterbal- ancing of surveillance and sousveillance, a state whereby those who moni- tor from above and those who monitor from below restrain or offset one another by reaching “democratic homeostasis.” This (i) surveillance polic- ing and (ii) sousveillance policing-of-policing form a feedback loop: nei- ther party, in theory, fully usurps power. Consider the case of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who, as witnessed in Alison Klayman’s documentary Who’s Afraid of Ai Weiwei? (2011), turned his own cameras on the cam- eras of the authorities who were recording him. From both the top-down and the bottom-up, equiveillance exposes limits to knowledge and/as power. The profile of contemporary Hong Kong is such that only a gyroscopic view can furnish a cultural understanding of the Special Administrative Region. The book, therefore, is not overly reliant on research hanging on specific disciplinary threads. Instead, the omnimax perspective that is Hong Kong’s everyday only begins to emerge when examined from the multiple angles that enable its fuller imaginary. To this end, the volume provides analyses from multiple perspectives, forming a panoramic, thereby wider, overview of Hong Kong culture. This book is the first true area studies book of its kind on Hong Kong— and thus valuable to any reader who wishes to explore the territory’s com- plexities without being bogged down by discipline-specific perspectives. At the same time, each chapter collected in the volume is itself a study of specific and significant sides or views integral to Hong Kong’s current imaginary. Readers of Cultural Conflict in Hong Kong consequently hold in their hands an array of carefully selected gems different in texture yet judiciously set on the same frame thus providing a kaleidoscopic treatment that speaks to the elegant complexity of Hong Kong today. Hong Kong, Hong Kong Jason S. Polley Vinton W. K. Poon Lian-Hee Wee ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The editors wish to acknowledge the help of many reviewers from within and without Hong Kong. Each has granted us invaluable time and expertise, thereby ensuring the quality of every piece enshrined in this volume. In no order, the reviewers are Kathleen Ahrens, Robert S. Bauer, Stephen Chu, Angela M. Gayton, Paul D. He, Heidi Yu Huang, Magdalen Ki, Mike Ingham, Fiona Law, Grace Y.Y. Mak, Nathan Miczo, Rowan Mackay, Douglas Robinson, Andrew Sewell, Janice W.S. Wong, Wendy S. Wong, and Jessica W.Y. Yeung. We would also like to thank Sara Crowley-Vigneau and Connie Li of Palgrave for their gracious guidance in the preparation of this volume. ix CONTENTS 1 Introduction: Made into Hong Kong 1 Jason S. Polley, Vinton W. K. Poon, and Lian-Hee Wee Part I Surveillance 13 2 Turning English into Cantonese: The Semantic Change of English Loanwords 15 John C. Wakefield 3 Beehives and Wet Markets: Expat Metaphors of Hong Kong 35 Kathleen Ahrens 4 Hong Kong Paradox: