The Cartography of Hong Kong Urban Space: Living and Walking in the Cinematic Cityscapes of Fruit Chan and Ann Hui by Huiqi Zhang Critical Asian Humanities Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Carlos Rojas, Advisor ___________________________ Eileen Chow ___________________________ Leo Ching Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Critical Asian Humanities in the Graduate School of Duke University 2021 i v ABSTRACT The Cartography of Hong Kong Urban Space: Living and Walking in the Cinematic Cityscapes of Fruit Chan and Ann Hui by Huiqi Zhang Critical Asian Humanities Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Carlos Rojas, Advisor ___________________________ Eileen Chow ___________________________ Leo Ching An abstract of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Critical Asian Humanities in the Graduate School of Duke University 2021 Copyright by Huiqi Zhang 2021 Abstract Hong Kong has long been ensnared in the problems of limited housing and soaring land prices, which renders its physical space one of the most visible criteria embodying its social inequalities. Regarding space as an overarching concern and framework, this thesis mainly focuses on the representations and portrayals of Hong Kong’s urban space in Fruit Chan and Ann Hui’s films and further examines how the directors engage with social spaces in reality through depicting various cinematic spaces. All of these films explore the grassroots space of the underprivileged and marginalized people, which constitutes the underside of Hong Kong’s glamorous urban space shaped by economic development and globalization. Fruit Chan’s Handover Trilogy including Made in Hong Kong (1997), The Longest Summer (1998), Little Cheung (1999), as well as the first two installments of his Prostitute Trilogy, Durian Durian (2000) and Hollywood Hong Kong (2000) hence reflect on how economic, political and social conditions are factored into the uncanny mutations and distortions of varying spaces ranging from public housing estates, cemeteries, streets to squatter villages. Ann Hui’s companion films, The Way We Are (2008) and Night and Fog (2009), offer a detailed characterization of public housing estates and discuss the notion of housing in metropolitan contexts. The two directors deploy and recreate these paradigmatic spaces of Hong Kong as a critique of the history and social hierarchy of iv Hong Kong, which are intimately involved with the complexity of postcoloniality, neoliberalism, and globalization. Based on theories of spatiality, psychoanalysis, and urban sociology, this thesis argues that these cinematic spaces can be viewed as a site to negotiate with urban planning, spatial practices, transregional and transnational movements. On the one hand, space registers the hierarchical division of the society that renders underprivileged population more vulnerable. On the other hand, connections and a sense of community can also emerge from the space appropriated by its inhabitants. Furthermore, by engaging with border-crossing subjects, these films explore social spaces beyond Hong Kong and provide possibilities of investigating the broader social reality of post-socialist China, destabilizing the static binaries between local and global, periphery and center. v Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv Contents ......................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. vii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 2. Chapter 1 Fruit Chan’s Kaleidoscope of Urban Spaces ..................................................... 15 2.1 A Space to Live, a Space to Die ..................................................................................... 18 2.1.1 Public Housing Units and Corridors: A Hopeless Life? ...................................... 19 2.1.2 Cemetery: A Space of Death .................................................................................... 29 2.2 Spatial Practices on the Streetscapes ............................................................................ 31 2.2.1 Streets as an Intimate Space ..................................................................................... 31 2.2.2 Prostitute on the Streets ............................................................................................ 36 2.3 Squatter Village as a Transitory Space ........................................................................ 44 3. Chapter 2 Ann Hui’s Mapping of Public Housing Estates ............................................... 53 3.1 Ann Hui, Hong Kong Cinema and A Critique of Representations of Space ......... 55 3.2 The Way We Are: The Mapping of Everyday Life .................................................... 61 3.2.1 Flashback as Retrospection of Urbanization ......................................................... 63 3.2.2 The Construction of Living Space ........................................................................... 66 3.3 Night and Fog: The Mapping of Gendered Space ..................................................... 70 3.4 The Apartment Plot as Narrative, Mapping as Spectatorship ................................. 79 4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 84 vi References ..................................................................................................................................... 88 List of Figures Figure 1: Photo by Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze. ............................................................................ 1 Figure 2: Photo by Benny Lam. ................................................................................................... 2 Figure 3: Moon and Sylvester are waiting in front of the wrong elevator. ........................ 23 Figure 4: Ping is walking out from another elevator. ............................................................ 24 Figure 5: The circular shape of the sky in the public housing building in Lai Tak Tsuen. ........................................................................................................................................................ 25 Figure 6: The platform on which these ex-soldiers are planning the robbery. .................. 26 Figure 7: Bobby at the brim of the platform. ........................................................................... 27 Figure 8: The cylinder where they hide the robbed money. ................................................. 28 Figure 9: The small figure of Ga Yin on the square surrounded by high rises. ................. 29 Figure 10: Little Cheung is singing Cantonese opera on the street. .................................... 34 Figure 11: Protagonists in other two installments of Fruit Chan's Handover trilogy. ...... 36 Figure 12: Yan is walking on the streets. ................................................................................. 39 Figure 13: The close-up of Yan’s walking. ............................................................................... 39 Figure 14: Brother Keung in the alley of Tai Hom Village. ................................................... 47 Figure 15: The mismatched tattoo after surgery. .................................................................... 47 Figure 16: Hung Hung and Tiny are waving red cloth to each other to locate Chu's home in Tai Hom Village from her apartment in Plaza Hollywood. ............................................. 49 Figure 17: Tai Hom Village is overshadowed by Plaza Hollywood. ................................... 49 vii Figure 18: Tin Shui Wai before land reclamation. .................................................................. 64 Figure 19: Tin Shui Wai New Town. ........................................................................................ 64 Figure 20: The bamboo forests in a dreamlike flashback. ..................................................... 77 Figure 21: The bamboo forest in a flashback right after the murder. .................................. 77 viii 1. Introduction Hong Kong’s glaring skyline has always been a splendid spectacle for tourism and consumption with a collection of renowned architecture and landmarks. Its booming economy, together with the history of being a British colony and its current state as a Special Administrative Region of PRC render it an intriguing space to be examined. Due to limited land resources and high population density, high rises and skyscrapers are soaring higher whereas inhabitants’ living spaces become increasingly congested. Numerous photographers have presented stunning images of this city, among which Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze and Benny Lam’s works constitute an antithesis in terms of forms and contents. Interestingly, both of the selected pictures regarding buildings and complexes are shot during 2012, and yet these two photographers approach these architectures with different manners. Figure 1: Photo by Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze. 1 Figure