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The Translocalism of Hong Kong Popular Culture

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The Translocalism of Hong Kong Popular Culture Hong Kong Studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (Summer 2021) 1 The Translocalism of Hong Kong Popular Culture: An Analysis of a Critical Internet Meme Co-created Across Hong Kong and China ls ia Chew Ming-tak Matthew er at Abstract M ed This study aims to analyze and demonstrate the translocalismht of Hong Kong popular culture through uncoveringig the sociopolitically alternative characteristics of anyr Internet meme that traveled across Hong Kong and oChina.p In the theoretical sections, I explain how the cultureC-based concept of “translocalism” differs from the geographys: -based concept of “translocality,” review current studieses that discuss the translocal characteristics of Hong PKongr popular culture, introduce relevant international studies of Internet memes, critique current studies of Hongn Kongg memes, and provide an overview to the context of translocalo meme-making across Hong Kong and China. In my K empirical analysis, I examine a very popular Internet memeng named “sorry, being wealthy really lets one get awayo with anything,” originally invented by Hong Kong netizensf Hin 2014 and widely used and popularized in China in 2017 oand 2018. Since 2018, Hong Kong netizens accepted thei tChinesey enhancement and used it broadly in Hong Kong’srs social media. This meme illustrates how an originallyve Hong Kong-based cultural item successfully travelnedi across borders without the help of established institution U s or groups, how Chinese co-creators contributed stoe enriching its usage and meaning significantly, and how the nememe’s critical social value was enhanced with translocal co- hi creation. This study’s data were primarily collected from C online sources and secondarily from informal interviews with e meme-users. I traced numerous instances of the use of this h meme to find out how netizens used and developed it between T 2014 and 2019. Hong Kong Studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (Summer 2021) 2 Introduction This study examines the “translocalism” of Hong Kong popular culture by analyzing the translocal and critical characteristics of an Internet meme that traveled across Hong Kong and China. The meme was first created in Hong Kong in spoken Cantonese, “sorry, jaucin zanhai daaisaai” (sorry [sic in English], being wealthy really puts ls ia you on the top; sorry，有錢真係大晒) based on a local TV er drama, and subsequently gained huge popularity in at mainland China under its Mandarin title, “duibuqi, M youqian zhende keyi weisuoyüwei” (sorry, being wealthyed ; 对不起，有钱真的t really lets one get away with anything gh 可以为所欲为). For consistency, in the rest of thisr iarticle I will call the meme “sorry, being wealthy really pletsy one get away with anything” (hereafter “being wealthyo ”), a rough English translation by myself.1 : C In this article, I understand sthes concept of re “translocalism” by demarcating it Pfrom the much more often used term of “translocality.g ” Translocality as a geography-based term refers oton transborder geographic networks or transborder Kmigrant mobility, whereas translocalism refers tog sociopolitically alternative transborder cultural fields,on networks, and interactions. A key aim of this articlef H is to show that translocalism is a neglected yet robust o part of Hong Kong popular culture. This study beginsity with a theoretical review that comes in four partsrs. The first briefly explains the theoretical differencesv ebetween “translocalism” and “translocality,” followedn iby a review of current studies that discuss the translocalU characteristics of Hong Kong popular culture. e Thees third briefly introduces relevant international studies iofn Internet memes and critiques current studies of Hong h Kong memes, and finally, the fourth part provides an C e h T 1. Although the meme expresses a common idea, the Cantonese morpheme ‘daisaai’ carries a haughty and assertive tone that makes it distinctive and recognizable. When Hong Kong netizens use the meme online, they often contain this morpheme, which makes the reference obvious. Hong Kong Studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (Summer 2021) 3 overview of the context of translocal meme-making across Hong Kong and China. The theoretical section will be followed by empirical analysis that focuses on an Internet meme that vividly illustrates Hong Kong popular culture’s translocalism. Theoretical Differences Between ls ia “Translocalism” and “Translocality” er Empirical and theoretical research on the “translocal” at took off since the early 2010s, with hundreds of studiesM d including the terms “translocal” or “translocality” in theirte titles by the late 2010s. Most of these studies investigategh the translocal characteristics of migrants rior the geographic translocality of economic networkspy such as supply chains (Hoerder; Porst and Sakdapolrako ). These two branches of research mainly conceptualize: C the translocal in terms of geographic “place”ss and “mobility” re (Greiner and Sakdapolrak 373) P, giving the term “translocality” a strong spatial connotationg . “Translocalism” is a much olessn used term, and has an ideational connotation. ThereK is a small branch of research that conceptualizes the gtranslocal in terms of the translocalism of globalon cultural dynamics (Kraidy & Murphy), but the f majorityH of these failed to attract subsequent scholarly o attention and empirical analyses. These studies beganty to theorize translocalism in the late 2000s, and focussi on the cultural aspect of the translocal er rather thaniv geographic space or migrant mobility. The ngeographic and cultural conceptions of the U translocale differ in an important theoretical aspect: the tensiones between two interpretative emphases of the trnanslocal, namely, sociopolitically alternative relations hi C and relations between multiple places. (I use the term e ‘alternative’ to describe non-mainstream, subaltern, or h counter-hegemonic relations. Whether a given relation T should be regarded as alternative may involve contested evaluations.) For example, commercial supply chains set up across national borders or wealthy migrant Hong Kong Studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (Summer 2021) 4 businesspersons who travel around a region are translocal in the latter interpretation (i.e. between multiple places) but not necessarily so in the former one (i.e. socio- politically alternative). The geographic conception of the translocal prioritizes the latter interpretation, although they also claim to have covered the former interpretation. In contrast, studies of the cultural aspect of the translocal ls tend to prioritize the former interpretation (Kraidy & a ri Murphy). te I argue that the conceptualization of the translocal as a M geographical translocality is not comprehensive enoughd for the analysis of translocal cultures, and that tethe prioritization of the interpretation of the translocalh as ig sociopolitically alternative relations is crucialyr for understanding translocal cultural phenomena.op In the context of contemporary informationC and communications technology, most forms :of non-material ss culture become hyper-globalized. In otherre words, cultural products and items easily travel across P multiple places, and it is not necessary to define allg such cultural diffusion as translocal. Under these circumstances,n whether a cultural item is sociopoliticallyo alternative should become K an important criterion forg defining it as translocal. This study therefore defineso ntranslocalism as sociopolitically alternative relationsf H between multiple places, and emphasizes that soci o opolitically non-alternative relations between multiplety places should instead be seen as transnational,s i global, or international. The exact er definitioni vof “sociopolitically alternative” is, for sure, difficultn and contested, and future theoretical studies of the translocal U will need to problematize and address this issue.se ne hi C Current Studies of Translocal he Characteristics of Hong Kong Popular T Culture There are existing studies that borrow from the translocal framework to analyze Hong Kong popular culture, some explicitly and others without adopting the specific term Hong Kong Studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (Summer 2021) 5 “translocal.” This section explicates why these studies are inadequate for comprehending the translocalism of Hong Kong popular culture. A theoretically sophisticated and highly cited study on translocal culture in Hong Kong is Eric Ma’s article, “Translocal Spatiality,” but two of its intellectual preferences undermine its utility for clarifying Hong Kong culture’s translocalism: First, as its title ls demonstrates, the article adopts a geographic (“spatial”) a ri conception of the translocal instead of a cultural one. te Second, it investigates the translocalism of hip-hop, a a M culture that originated in the US and Europe, rather thand from Hong Kong or based on distinctive Hong Kongte popular culture (Ma, “Translocal Spatiality”). h ig Another example includes Zhang Yingjin’sy rCinema, Space, and Polylocality in a Globalizing Chinaop and a related article (Zhang, CinemaC; Zhang, “Transnationalism”). They adopt the: geographic ss conception of the translocal and dore not discuss the sociopolitically alternative relations P of Hong Kong films. Chow Yiu Fai’s “Hong Kong Creativeg Workers in Mainland China: The Aspirational, then Precarious, and the Ethical” again adopts a migo ration-based geographic K conception of the translocalg , focusing on Hong Kong migrants’ experiences oinsteadn of Hong Kong culture. Several studies on Hongf H Kong’s popular cultural products slightly emphasize o their social
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