Lingnan University Digital Commons @ Lingnan University Bachelor of Social Sciences – Senior Theses Undergraduate Open Access Dissertations 5-2019 The promulgation of urban legends in Hong Kong: Li's field as a case study Lok Sang, Stephen LEE Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.ln.edu.hk/socsci_fyp Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Lee, L. S. S. (2019). The promulgation of urban legends in Hong Kong: Li's field as a case study (UG dissertation, Lingnan University, Hong Kong). Retrieved from http://commons.ln.edu.hk/socsci_fyp/17 This UG Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Open Access Dissertations at Digital Commons @ Lingnan University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Bachelor of Social Sciences – Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Lingnan University. 2018-2019 Second Semester SSC4319 - Senior Thesis The promulgation of urban legends in Hong Kong: Li's field as a case study Lee Lok Sang, Stephen (4003799) Date of submission: 02/05/2019 Instructor: Dr. Sharon Chan Acknowledgement First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my instructor, Dr. Sharon Chan, for her patience, guidance and involvement. Her advices fostered the completion of my final year project. Without her detailed and constructive advices, I would not be able to complete this rigorous thesis alone. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my friends who facilitated the recruitment of interviewees for this thesis project, since it is of utmost difficulty to approach employees from an array of employment sectors. I also appreciate the efforts and involvement from the nine participants, who sacrificed their precious time to engage in this project. Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge the support from my family members, my former committee members of the Students’ Union Press Bureau, faculty members of the university, and those who were involved in this project. Without their support, I would have the stamina to continue this project. 1 Table of Content Introduction 4 Literature Review 4 Definition of urban legends 5 Differences between the colloquial and academic understandings of urban 6 legends Theoretical rationales of creating and spreading urban legends 7 The promulgation of urban legends 8 Urban legends in the process of urbanization 8 Urban legends, Hong Kong and the choice of Li’s Field for study 9 The origin of the Li’s Field urban legend 10 Typhoon warning system and typhoon vacations 12 Li’s Field as an urban legend 15 Research Objectives 20 Research Questions 20 Interpretive framework 20 Methodology 22 Choice of data collection methods 23 Sampling methods 28 Data collection 31 Data storage 33 Data preparation 34 Data analysis 35 Data Validation and Quality Issues 38 Characteristics of the sample 39 Research Findings 42 The semantic breakdown of this urban legend’s name 42 2 Symbols to transmit the urban legends 55 The scientific validity of this urban legend 79 Attitudes towards the Li’s Field 87 Purposes behind the participation in serial transmissions 91 The promulgation pattern of Li’s Field 107 Stable and Variant elements 118 Discussion 122 Relating Li’s Field with the theoretical legacy 123 Reflections on the promulgation patterns 127 Climate catalyzing the emergence of the Li’s Field 133 The Future of the Li’s Field urban legend 143 Limitations 146 Future Studies 147 Conclusion 149 Declaration of Conflicting Interests 150 References 151 Appendices 165 Appendix 1: Consent form for individual structured interviews 165 Appendix 2: Interview Guide for individual structured interviews 167 Appendix 3: Summary of Interviewees 179 Appendix 4: Summary of typhoons necessitating typhoon signal no.8 or above 183 Appendix 5: Diagram on the number of typhoons necessitating signals no.8 and 190 typhoon holidays from 1991 to 2018 in Hong Kong Appendix 6: Table illustrating the typhoon hitting time in relation to standard 191 working hours, from 1991 to 2018 Appendix 7: The typhoon hitting time in relation to days of a week 195 Appendix 8: Selective news blaming the Hong Kong Observatory from 1991 to 197 2006 3 1. Introduction In the midst of rapid social changes and modernization, urban legends survive as a stable but evolving structure which exist in many distinct and universal societies. To satisfy one’s psychological and social urges, people1 could actively engage in and swap between the roles of creators, co-creators and listeners of urban legends. Undeniably, the existence of urban legends have been taken for granted, as manifested by their recurring appearances in social interactions with social members like family members and acquaintances. Unlike fairy tales or historical stories, urban legends do trigger larger public attention and intrigue, even if the narrative elements of a typical urban legend are ambiguous and difficult to validate. Despite Weber’s (1958) articulation of the rationalized modern society, the mania for urban legends may follow a contradiction with evidence- based modern science. While these urban stories successfully acquire mass public attention for pure entertainment, little do we know why these stories are being told. Despite being taken for granted, it is of interest to unveil the facade of urban legends and understand why they are created and how they are sustained, as well as the implicit meanings conveyed. 2. Literature Review Prior to the emergence of the term “urban legends”, there have been numerous systematic and continuous researches focusing on “rumours” in the domains of “psychology, anthropology, and folklore studies” (Guerin & Miyazaki, 2006). In the 80’s, the notion of urban legends was introduced by several scholars to distinguish it from rumours. Notably, Brunvand (1981) collected, categorized, and analysed a list of American urban legends. While considerable work have been done on Western urban legends, there is an obvious shortage of related researches in the East. 1 Meanwhile, invisible social forces, such as the mass media and information technology, are also involved in the promulgation of urban legends. 4 Definition of urban legends Guerin and Miyazaki (2006) characterized urban legends as a “narrative form with a story plot that encourages listening”. Brunvand (1981) also defined urban legends as realistic stories involving “recent events or alleged events, with an ironic or supernatural twist”. He believed that urban legends are a “subclass” of folklore, in which traditional materials are disseminated within a group in either oral or other means. To further elaborate, he proposed several characteristics of urban legends: Firstly, most urban legends are structured in a containment of “variant” and “stable elements”. The “variant” nature refers to the existence of multiple versions of legends owing to the verbal distortions by each social member in successive “serial transmission(s)” (Shibutani, 1966). Consequently, the “communal recreation” (Shibutani, 1966) of a prototype urban legend occurs, in which people engage in collective transaction of meanings through attributing new materials. On the other hand, “stable elements” refers to the recurring cultural symbols of society in urban legends with distinctively different themes, such as the implicit themes of consolidating the norms, making criticisms, and expressing fears towards human behaviour and the status quo (Brunvand, 1981). Secondly, similar to fairy tales beginning with “Once upon a time”, urban legends always have ambiguous background, making them difficult to be verified yet being able to be framed as a “true event”. In order to amplify the trustworthiness, urban legends are always told in relation to “someone close to the narrator of the story” (Brunvand, 1981). Hence, even if essential details are missing, many people still believe they are true in some sense. Thirdly, the performance of urban legends is “carefully orchestrated” (Brunvand, 1981). Similar to ghost stories storytelling, the narrator always creates an ambience of suspense and adopts jump scare tactics (e.g. sudden scream). However, in telling urban legends, the narrator simultaneously requires a degree of seriousness, hence eliciting the listeners’ intrigue and emotions, as well as increasing the credibility of these narratives. 5 Differences between the colloquial and academic understandings of urban legends In colloquial usage, “urban legends” is often used interchangeably with “gossips“, “rumours”, or “conspiracy theories”. Nonetheless, these terms are conceptualized in slightly different ways: While both gossips and rumours are short statements2, gossips are concerned with persons acquainted with the narrators or the listeners, which cannot provoke general interest, while rumours are concerned with persons or institutions which can provoke general interest (Guerin & Miyazaki, 2006). Shibutani (1966) defined rumours as “a false report, or at least one which is unverified and probably false”, and Allport and Postman (1946) exemplified it by discussing the rumours concerning Hitler’s death3, which cannot be verified due to the “lack of news”, but still successfully provoked large public attention. Finally, conspiracy theory was defined as “a proposed plot by powerful people or organizations [institutions] working together in secret to accomplish some (usually sinister) goal” (Wood, Douglas & Sutton, 2012). In other words, conspiracy theories4 are allegations of the powerful agencies which have hidden agenda for norm-violating purposes.