A Displaced City and Postmemory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijie Song
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Martial Arts ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
South Side ◽  
Liang Shiqiu ◽  
Jin Yong ◽  
Literary Topography ◽  
The City

This chapter examines how Sinophone writers from PRC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong compose their Beijing narratives to articulate their anxiety and desire, frustrated and fluid subjectivities. Liang Shiqiu a Beijing native, Taipei dweller, literary guru, and sophisticated connoisseur of fine cuisine, writes about Beijing cuisine to evoke emotional affiliation, gastronomic nostalgia, and imagined reunion. Both originally from Taiwan, Lin Haiyin romanticizes her memory of the south side of Beijing from an innocent girl’s perspective, while Zhong Lihe sharply criticizes the inferior and filthy life of Beijing’s social underclass and paints a bleak urban picture in his disillusioning discovery of the old capital during the Chinese Civil War. Hong Kong émigré writer Jin Yong intertwines literary topography and martial-arts fantasy, inscribes post-loyalist attachments and detachments onto the city, and suggests a hybrid and flexible identity, formed in the chivalric gestures of intervening in core political urban settings and fleeing to the margins and frontiers. In the shadow of World Wars and Cold War, a dislocated and relocated Beijing appears in the border-crossing diasporic writing and Sinophone postmemory.

The Nanyang Ethos and Engendering the Chinese Overseas Experience

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-149
Author(s):  
Jing Jing Chang
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Chinese Woman ◽  
Industrial Community ◽  
Chinese Overseas ◽  
Industrial Modernity

Chapter 5 argues that Chinese overseas is a privileged narrative focus providing a vantage point from which to explore the importance of Southeast Asia or Nanyang as ethos and imaginary in 1950s and 1960s Hong Kong films. As a border-crossing process and imaginary, Nanyang not only contributed to the survival of Hong Kong’s film industry between the 1950s and 1960s, but it also fuelled the transformation and construction of the colony as a nodal site amid 1960s industrialization. In order to explore Nanyang’s role in Hong Kong’s narrative path toward industrial modernity, this chapter first examines the shifting colonial, statist and cinematic conceptions of Cold War citizenship, allegiance, nationality, and gendered labor. Second, this chapter discusses two politically-driven filmic projections of the Nanyang ethos, arguing that both films continue to conceal contentious ideological and bipolarized conceptions of Chinese national subjectivity. The chapter ends with an analysis on The Story between Hong Kong and Macau (Yishui ge tianya, dir. Cho Kei, 1966), which moves beyond a paternalistic studio-centered approach to reveal how narratives about the travelling Chinese woman and the Nanyang continue to negotiate with narratives of gendered work and gendered economy in the process of screening Hong Kong’s modern industrial community.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man-Fung Yip
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Martial Arts ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Open Door Policy ◽  
British Colony ◽  
Service Oriented ◽  
The One ◽  
Great Prosperity ◽  
Post Cultural Revolution ◽  
The City

An underlying premise of this book is that Hong Kong martial arts cinema from the mid-1960s through the end of the 1970s, marked by new aesthetic and thematic directions as well as by new practices of transnationality, is best conceptualized as a cultural counterpart and response to processes of modernization and modernity that were shaping the former British colony. But despite its specific time focus, the issues explored in the book have broader significance and are useful for understanding martial arts films of more recent times. Without doubt, Hong Kong continued and intensified its march towards urban-capitalist modernization throughout the 1980s, the 1990s, and beyond. The pace of growth—economically, socially, and demographically—showed no signs of slowing during the period. On the one hand, the population expanded from 4 million in 1970 to 6.7 million in 2000. On the other hand, although the economy underwent a process of restructuring in the 1980s when the “Open Door” policy of post–Cultural Revolution China and other factors resulted in the relocation of Hong Kong’s industrial sector to the mainland and triggered its transition from labor-intensive manufacturing to finance- and service-oriented industries, the city continued to enjoy great prosperity and had by the mid-1990s established itself as one of the world’s foremost centers of international trade and finance. Rapid growth spawned more transportation, shops, infrastructure, entertainment, and commodities. As a result, the city became more congested, frantic, and noisy—in short, perceptually busier and more intense—than ever before. Meanwhile, gender relations and identities were also in constant reformulation as both men and women tried to negotiate the changing social, economic, and political contexts of Hong Kong....

Mapping Modern Beijing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijie Song
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Urban Transition ◽  
Liang Shiqiu ◽  
Globalizing World ◽  
Imperial Capital ◽  
Private And Public

Mapping Modern Beijing investigates five methods of representing Beijing- a warped hometown, a city of snapshots and manners, an aesthetic city, an imperial capital in comparative and cross-cultural perspective, and a displaced city on the Sinophone and diasporic postmemory—by authors traveling across mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas Sinophone and non-Chinese communities. The metamorphosis of Beijing’s everyday spaces and the structural transformation of private and public emotions unfold Manchu writer Lao She’s Beijing complex about a warped native city. Zhang Henshui’s popular snapshots of fleeting shocks and everlasting sorrows illustrate his affective mapping of urban transition and human manners in Republican Beijing. Female poet and architect Lin Huiyin captures an aesthetic and picturesque city vis-à-vis the political and ideological urban planning. The imagined imperial capital constructed in bilingual, transcultural, and comparative works by Lin Yutang, Princess Der Ling, and Victor Segalen highlights the pleasures and pitfalls of collecting local knowledge and presenting Orientalist and Cosmopolitan visions. In the shadow of World Wars and Cold War, a multilayered displaced Beijing appears in the Sinophone postmemory by diasporic Beijing natives Liang Shiqiu, Taiwan sojourners Zhong Lihe and Lin Haiyin, and émigré martial-arts novelist Jin Yong in Hong Kong. Weijie Song situates Beijing in a larger context of modern Chinese-language urban imaginations, and charts the emotional topography of the city against the backdrop of the downfall of the Manchu Empire, the rise of modern nation-state, the 1949 great divide, and the formation of Cold War and globalizing world. Drawing from literary canons to exotic narratives, from modernist poetry to chivalric fantasy, from popular culture to urban planning, this book explores the complex nexus of urban spaces, archives of emotions, and literary topography of Beijing in its long journey from imperial capital to Republican city and to socialist metropolis.

Prologue Cold War Hong Kong

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscilla Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Economic Networks ◽  
The World ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
1997 Handover ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The City ◽  
Nodal Position

For Hong Kong, the Cold War was a distinct and crucial period in its own evolution and in its relations with China and the rest of the world. Without the global clash of ideologies, the city might well have failed to win and keep the key nodal position it attained in those years. Economically, intellectually, socially, and culturally, the Cold War years were crucial in ensuring that Hong Kong became a unique and cosmopolitan metropolis. Hong Kong, whatever its limitations—and it could at times be parochial, inward looking, and self-obsessed—was set on the path to become one of the world’s greatest and most vibrant cities, a city that would play a key role in the modernization of Greater China, especially the mainland, even as it developed a sense of specifically Hong Kong identity. From its outset, Hong Kong has been unique. During the Cold War and in many ways thanks to the demands, challenges, and opportunities arising from that conflict, already established social, economic, political, and administrative patterns of behavior within Hong Kong were intensified and adapted, transforming the territory. Run initially by British officials but increasingly by local Hong Kong recruits to the civil service, a hub not just for economic networks of capital and governmental exchanges of every variety but also for transnational intellectual, political, and social interchanges at every level, Hong Kong was one of a kind, its essence almost undefinable. Hong Kong developed its own voice, one that, perhaps muted in the immediate aftermath of the 1997 handover and the Asian economic crisis, is once more becoming ever more discernible. Its greatest contribution to China’s modernization may yet lie in the future....

From Haifa to Ramallah (and Back): New/Old Palestinian Literary Topography

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-42
Author(s):  
Amal Eqeiq
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
National Imaginary ◽  
Palestinian Literature ◽  
Literary Topography ◽  
The City

This article explores border crossing and the Palestinian city as a literary metropolis—two major themes in the works of emerging Palestinian novelists in Israel. It looks at the “re-Palestinization” of urban space by writers who belong to a post-Oslo generation of Palestinian intellectuals that left villages and small towns in Israel to go and study, work, and live in the city. What distinguishes the literature of this generation is its negotiation of border crossing in a fragmented geography and its engagement with the city as a space of paradoxical encounter between a national imaginary and a settler-colonial reality. Based on a critical reading of their works, the article argues that Adania Shibli and Ibtisam Azem challenge colonial border discourse, exposing the ongoing Zionist erasure of the Palestinian city and creating a new topography for Palestinian literature. The article also traces the role of these writers in the “twinning” of Haifa and Ramallah starting in the late 1990s, and it examines how this literary and cultural “sisterhood” informs spatial resistance.

scholarly journals THE TRANSCULTURAL SEMANTICS IN THE WORKS BY JIN YONG

2019 ◽  
pp. 200-212
Author(s):  
V. V. Seligey
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Martial Arts ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
May Fourth Movement ◽  
Chinese Tradition ◽  
The Third ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Jin Yong ◽  
China Mainland ◽  
Sense Of Justice

The works by Chinese Hong Kong writer Jin Yong (1924-2018) fare in the focus of Chinese readers’ attention as the exemplified wu-xia literature. His novels only recently became the object of literary studies within China, and are seen as an alternative to the literary discourse founded by the May Fourth Movement. The article is focused on the transcultural qualities of his prose. Though the imagery and background in his works are distinctly ancient Chinese, embodying the genre principle ancient clothing“’, a lot of techniques, including plot development, characters’ traits are highly reminiscent of Western literature, namely the works by A. Dumas and Shakespearean drama. The Chinese component in the work by Jin Yong is defined as threefold. The first and the most easily noticed is the language, drastically different from China mainland official Putonghua or Mandarin, seen as a complicated sometimes to eccentricity mixture of baihua and wenyan, the lively bright and colorful idiom literally breathing the Chinese tradition. The second component is defined by the titular wu-xia genre. The necessary core of Jin Yong’s novels imagery is the ethics and aesthetics of Chinese legendary “river and lake” chivalric society, with its strong and straightforward sense of justice, martial arts, romance, mysticism and complicated political intrigues. The third component is represented by the vast dialogue with the Chinese canon, from the ancient chronicles to the pre-modern novels such as “The Dream of the Red Chamber’’. It can take the form of creative rethinking and character modernization, almost always with distinct irony.

Incidência da utilização de protetores bucais em diversos esportes de contato

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (45) ◽  
pp. 118-122
Author(s):  
Victor Paes Dias Gonçalves ◽  
Hugo Leonardo Matias Nahmias ◽  
Marcus Menezes Alves Azevedo
Keyword(s):  
Martial Arts ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Dental Trauma ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Type Ii ◽  
Contact Sports ◽  
The Face ◽  
Secondary Objective ◽  
The City

Among contact sports, the practice of martial arts offers a greater risk of causing dental trauma and fractures as contact with the face is more frequent. The primary objective of the research is to evaluate the incidence of mouthguard use, and the secondary objective is to verify which type has a greater predominance and the difficulties in its use correlating to the type of mouthguard used. A documentary study was carried out with 273 athletes of different contact sports, among them: MMA, Boxing, Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu, and Taekwondo of the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was concluded that the most commonly used mouthguard is PB Boils and Bites - Type II and its level of approval is poor, interfering with the athletes’ performance, mainly in relation to the breathing factor.

scholarly journals Blending Myth and Modernity in the Global Chinese Cinema: The Hong Kong Action Hero in Zhang Yimou-Directed Hero

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
Dhruba Karki
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Martial Arts ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Body Art ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
Chinese Cinema ◽  
Chinese Empire ◽  
Action Hero

 Zhang Yimou’s Hero presents an action hero, yet in a slightly different cinematic mode than that of Stephen Chow-directed Shaolin Soccer to blend myth and modernity. In Yimou’s martial arts cinema, Jet Li-starred Nameless hero uses martial arts to combat the king’s adversaries, including Donnie Yen-starred Long Sky, Maggie Cheung-starred Flying Snow and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai-starred Broken Sword in the service to the Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 207 BC). The warrior hero’s indigenous body art helps the Qin Dynasty transform the smaller warring kingdoms into a powerful Chinese Empire, a strong foundation of modern China with economic and military superpower. Like their western counterparts, including T1000 and Neo, the Hong Kong action heroes, such as the warrior hero and the Qin King have been refashioned in the Hollywood controlled twentieth-century popular culture. Different from their Hollywood counterparts in actions, the Hong Kong action heroes in Hero primarily use their trained bodies and martial skills to promote the Chinese civilization, an adaptation of the Hollywood tradition of technologized machine body. Reworking of myth and archetype in Nameless’s service to the Qin Dynasty and the emperor’s mission to incept the Chinese Empire, the Hong Kong action heroes appear on screen, a blend of tradition and modernity. The film industry’s projection of the Chinese history with the legendary action heroes, including Nameless soldier and the Qin King globalizes the indigenous Chinese culture by using modern electronic digital technology, a resonance of the western technological advancement.

Productive engagement and ageing in productivist welfare regimes: questing for an age-friendly city in Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Zhuoyi Wen ◽  
Ka Ho Mok ◽  
Padmore Adusei Amoah
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Voluntary Engagement ◽  
Social Provisions ◽  
The City ◽  
Cross National ◽  
Productive Engagement

Abstract The population aged 65 years and above in Hong Kong is projected to rise from 15 per cent in 2014 to 38.4 per cent in 2069. Therefore, the quest for creating age-friendly conditions and the promotion of active ageing has become a priority for the Hong Kong Government and stakeholders in the city. Using a cross-national comparative framework for productive engagement in later life, this article examines the predictors of productive engagement (perceived voluntary engagement) in two districts (the Islands and Tsuen Wan) of Hong Kong – a typical productivist welfare regime in Asia. Data were collected through a social survey to ascertain the perception of an age-friendly city and active ageing in 2016 and 2018 from 1,638 persons aged 60 years and older. The results indicate some differences in the perception of the key determinants in both districts, but the factors associated with productive engagement were consistent, namely social atmosphere, social provisions and the built environment. The findings are discussed within the broader discourse on social gerontology, age-friendly cities and productivist welfare regimes.

Atomized urbanism: secrecy and security from the Gulag to the Soviet closed cities

Urban History ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Asif Siddiqi
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Urban Geography ◽  
General Public ◽  
Early History ◽  
Physical Isolation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Camp System ◽  
Spatial Terms ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The City

Abstract This article recovers the early history of the Soviet ‘closed city’, towns that during the Cold War were absent from maps and unknown to the general public due to their involvement in weapons research. I argue that the closed cities echoed and appropriated features of the Stalinist Gulag camp system, principally their adoption of physical isolation and the language of obfuscation. In doing so, I highlight a process called ‘atomized urbanism’ that embodies the tension between the obdurate reality of the city and the goal of the state to obliterate that reality through secrecy. In spatial terms, ‘atomized’ also describes the urban geography of these cities which lacked any kind of organic suburban expansion.

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