scholarly journals Heterotopic Heritage in Hong Kong: Tai Kwun and Neo-Victorian Carceral Space

Humanities ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Ho
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Art Museum ◽  
Current Status ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Original Definition ◽  
Prison Art ◽  
Financial Arrangements ◽  
Postcolonial History

The prison is specifically identified by Michel Foucault in his essay, ‘Of Other Spaces’ (1967), as an exemplar of “heterotopias of deviation”. Reified in neo-Victorian production as a hegemonic space to be resisted, within which illicit desire, feminist politics, and alternate narratives, for example, flourish under harsh panoptic conditions, the prison nonetheless emerges as a counter-site to both nineteenth-century and contemporary social life. This article investigates the neo-Victorian prison museum that embodies several of Foucault’s heterotopic principles and traits from heterochronia to the dynamics of illusion, compensation/exclusion and inclusion that structure the relationship of heterotopic space to all space. Specifically, I explore the heritage site of the Central Police Station compound in Hong Kong, recently transformed into “Tai Kwun: the Centre for Heritage and the Arts”. Tai Kwun (“Big Station” in Cantonese) combines Victorian and contemporary architecture, carceral space, contemporary art, and postcolonial history to herald the transformation of Hong Kong into an international arts hub. Tai Kwun is an impressive example of neo-Victorian adaptive reuse, but its current status as a former prison, art museum, and heritage space complicates the celebratory aspects of heterotopia as counter-site. Instead, Tai Kwun’s spatial, historical, and financial arrangements emphasize the challenges that tourism, government funding, heritage, and the art industry pose for Foucault’s original definition of heterotopia and our conception of the politics of neo-Victorianism in the present.

Hooke recommemorated

1996 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-140
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
Robert Hooke ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Personal Interaction ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Christ Church ◽  
History Of

Richard Nichols, The Diaries of Robert Hooke, The Leonardo of London, 1635-1703 . Lewes, Sussex: The Book Guild, 1994, Pp. 185, £15.00. ISBN 0- 86332-930-6. Richard Nichols is a science master turned historian of science who celebrates in this book Robert Hooke’s contributions to the arts and sciences. The appreciation brings together comments from Hooke’s Diaries , and other works, on each of his main enterprises, and on his personal interaction with each of his principal friends and foes. Further references to Hooke and his activities are drawn from Birch’s History of the Royal Society, Aubrey’s Brief Lives , and the Diaries of Evelyn and of Pepys. The first section of the book, ‘Hooke the Man’, covers his early years of education at home in Freshwater, at Westminster school and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he soon joined the group of experimental philosophers who set him up as Curator of the Royal Society and Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, Bishopsgate. Hooke’s domestic life at Gresham College is described - his intimate relationships with a series of housekeepers, including his niece, Grace Hooke, and his social life at the College and in the London coffee houses.

scholarly journals Social Condition of England during the Wars of the Roses

1902 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 159-200
Author(s):  
Vincent B. Redstone
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
English History ◽  
Class A ◽  
The North ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wars Of The Roses ◽  
Social Habits ◽  
North And South ◽  
Better Than

The social life of the inhabitants of England during the years of strife which brought about the destruction of the feudal nobility, gave to the middle class a new position in the State, and freed the serf from the shackles of bondage, has been for some time past a subject of peculiar interest to the student of English history. If we desire to gain an accurate knowledge of the social habits and customs prevalent during this period of political disturbance, we cannot do better than direct our attention towards that part of the country which was the least affected by the contest between the Houses of York and Lancaster, the eastern district of England, which since the days of King John had enjoyed a remarkable immunity from civil war. Here the powerful lords of the North and South found little support; the vast estates of the old feudal barons were broken up into numerous independent manors. Moreover the arts of peace, in the shape of the mysteries of trade, manufactures, and commerce, widely flourished among the inhabitants of these regions.

Inventing the Social

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Wilkie
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Creative Practice ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social

Inventing the Social, edited by Noortje Marres, Michael Guggenheim and Alex Wilkie, showcases recent efforts to develop new ways of knowing society that combine social research with creative practice. With contributions from leading figures in sociology, architecture, geography, design, anthropology, and digital media, the book provides practical and conceptual pointers on how to move beyond the customary distinctions between knowledge and art, and on how to connect the doing, researching and making of social life in potentially new ways. Presenting concrete projects with a creative approach to researching social life as well as reflections on the wider contexts from which these projects emerge, this collection shows how collaboration across social science, digital media and the arts opens up timely alternatives to narrow, instrumentalist proposals that seek to engineer behaviour and to design community from scratch. To invent the social is to recognise that social life is always already creative in itself and to take this as a starting point for developing different ways of combining representation and intervention in social life.

New-Media-Based Attention Implosion and Television Publicness in the Era of Internet-TV Convergence

2011 ◽  
pp. 107-122
Author(s):  
Francis L. F. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
New Media ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Audience Fragmentation ◽  
Internet Tv ◽  
Collective Attention ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses how television captures and organizes the attention of the mass public in the age of media convergence. It is argued that media proliferation and technological convergence have led to a fragmented audience. Paradoxically, audience fragmentation also provides the condition for the powerful return of collective attention in the case of new-media-based attention implosion. This chapter uses the case of the extraordinary (online) popularity of television drama character Brother Laughing in Hong Kong to illustrate the phenomenon of new-media-based attention implosion and the dynamics behind it. The analysis shows that attention implosion is generated by audience members’ time-space shifting practices and key individuals’ organizational efforts, both facilitated by the new media. It led to the formation of an interpretive public surrounding the fictional character. Implications of the phenomenon on our understanding of the relationship between television, social life, and collective public attention are discussed.

The professional development needs for the use of educational technology

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kam-Cheong Li ◽  
Billy Tak-Ming Wong
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Development ◽  
Educational Technology ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Professional Development Needs ◽  
Hong Kong Higher Education

Purpose This study aimed to identify the professional development needs of academics in Hong Kong higher education for the use of educational technology. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted in 2017, which involved 374 academics from Hong Kong higher education institutions. The survey covered their perception and use of educational technology for professional activities and their relevant professional development needs. Findings The results showed an overall positive perception by the academics of the usefulness of online learning with the aid of technology, which was regarded as an effective complement to face-to-face learning. However, their use of educational technology focused only on general online applications, such as document and video-sharing tools, and e-learning platforms. Among various professional development needs, those related to the use of specific educational software with sharing of practical examples were considered to be most highly desired by the academics. In addition, the academics working in lecturer positions tended to use more online applications and had a higher need for professional development, than those with more teaching experience. Originality/value The findings contribute to identifying the current status of the use of educational technology and the professional development needs among academics in Hong Kong, as well as the differences between academics in different job positions and with different amounts of teaching experience. The results help in designing suitable professional development activities which address the specific needs of academics.

scholarly journals The (Unequal) Relationship between Hong Kong’s Waters and China’s Baselines

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Nina H.B. Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Legal Relationship ◽  
Baseline System

This article aims to clarify the legal relationship between Hong Kong’s maritime areas and China’s baseline system by conducting an historical inquiry into how the current status quo was reached and considering the implications for Hong Kong’s future development. China’s well-known position is that the treaties granting authority to the British in Hong Kong, including the ninety-nine year lease of the New Territories, were ‘unequal’ and therefore invalid so that sovereignty over the land and waters of Hong Kong never left Chinese hands and this position would be recognized and remedied at the appropriate time. As the Hong Kong experience illustrates, when territory is surrendered or leased, rights and claims are altered and sometimes extended. The historical evolution of those rights and claims therefore impacts on current territorial relationships. The example of Hong Kong may additionally serve as a reference point for modern day lease arrangements concerning coastal territory made outside the colonial context.

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