Date:May 17(Mon.) , 2010 15:00- 17:00
Venue:Inamori Memorial Hall, Small Seminar Room II
Chaired by Caroline S. Hau, Center for Southeast Asian Studies Kyoto University
Speaker: Professor Pheng Cheah, University of California, Berkeley
The official advertisement celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China credits Hong Kong's success to its status as the premier world city of Asia ("Asia's World City") and to its economic position as "the prime gateway to China". But what is also proclaimed in denegation (Verneinung) is a pervasive worry about Hong Kong's ability to remain competitive as a mediating zone between global capital and the mainland in the face of the rise of other Asian global cities such as Shanghai and Singapore. At the same time, global flows have also generated needs, fantasies and desires that have exacerbated preexisting divisions and inequalities and also led to deep structural changes in Hong Kong society. This paper argues that Fruit Chan's Hollywood, Hong Kong offers a satirical mapping and dark critique of Hong Kong's position as a global city within the contemporary capitalist world system.