Disappearance

Ackbar Abbas's book is really inspiring, let people get down to think about this condition. Did Hong Kong have it's own culture and heritage? Is this same as the one in mainland? ... So many questions.

Before RETURN, Hong Kong is like a port (it is a real port, I mean it's floating identity, most people just regarded HK as a place for earn a living, not home). And suddenly, HK realize that they were very much different from the mainland, arguments on identity became popular. And this topic is somewhat related with individual memory, collective memory and spatial identity. I don't deny that HK is politically one part of China, but we cannot ignore the influence of Colonialism on it. "Colonial cities can be viewed as the forerunners of what the contemporary capitalist world city would eventually become." (Ackbar Abbas, p.3). Additionaly, the influence is not a mere economic blossom, it also drive HK from a trading port to a globle city (world city).

Everyone at that time must be happy on how much money they earn, however, this kind of one directional development can cause to culture disappearance of a city. People cannot choose their government, but they can choose what to buy.

We always say that HK (or any other global city in Asia) is the place where east meet west. THis can be visualized in architectures. There are lots of architectures, colonial style or Chinese style, remained in the HK island, evident that both culture have great influence on this place. Ackbar Abbas said there are three main types of architecture: Merely Local/ Placeless/Anonymous, the places we went today: Pokfulam Village / Wah Fu Estate / Waterfall Bay, also fit in that structure. Pokfulan Village is one part of Merely Local, which seems unique from the tall modern buildings stands along Victoria Bay, belonging to another historical era but still existing now. The out-appearance may change by time, and the function of the place may also change (The Diary Farm), but people's memory still lives, both collective memory and private memory. The disappearance of physical functional usage highlight for scholars/neighbourhoods what still remains. Refer to Wah Fu Estate, once the luxury houses, I'm not quiet sure is it a merely local or anonymous. Because if I don't know its history or the story or those buildings, I don't see any difference of that with all the living houses in Shek Kip Mei in terms of outside. Because of the hyperdensity, HK need this kind of living houses. In terms of the Waterfall Bay, I was really impressed by all the buddha statues, which were abandoned when people move away. It is the mountains of buddha statues. Actually, in my perspective, throwing away buddha statues is not respectful to buddha. My grandmother believe in Buddhism, so under her influence, even though I am not totally believe in this, I somehow respect them. For this part of journey, I think the disappearance is inversed compared with the disappearance in Hong Kong Culture. The statue is still here, but the respect and believe in Buddha disappear, while for HK Culture, Culture is always there but it is people didn't recognize them as kind of culture.