My Research
My thesis arises out of the observation that much attention in postcolonial studies has been given to economically less developed regions, while the unique postcoloniality of Hong Kong is seldom addressed. Hong Kong was passed from the hands of a once powerful empire, Britain, to a rising superpower, China, and the transition was carried out to create minimum turbulence to Hong Kong's status quo as a global financial centre. Since postcolonial Hong Kong had money but no independence, existing vocabularies in postcolonial studies, such as "the subaltern", as well as strategies of resistance common in some African, Latin American or Asian contexts, fail to elucidate the condition of Hong Kong. This transition from the postcolonial to the neocolonial also ought to warrant more attention, especially in light of China's rise as possibly another neocolonial power in Africa and the Middle East. The situation is further complicated when English literature is much neglected in the city. Given English's pragmatic value in securing a good career, English literature is almost invisible to the majority of the Hong Kong population. In postcolonial literary studies, not only is Hong Kong anglophone literature almost unknown to the world and international academia, but postcolonial literary studies often assumes that postcolonial literatures articulate concerns of the mass public of the post-independent nations - hence issues of identity, grassroot struggles etc. - something that Hong Kong English literature cannot share.
Hence, believing that it is high time Hong Kong anglophone literature emerged as a voice of East Asian English literature, this thesis puts to task both postcolonial studies and the field of Hong Kong English literature, and examines what can be learnt from each other. Hence in terms of theoretical positioning, the thesis will begin with postcolonial studies and narrow down to postcolonial literary studies in later chapters, noticeably encompassing a variety of disciplines and perspectives.
Here is a list of tentative chapters:
Introduction - Situating Hong Kong in Post-/Neo-colonial Imaginings
- Contextualises Hong Kong in the current debates and problematics in postcolonial studies
Chapter 1 - Critiquing Hong Kong Identity: Essentialization and Resistance
- Surveys how a rising civic awareness and social movement in Hong Kong since 2010 has marked the rebirth of a new indigenous Hong Kong identity - a development that I believe is more in line with but simultaneously departs from "traditional" postcolonial concerns
Chapter 2 - Rethinking Race and its Discourse in post-colonial Hong Kong
- Critiques how the localized identity in Chapter 1 has in turn marginalized communities of non-ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong
Chapter 3 - New Linguistic Imperialisms: Unknotting Language Politics in Neocolonial Hong Kong
- Untangles the complex language politics in neocolonial Hong Kong, where Cantonese, Mandarin and English all compete for different definitions of prestige
Chapter 4 - English Literature in Hong Kong: Past, Present and Future
- Surveys the development of Hong Kong English literature so far, arguing that the field has in general been somewhat elitist and expat-oriented, and calling for a reorientation to the "local"
Chapter 5 - Local Imaginations: Representations of Hong Kong Identities in Anglophone Literature
- Samples a range of literary texts to further illustrate the arguments of Chapter 4. My review work with Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
(see "Literary Reviews" under publications) has broadened my exposure to Hong Kong English writers, such as Xu Xi, Nicholas Wong, Agnes Lam and others.
Conclusion - Revisiting Post-/Neo-colonial Hong Kong: Keeping Neocolonial Hong Kong in Check