Department of Comparative Literature

The “Self” of Hong Kong Identity and Romance in Hong Kong Pre-Handover Short Stories

Name: Jamie Wing-Tung TSE
(MPhil candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature)
Supervisor: Dr. Sze-Wei ANG

Date: 5 March 2019
Time: 5— 6pm
Venue: Rm 4.36, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
Respondent: Shimin ZHANG

Abstract
How should one define Hong Kong identity? Is there a “Hong Kong identity” in the first place? This seminar discusses the development of Hong Kong identity by exploring Hong Kong romance stories written in the Pre-Handover Period (1982-1997). With a close reading of two short stories written by local writers in their own language, namely Xi Xi’s “A Girl Like Me” (1983) and Dung Kai Cheung’s “Cecilia” (1992), I look at how the connection between romance and Hong Kong’s identity is woven into a post-colonial experience of self-searching. The sense of displacement and anxiety that the two protagonists experience in their doomed romance mirror Hong Kong people’s uncertainty towards their future and collective identity when the 1997 Handover approached.

The Pre-Handover Period plays an essential part in the shaping of Hong Kong identity as the handover to Communist China imposed a sense of crisis on Hong Kong society which drove the locals to an urgent search of a collective identity. It was also a distinct period in which Hong Kong society openly and widely discussed questions of autonomy and identity for the first time. Hong Kong Pre-Handover literature, therefore, serves as a necessary constituent to forming as well as understanding Hong Kong’s culture and identity. On the other hand, there is a lack of studies on Hong Kong romance literature since scholars have stigmatized this genre as commercialized products for casual consumption. However, I would like to argue that Hong Kong Pre- Handover romance narratives do not only provide emotional escapism, but also catharsis to Hong Kong people’s fear of losing their culture and identity in the face of critical change.

Biography
Jamie Tse Wing Tung is a final year MPhil student in the Department of Comparative Literature of the University of Hong Kong, where she received a BA degree in the same field in 2016. Her interest in identity first began during her stay at Seoul National University when she had the opportunity to go on exchange as an undergraduate. Apart from becoming proficient in Korean, she also pursued multidisciplinary studies which included philosophy, cultural theory, and literature. She was deeply inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism and Albert Camus’s Absurdism, which later became a major influence on her research and writing. After returning to Hong Kong and obtaining her bachelor’s degree, she took a one-year break from studying to experiment with creative writing and teaching. Jamie aspires to contribute to Hong Kong culture and literature as both a researcher and a writer.

ALL ARE WELCOME