Hong Kong People, where have our culture gone? culture, Kong, Hong, People, gone

Ovaltine

Catopop is gone, disintegrated. The Cinema of Hong Kong is lost, with exception to Johnny To. The mass media of Hong Kong have become National Enquirer.  What happened to the culture of Hong Kong? Was it ever here? Or are we just a bunch of copy cats? When Hong Kong was the British colony, thousands flocks to come see the glory of the east meeting west. What have all that turned to now? It sucks when I talk to my Honger friends, there is nothing about Hong Kong I could really talk about. I have to turn to Black Media. I think as Hong Kong people, we lost most of our identity through the handover of China. In our next generation, most likely we would be assimilated to the Chinese culture with out any distintive traits to be known.

People often ask me where I come from, and I tell them Hong Kong. They try to correct me and say "It's China now" I get offended by this, but what can I do?

fishbelly

回復 34# Ovaltine

雖然對人文題目有一定興趣, 但套用柏楊所講, 只屬 "土法煉鋼" 式治學.

看來你一定屬於書院派, 不妨多提供一些學者論說, 講話以供參考.

我會非常感激!!

Ovaltine

Good read, fishbelly!

Here are definitions of culture that influenced me the most:

fishbelly

所謂 "文化", 以我理解屬於居民的一步一腳印, 當中彷彿無理, 但實質上有有跡可尋. 舉例說 XX 省飲食 "文化" 是以辣為主, 當中看似理所當然, 但可能只因該省貧窮而需以辣掩蓋食材的不新鮮. 簡單地說, 所謂 "文化" 就是生活的匯聚智慧. 說穿了, 匯聚的智慧是以 "人" 跟 "歷史經驗" 為主幹.

回頭看香港的歷史, 香港人一直是夾縫中的人. 從買辦到轉口貿易, 從來都是左右逢迎於中英之間. 英國的統治更令香港人對 "身份" 都有錯亂的認知, 所以 "人" 這一元素已經模糊得很. 雖然具體上是中國人的軀殼, 但很多事情又很不中國.

再來就是 "歷史經驗" 的教訓. 一直以來香港賴以為生的是經濟成果, 無論是最初的進出口, 到麥理浩時代轉為工業, 到以後的金融業, 靠的都是見風使舵的本領, 褒則稱之為 "善於應變", 實際上其本質是發揮 "雙面人" 的狡猾.

試問狡猾但又對自身身份模糊的人, 有如何能夠擁有高尚的文化? 一個以數字衡量得失的國度, 又如何承受得起抽象的文化素養?

Ovaltine

Coming back to this topic after a couple years, things have probably changed a lot. I have learned some from Sociology also. All this "copycat" is called globalization.  Eventually HK people will be assimilated into the PRC, our existence will be limited to our dialect like the minorities of Taishan, Hakka etcetc

ACooperFan

a bit off topic....isn't "港男港女" the current hk culture?  

Ovaltine

I was playing in Coq Casino, in the poker room. Three chinese guys, the rest are persian or white people. We had a little discussion of our identity. This old guy, winning lost of money, said he from HK. The Persians asked curiously about the difference between Chinese and Hong Kong. Another Cantonese, clearly a working class losing poker player said there was no difference. He said "We are all Chinese, Han, I don't see the difference." From that point on, I realize, the Hong Kong culture is part of a Chinese diaspora. We were a culture maybe 10 years ago, but for sure 10-20 years, this culture will be gone. We are like those rich Cubans in Miami, assimilated into the Capitalist American culture, but they still Cuban now.  Dream on my friends, at least we were once elite.

lightbulb

I guess to me, "copycat" quite suits the description.. People have tried to promote the products made by HK like 電影 and stuff, but I guess that kind of failed coz hk people just tend to follow the trend, which most of the time got introduced by other places..

Sometimes it's quite frustrating that it's not really 一國兩制 like how they've promised coz they still the final say about some political issues.. I think it's more frustrating when other people just generalize all the chinese people to have the same attitude, same habbits (like spitting everywhere) after HK returned back to China.. So if people say.. "Oh HK is just China", maybe you would think those people have in mind that you act just like those stereotypical China people who spit everywhere and all those other bad portraits that one might have..

maldini

原帖由 阿邊個邊個 於 2007-12-12 01:26 發表
HK has a culture? since when?

all i know is they they walk fast, they talk fast, they replace their cell phones more than once in a given year and they are heavily brainwashed by brand names products ...

But your description also fits the Japanese, Koreans and Taiwanese in general. Are you saying they don't have culture?

SmellyTofu

I think the culture in HK has gone worse and worse.... the "me" mentality. All about me and nothing about the benefit of the whole community. As much as Chinese with historical roots in Confucism is all but dead. Maybe in the early 80's it was good but now... all about No. 1 (i.e. myself). But the thing is, if you don't look after no. 1, then you'll just sink deeper and deeper because the economy of HK is still pretty crap and a lot of underlying problems. I love HK. It's my hometown but it really needs a big fix to change things around to how it once was. Maybe we've all been spoil coz we're living the "Western" life.