Advertising Modernity: Home, Space and Privacy¹

An earlier version of this article appeared in the Occasional Paper Series, No. 93, published by Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999.

Abstract

For most people in Hong Kong, buying one's own apartment seems to be the biggest purchase, and conditions to be measured for the final decision should not be overlooked. Advertisements for living environment have been changing so much, with the deal always related to existing social values. In this article, we show how Hong Kong's lifestyles have been changing in the last five decades, based on change in housing development and on how people are educated in the form of idealized lifestyles through housing advertisements. By using data from newspaper and television advertisements, we seek to understand such changing concepts as home, space and privacy in contemporary Hong Kong society. We seek to analyze how the two factors—government policy and media advertisements—have contributed to our present ideal of the home, and the new town development in Ma On Shan is used as a demonstrative case in this study.

To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world—and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.

M. Berman, All That is Solid Melts into Air [1988].

Notes

In 1950 and 1955, all advertisements fell into three kinds within the “categorized advertisements section.”

From 1960, most advertisements fell into the “categorized advertisements section,” but some advertisements began to be listed independently and more prominently. The number of such independent advertisements is shown in parentheses—e.g., (1).

Beginning with the 1975 sample, the emergence of property agents (sometimes called realty, or real estate) becomes very apparent. Some of the single categorized advertisements included up to 10 properties or real estates instead of containing one. Thus, the number of individual properties involved should actually be much greater than the number indicated in our table.

From the 1980 sample, we can see more independent advertisements with more detailed descriptions of the apartments which are still under construction; also, the space of those advertisements is much bigger than the categorized advertisements from both individual owners and property/real estate agents.

In 1985, a sample of one mainstream property/real estate agent's advertisements actually listed 135 properties. By this time, many of the advertisements exhibited duplications. One property might be listed by more than one property/real estate agent.

In 1990 and 1995, many property agents advertised vacancies both for lease and for sale.

In the 1995 sample, we can see full-page advertisements for a private housing estate as well.

In the 2000 sample, we find a Sunday special property booklet with the daily, which includes many cases with detailed information and analysis regarding various aspects in choosing an apartment.

An earlier version of this article appeared in the Occasional Paper Series, No. 93, published by Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999.

The area of the New Territories starts from Boundary Street in the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula and reaches the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong in the north.

Being one of the two largest organizations (Hong Kong Housing Society and Hong Kong Housing Authority both have been playing important roles in carrying out the government's public housing policy), the Hong Kong Housing Society, founded in 1948, is the biggest non-profit-making, voluntary housing agency formed to improve housing conditions in Hong Kong. Regarding the housing management model adopted by the two organizations, Mackey [2000] gives a brief review on their historical development.

Personal interview, February 1998.

Rooney [2001] speculates on the relationships between five-star hotel interior design experience and the ideal home for Hong Kong residents: “Major Hong Kong hotels do not have the same degree of class exclusivity as in other countries, and are widely used by the general public for meetings, dining, or drinks. As each new hotel sets new standards of grandeur and opulence, expensive materials such as marble, wood veneer, chandeliers, carpets, drapes and fabrics have become the ideal. This may not necessarily translate directly into the everyday Hong Kong home, but it does feature in the minds of local people and serves as an ideal form of interior design” [Rooney 2001: 58].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sidney C. H. Cheung

SIDNEY C. H. CHEUNG is Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include visual anthropology, heritage and tourism, indigenous people, food and identity; his published books include On the South China Track: Perspectives on Anthropological Research and Teaching (Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, 1998), Tourism, Anthropology, and China (White Lotus, 2001), and The Globalization of Chinese Food (Curzon Press and University of Hawaii Press, 2002). E-mail: [email protected]

Eric K. W. Ma

ERIC K. W. MA is Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include cultural identities, media and cultural change, social and cultural theories; his published books include Television and Cultural Identities (Breakthrough, 1996), Hong Kong Memories (Subculture, 1999), and Culture, Politics and Television in Hong Kong (Routledge, 1999).