A tale of two borderlands: material lucidity and deep play in the transborder tourism space in Hong Kong and Macao

Abstract

This article examines post-colonial “development” of cross-border tourism at two border cities of China, Hong Kong and Macao, which returned their sovereignty to China in 1997 and 1999 respectively. Instead of considering such development merely a tourism feature, the author argues that the abundance of Chinese tourists to Hong Kong and Macao has resulted from the problematic growth of China. Transborder tourism space and relations between the two cities and China have signaled developmental flaws in China. While Hong Kong has become a remedy for China’s “fake goods” market and has provided the opportunity for millions to seek “material lucidity,” Macao has come to the rescue of China’s outflow of renminibi, and acted as a space for the deep play of the risk-taking psyche of many mainland Chinese. The author concludes that these two border cities will continue to be “frontier thermometers” measuring the warm and cold “weathers” of China’s transitional political economy.

Keywords:

• transborder tourism
• Hong Kong and Macao
• material lucidity
• deep play
• gaming economy

Notes

1. This article is a result of the author’s ongoing research on the development of Chinese outbound tourism. Most of the interviews of tourists in Hong Kong were conducted in the summer of 2013 and spring of 2014, while the interviews of tourists in Macao were conducted in 2011 and 2012 during two field trips to Macao.

2. Informants told the author that in spite of strict state control on gambling, underground gambling dens permeate China. Those who frequent such gambling houses in China run the risk of being arrested.

3. Earlier that year, the SARS outbreaks killed in excess of 100 people in Hong Kong; in addition to the human cost, the economy was also badly affected.

4. This data was gathered by the author and her research team in the summer of 2008 in the Mongkok district of Hong Kong. A total of 82 mainland Chinese tourists were interviewed.

5. In addition to tourists crossing the border to fetch milk powder, there are thousands of people engaging in parallel trading, one of the most criticized informal economic practices at the Hong Kong-China border. Many of these petty traders supply baby formula and other products for retailers at ganghuo dian (shops selling commodities from Hong Kong) in China. The ganghuo dian phenomenon is yet another intriguing social scene in China which requires further research.

6. This means people born in the 1980s.

7. The interview was conducted by the author on 25 May 2012 at the University of Macao (also see Index Mundi 2015; Landers 2008).

8. Each bet in the VIP rooms is often over Hong Kong $1million, which is around US$125,000. See Willett (2013).

9. This line is translated directly from the Chinese “meifanchi.”.

10. See note 8.