Denaturalizing natural tropes: thinking through ecocritical discourse in post-handover Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Environmental problems, including climate change, exhaustion of natural resources, and persistent degradation of air quality, have escalated in the name of development despite the warnings of scientists and environmentalists. Written when the interconnectedness of the globe is evident in the Coronavirus pandemic and extensive carbon footprints, this paper examines the role of ecocriticism in illuminating the condition of a city such as Hong Kong, which is susceptible to contagion because its success is based on its interconnectedness with the world through the flow of people, resources, finance, and tourism. How does ecocritical discourse help us to see the ways Hong Kong’s success has contributed to its vulnerability? What are the tropes that defined the development of Hong Kong in the colonial period and how have they been re-imagined in the post-handover period? Will Hong Kong’s post-handover reappropriation of nature encourage other former colonies to adopt a green agenda and lead to the cross-fertilization of ecocritcal, historical, cultural and social discourses?

This paper adopts an ecocritical perspective and revisits some of the central natural symbols that have shaped the grand narrative of Hong Kong. It reconsiders the natural tropes— the barren rock — that were used to reinforce colonial superiority, the ways that geography has determined the city’s destiny, and the role of the official flower in the creation of the city’s identity. Citing developments in the post-handover period (the Save Choi Yuen Village movement, the rise of organic communities, and the tactics of protestors in the summer of 2019), the paper reveals how natural tropes have been liberated from their traditional associations. Hong Kong shows not only the ways in which the human and non-human can work together interdependently but also the processes of identity formation in the period after decolonization and in an age of globalism.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecocriticsm
• postcoloniality
• Hong Kong culture
• protest
• art
• post-handover period

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Quasi-dominance’ is used to refer to the assumed dominance of Hong Kong in terms of its economic success in the pre-1997 era. Businesses from Mainland China invest in Hong Kong and beyond. Despite its economic success, the measures of the PRC in the post-handover period have shown that Hong Kong continues to be subservient to political models that are not of its choice, whether they are the models of the colonizer or the PRC.

2 Wang Tao (1828-1897) was one of the earliest scholars to promote Western studies. He helped British missionary W. H. Medhurst translate the Bible into Chinese and later collaborated with James Legge in translating Chinese classics into English (Wang, 37).

3 ‘Central District Values,’ according to Yiu-wai Chu, represent a neoliberal position that ‘generates a homogenous culture that holds commercial success in esteem … it becomes a problem if the Central District is Hong Kong, that is, one and the same’ (Chu 2013, p. 45). Chu’s concerns is echoed by another cultural critic, Meaghan Morris, when she laments that ‘With the 1980s boom in finance and real estate a misconception formed’, potent at government level, that business-oriented ‘Central District Values’ alone held the key to maintaining Hong Kong’s distinctiveness once the city became ‘part of China’ (Morris 2017, p. 17).

4 The image of the vertical banner with ‘I Want Genuine Universal Suffrage’ can be found in Li Zheng, 2014. Xianggang shizi shan xian ‘woyao zhenpuxuan’ jufu biaoyu. (The appearance of a vertical banner with ‘I Want Genuine Universal Suffrage’ on the Lion Rock) BBC News, 23 October. https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/china/2014/10/141023_hk_lion_rock_hill_banner [Accessed 15 December 2020]

5 The image of Liberty Goddess on Top of the Lion Rock can be found in AFP, 2019. In pictures: Hong Kong’s Lion Rock ‘final resting place’ for Lady Liberty democracy statue, Hong Kong Free Press, 13 October. https://hongkongfp.com/2019/10/13/pictures-hong-kongs-lion-rock-final-resting-place-lady-liberty-democracy-statue/ [Accessed 15 December 2020].

6 The collection Freedom in Green was commissioned by the West Kowloon District Board in an attempt to document the plants that one can find in the construction sites near West Kowloon District. A total of twenty-four writers were commissioned to write about these plants. All works refer to, and are accompanied by a drawing of, a native plant, so the collection combines art appreciation with botanical instruction.

7 A number of independent films are produced in the post-2008 era, including Lai, Mo Yan-chi’s 1+1 (2010) and N+N (2012), Chan, Ho-lun Fredie’s The Way of Paddy (2012) and Open Road after Harvest (2015), Jessey Tsang’s Flowing Stories (2012), and Ma, Chi-hang’s Ballad on the Shore (2017).

8 Law Wing-sang (2020) has an in-depth discussion on Century-old Dreams of a Fishing Harbour by Theatre Horizon, which is an attempt to revisit Hong Kong’s history through the eyes of a fish in Thinking Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

9 The historical details of Hong Kong’s maritime tale is drawn from the online website of Hong Kong Maritime Museum https://www.hkmaritimemuseum.org/eng/explore/welcome/85/ [Accessed 15 August 2020].

10 References about the origins of the term can be found in Collins English Dictionary. The term is originated in the C17: from Portuguese: comprador refers to buyer, from Late Latin comparātor, from Latin comparāre to purchase, from parāre to prepare. Both activities – purchasing and preparing – suggest that the compradors acted as intermediaries, facilitating negotiations between different forces, powers, and ideologies.

11 Numerous reports on the appropriation of Bruce Lee’s statement have been produced in a global context, including in The Independent, Financial Times, NHK, Quartz, among others. (Anderlini 2019, Hui 2019b, Satoshi 2019, Hale 2020)

12 Images of ‘The Human Chain’ with the cell phone lights in different parts of Hong Kong can be found in Lin Dingqin, 2019. ‘Xianggang zhi lu’ (The road of Hong Kong). Initium, 23 August. https://theinitium.com/article/20190823-whatsnew-hk-823-the-hongkong-way/ [Accessed 15 December 2020].

13 References on the bauhinia can be found online. (Lo 2019b and Lai 2020)

14 A detailed discussion on the literary representations of bauhinia in the pre-handover era can be found in Wong, Li and Chan’s (1997) Hong Kong Un-imagined: history, culture and future. Example of how plants are generally discussed and symbolized in Hong Kong literature, consult Andrea Riemenschnitter (2018)’s ‘Flower spirits, drifting leaves, and trees of transcendence.’

15 Pang Laikwan (2020) also discussed in depth the relationship between art and the Umbrella Movement, which is another cogent example to illuminate the intricate connection between crises and creativity.

16 The painting Our Vantage (Harcourt Romanticist, 2019) is inspired by Eugène Delacroix's painting Liberty Leading the People. An image of the painting can be found in Rachel Cheung, 2020. Hong Kong’s cartoonists aren’t giving up on dissent. The Nation, 25 June. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/hong-kong-cartoons-national-security-law/ [Accessed 15 December 2020].

17 A detailed report on protest art can be found online by Mirandilla (2020).

18 AirDrop is a function one can use to quickly and easily share files between Apple devices, including photos and videos. The feature uses Bluetooth technology to locate nearby compatible devices and helps people to share data over Wi-Fi. During the protest in Hong Kong, protestors have frequently used AirDrop to send random strangers posters and information regarding the protest on public transport.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Winnie L. M. Yee

Winnie L. M. Yee is assistant professor in comparative literature and program coordinator of the MA Program in Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Hong Kong. In 2019–20 she is a fellow in Rachel Carson Center for the Environment and Society at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Her research interests are ecocriticism, Hong Kong culture, contemporary Chinese literature and film, and independent cinema. She is currently working on a book project exploring the relationship between ecopoetics and Chinese literature and independent film scene.