http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4245-3473
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Abstract
This article applies Henri Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis to an exploration of ethnicity in Hong Kong. It argues that rhythmanalysis has tended to be used in social geography, architectural research, and cultural studies and has been overlooked as a methodological tool in regard to ethnicity. An historic narrative of ethnic diversity in Hong Kong is contrasted with contemporary transformations. It is argued that rhythmanalysis presents an alternative perspective that can deepen knowledge about enduring social patterns that serve to contextualise ethnicity and ethnic relations in a given space. In conclusion, it is argued that there is a need for greater recognition of ethnic diversity in Hong Kong as a means to assert a more confident and secure local identity.
Acknowledgement
My thanks to two anonymous reviewers who provided expert advice and guidance on Lefebvre’s understanding of rhythmanalysis.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Twain, The Jumping Frog, 64.
2. Hong Kong Government, Thematic Report.
3. Li, One-Way Permit Holders.
4. Ip, “Politics of Belonging.”
5. Hong Kong Economy, Mainland Visitors.
6. Tourism Commission, Tourism Performance in 2015.
7. Constable, Maid to Order in Hong Kong.
8. White, Turbans and Traders; and Erni and Leung, Understanding South Asian Minorities.
9. Formichi and O’Connor, “Introduction: Overlooked Religions.”
10. Ma, Desiring Hong Kong.
11. Law and Lee, “The Myth of Multiculturalism.”
12. Mathews, Ghetto at the Center.
13. Baig, “From Colony”; and Chee, “When the Cultural Model.”
14. See note 11.
15. Erni and Leung, Understanding South Asian Minorities, 108; and Wong, UN Presses City.
16. Ma, Desiring Hong Kong, 170.
17. Lefebvre, Everyday Life, 4.
18. Lefebvre, Critique of Everyday Life, 231.
19. Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis, 24.
20. Lefebvre and Régulier, “The Rhythmanalytical Project,” 10.
21. Williams and Bendelow, The Lived Body, 212.
22. Ingold, Being Alive.
23. Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis, 19.
24. Douglas, Purity and Danger.
25. Mauss, “Techniques of the Body,” 56.
26. Dion et al., “Embodied Ethnicity.”
27. O’Connor, “How does one feel.”
28. Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis, xii.
29. Ibid., 9.
30. Ibid., 15.
31. Elden, Understanding Henri Lefebvre, 195.
32. Ibid.
33. See note 29.
34. Eiseley, The Invisible Pyramid, 59.
35. See note 29.
36. Ibid., 51.
37. Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis, xiii–xiv.
38. Edwards, “Sensing the Rhythms”; Edensor, Geographies of Rhythm; Pafka, Places as Intersecting Flows; Obert, “Sound and sentiment”; and Graham, “Rhythmanalysis:.”
39. Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory, 158.
40. Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis, 9; and Ingold, Being Alive, 60.
41. Alexander, The New Jim Crow.
42. Loury, Race, Incarceration.
43. Gilroy, “‘My Britain is Fuck All’.”
44. Modood, Multicultural Politics.
45. Gilroy, “‘My Britain is fuck all’,” 385.
46. Lethbridge, “Caste, Class and Race,” 534.
47. Constable, Born Out of Place.
48. Law and Lee, “The Myth of Multiculturalism,” Arat et al., “Culturally Relevant Protective.”
49. Formichi and O’Connor, “Introduction: Overlooked Religions,” 4.
50. Chan, Hybrid Hong Kong.
51. See note 11.
52. Carroll, A Concise History, 36.
53. Tsai, Hong Kong in Chinese History, 16–17; and Carroll, A Concise History.
54. Hayes, “Hong Kong Island Before,” 11.
55. See note 52.
56. See note 29.
57. Vaid, The Overseas Indian Community; and White, Turbans and Traders.
58. Mandap, Number of Filipino Domestic.
59. Constable, Maid to Order.
60. Vaid, The Overseas Indian Community; White, Turbans and Traders; O’Connor, Islam in Hong Kong; and Singh, ”A Sense of Place.”
61. Yap, “The Religiosity of Filipina.’
62. See note 3.
63. See note 2.
64. See note 46.
65. O’Connor, Islam in Hong Kong, 26.
66. Erni and Leung, Understanding South Asian Minorities, 54–55.
67. Lee and Law, “Hong Kong Chinese ‘Orientalism’.”
68. Gladney, Dislocating China.
69. Baig and O’Connor, “Hong Kong Muslim Representations.”
70. Lee and Law, “Hong Kong Chinese ‘Orientalism’,” 103.
71. See note 4.
72. Sinn, “Emmigration from Hong Kong,” 14.
73. Ley and Kobayashi, “Back to Hong Kong”; and Kobayashi et al., “Place, Affect.”
74. Tsong and Liu, “Parachute Kids and Astronaut.”
75. Tsang, Government and Politics, 122.
76. Abbas, Hong Kong Culture.
77. Kennedy, “The ‘no loser’ Principle”; Chee, “When the Cultural Model”; Kapai, Faculty of Law; and Carmichael, Language Rights and Education.
78. Zhao, Taxi Please.
79. See note 2.
80. Chu, Lost in Transition.
81. See note 11.
82. Erni and Leung, Understanding South Asian Minorities.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Paul O’Connor
Paul O’Connor is a visiting senior lecturer in the Sociology and Social Policy department of Lingnan University, Hong Kong. He is an ethnographer interested in ethnicity, Hong Kong studies, social theory, and lifestyle sports.