What defines Hong Kong literature and the identity of a Hong Kong writer? These questions can spark endless debates, especially in the global-local context where cultural identities are increasingly fluid due to transnational influences. Hong Kong writing is commonly categorised as a form of Sinophone literature, but what about English-language works about Hong Kong? Many writers who claim ties to Hong Kong may not reside in the city and could have been born there but raised elsewhere. Can they be recognised as Hong Kong writers contributing to the body of Hong Kong literature? As a form of urban literature, how does it capture the essence of the city, highly urbanised yet surrounded by mountains and the sea? Surveying a variety of creative works about Hong Kong, including poetry, fiction, popular song lyrics, and film, this course explores the increasingly pluralistic notion of Hong Kong writing and Hong Kong writers. It engages students studying in Hong Kong in recognising their unique perspectives on the city, to which they can claim a unique connection. The course views ‘Hong Kong writing’ and ‘Hong Kong writer’ as fluid concepts and explores the increasingly blurred boundaries surrounding them, interrogating the value of a geographical-specific categorisation of literature. Students also engage in secondary and ethnographic research to create a creative writing project that they can be critically read as an example of Hong Kong writing.
Course Description