Open AccessReinventing “Nature”
Author(s) -
Winnie L. M. Yee
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
prism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2578-3505
pISSN - 2578-3491
DOI - 10.1215/25783491-8690380
Subject(s) - mainland china , china , premise , sovereignty , realm , identity (music) , movie theater , sociology , mainland , history , gender studies , aesthetics , literature , political science , law , art , art history , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , politics
The often-heated debates concerning Hong Kong's literary representations all take as a premise that Hong Kong has an urban identity, defined by its mythic transformation from a fishing village to a metropolis. On the return of the sovereignty to mainland China in 1997, the discourse stresses Hong Kong's exceptional status, reflecting a general anxiety that Hong Kong could be replaced by or even become just another Chinese city. This anxiety for the future is evident in an ecocritical turn, manifested in both the social realm (popular movements and organic communities) and artistic circles (independent cinema and literature). This article looks at Hong Kong literature—Wu Xubin's 吳煦斌 (1949–) stories, Dung Kai-cheung's 董啟章 (1967–) literary experiments, and a recent edited volume about plants—to determine how ecotopian imaginaries and cultural identities are closely linked to different moments in Hong Kong history. The author finds that the ecocritical turn in Hong Kong literature has opened a new space for Hong Kong's postcolonial identity.