Emma Basilone
Hong Kong Final Paper
Dr. Eric Hung and Shunzhu Wang
March 1, 2009
Hong Kong is known for its big city, small town atmosphere, its amazing structures, large population, and for its economic status of being a hub for trade on the world market. By being in Hong Kong for only 12 short days, all of these aspects became apparent. Hong Kong has everything one could look for in a city, the people are friendly, the food is amazing, and the shopping options are endless. Culture is a combination of the efforts of an entire city and the individual people. With a blend of traditional and modern fashion, clothing and shopping is an undeniable part of the Hong Kong experience.
Previous to the journey to Hong Kong we viewed a promotional video influencing people to visit Hong Kong. This video shows Hong Kong as a diverse place full of exciting shopping experiences infused with Chinese culture (Hong Kong Tourism). In one frame the video shows monks and other seemingly religious people dressed in traditional garbs (Hong Kong Tourism). Another frame shows the modern shopping with advertisements for high-end brands in the background. The video shows Hong Kong as a cosmopolitan area with its culture combination of east meets west in a very appealing light. For example the brand Louis Vuitton is shown in the background of one shot of the video and a few seconds later the women are show trying on traditional Chinese vests at what looks like a local store (Hong Kong Tourism). The women also shop in a huge mall that almost looks like a skyscraper with amazing circular architecture complete with windows on the ceiling creating a bright inviting lighting. Many other customs are displayed in the promotional video including a dragon performance and performers dressed in bright colors wearing a large amount of the color deep red (Hong Kong Tourism). Traditional face paint and other customs are also displayed in this exciting and very attracting video. Some thought that this video was too fake and showed Hong Kong in a false light- personally I thought Hong Kong turned out to be everything it was made out to be in the video and that the shopping, fashion and clothing was as expected through this promotional video.
An interesting part and seemingly major part of the Hong Kong culture are the vast markets that spread from street to street. The options for goods at these markets are seemingly endless and you can find pretty much whatever you want within reason. The hustle and bustle of the markets workers adds to the energy and the excitement. The main markets in Hong Kong include: The Night Market, The Stanley Market, The Jade Market, and The Ladies Market. At the Night Market you can find traditional street vender food, scarves, baseball caps, children’s toys, clothing, statues, jewelry and various other items. At the Stanley Market you can find similar items but more house wares. The Jade Market is more indoors and features amazing amounts of jade and pearls at prices that are so low it seemed crazy! All markets had a similar energy that mounted throughout the night and were filled with many more foreigners than Hong Kong people.
The Ladies Market is very large (seemed to be a huge favorite among the tourists) and features knockoff bags, clothing, suit cases and jewelry. Anything that one would want to buy in a high-end store in one of Hong Kong’s many malls could be found as a very good knockoff for a decent price. This part of Hong Kong was similar to New York’s China Town and Canal Street district- just on a much larger scale. The fashion consumerism is almost a façade in this aspect due to the vast black market for knock off items.
A different aspect to consumerism and shopping are the more Western malls that engage many shoppers on a daily basis. The main malls encountered on this trip include: Plaza Hollywood, Times Square, International Finance Center (IFC) mall, and “Shopping 360” at the cable car station on Lantau Island. These malls were similar to what one would find in the United States but still had a little Hong Kong flavor included within them. For example the Plaza Hollywood mall featured a grocery store that was about the size of one floor of a department store. The convenience of such a set up seemed to be another awesome idea that the Hong Kong people have instated. The mall and overall set up of Times Square was so interesting. Times Square looked similar to Times Square in New York City but it was on a closed road without any cars. This mall included many high-end stores and internationally raved restaurants. The mall at IFC was the one most frequently visited during this trip. The IFC buildings themselves are very pivotal to the convenience of the Hong Kong subway system and are a hub for industry. This mall also contains high-end stores like Burberry, Dior and many others. The people who work at the IFC buildings dress like all international businessmen in suits and nice dress clothes. “Shopping 360” at the cable cars station was very interesting and different from the other malls. This mall was more of a discount outlet style mall with various stores that seemed to be more of a European style.
The early expectations regarding traditional clothing in Hong Kong society was different than previously thought. Traditional clothing for retail was mainly found in a market setting and the main customers were tourists. This was surprising because I expected to see more Hong Kong people, especially older people, dressed in a more traditional way. It seemed that the traditional clothing was kept mainly in museums and worn during some of the traditional performances. For example, the brief performance of Cantonese Opera that we sat in on featured traditional garbs that one would expect to see in Asian culture and society. Many robes and Chinese style clothing was displayed at the Hong Kong History Museum. The pride in the presentation of these outfits and accessories could be felt simply by walking into the room. It was apparent that the Hong Kong people wanted their traditions to be on display in this pride filled manner and that is how they wanted these garbs to be perceived by people visiting the exhibit.
On the other hand, the markets had “traditional clothing” and accessories for sale almost mocking the preconceived notions that many westerners may have had when they arrived in an Asian country. For example there were many straw hats and other typical Chinese dresses for sale and the women selling these items were nothing short of pushy when selling these items. Many venders were also selling wine bottle covers that were little Chinese dresses. This was interesting because it was almost like their pride for their tradition was turned into marketing and advertising though these souvenirs.
In literature that was found previously to the trip, it was shown that The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra usually performs in concert dress, which included traditional Chinese robes (Witzleben [123]). When an open practice was held the members of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra were surprisingly dressed in civilian street cloths. During an actual performance, these seemingly regular people on the streets living everyday life came together, now dressed in traditional robes and played seemingly flawlessly.
The general attire of the Hong Kong people on the streets was much more “Western” than previously expected. There also was not a large movement of popular culture that seemed to make a large impact on everyday teenagers walking on the streets. Some areas of Hong Kong seemed to have people with more of a “grunge” or “underground” style. For example, the area around Victoria Park in Causeway Bay seemed to have a lot of “punk” teenagers with short spiky hair dos, chains, bright colors and biker boots. I expected to see more of that style around the city especially in shopping centers where younger crowds usually hang out in typical American cities.
Hong Kong is a very diverse country with its infusion of Eastern and Western cultures. In addition to Hong Kong being an intense blend of consumerism and tradition its people are another prime example to consumerism on a public daily scale. Hong Kong’s consumerism through fashion, clothing and shopping is similar to many large cities found in the United States but the inversion of being under British control and now under the control to Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China had an interesting effect on Hong Kong. Hong Kong has everything one needs and more in the aspect of shopping and fashion and is an amazing experience no matter what you are looking for.
Work Cited
Hong Kong Tourism Promotional Video . YouTube.com. 3 Jan. 2009
Witzleben, Lawrence J. Cantopop and Mandapop in Pre-Postcolonial Hong Kong: Identity Negotiation in the Performances of Anita Mui Yim-Fong. N.p.: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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