The Idea of Hong Kong: Structures of Attention in the City of Life

Abstract

This chapter examines the idea of the city as "ideal' cityscape. The argument is developed through case study material on cinema and tourism, collected in Hong Kong from 2000 to 2004, with the major focus on Hong Kong post-SARS (2003). Film is a fundamental contributor of images for 'the idea of the city', which is itself a (cinematic) metaphor for modern experience (Lynch 1960; Robins 1999; Donald 1999). Tourism - already understood as a cultural phenomenon of immense importance in understanding modernity and globalization (Graburn2001;Harrison 2001; Craik 1995) - also contributes to the way in which cinematic cities are understood, as places of potential or imaginative visitation. Unsurprisinglv, then, the cinematic idea of the city, the cityscape, is resonant with touristic strategies in peculiar local conditions, and is approached here through 'structures of attention' that are responsive to the political, social, and historical interests of residents and citizens.