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Contested Heritage: Cinema, Collective Memory, and the Politics of Local Heritage in Hong Kong

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East Asian Cinema and Cultural Heritage

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Abstract

In March 2010, riding on the international success of their latest film, Echoes of the Rainbow, set in 1960s Hong Kong, filmmakers Mabel Cheung and Alex Law called on the Hong Kong government to exempt the historic Wing Lee Street neighborhood in Central from its urban renewal blueprint. An unprecedented, and swift, about-turn on the part of the Urban Renewal Authority followed, and a revised proposal to preserve the old tenement buildings was tabled. Cheung and Law’s vocal support of the local conservation movement makes a difference to the long-time struggle of heritage activists in Hong Kong by giving a high-profile, cinematically enhanced and internationalized visual identity to the endangered local space. Public controversies over the demolition of tenement buildings and old neighborhoods have been escalating since the 1997 handover, and the Wing Lee Street incident is only one recent addition to these contestations. Yet, the sudden change of heart of the urban planners was less a concession to persistent public challenges than a hasty compromise to minimize potential damage to the international image of Hong Kong, thanks to the timely appearance of Cheung and Law’s film. Once again we are reminded of the inter-twinement of popular culture and politics.

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Authors
  1. Vivian Pui-yin Lee
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Yau Shuk-ting Kinnia

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© 2011 Yau Shuk-ting, Kinnia

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Lee, V.Py. (2011). Contested Heritage: Cinema, Collective Memory, and the Politics of Local Heritage in Hong Kong. In: Kinnia, Y.St. (eds) East Asian Cinema and Cultural Heritage. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230339507_3

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