The post-urban gaze and Hong Kong independent cinema: An ecofeminist perspective

Abstract

The city has always been a prominent subject in Hong Kong cinema. Land has been seen only as a profitable commodity, controlled by property developers and the wealthy. Instead of exploring the countryside and the traditional farming and fishing villages, people shifted their focus to Hong Kong: its skyline became the only valid point of perception. This marginalization of nature, however, was challenged in 2008 during the dispute between the villagers of Choi Yuen village and the Hong Kong government regarding the construction of Guangzhou–Hong Kong High-Speed Rail Link, which would demolish the village of 500 people that lay along its path. This article looks at Jessey Tsang’s documentary Flowing Stories (2014) and adopts an ecofeminist perspective on the ways in which Hong Kong’s cultural imaginary has been reinvented in films. The role of documentaries in the independent film scene will be reviewed, especially the social-issue documentaries that have become popular since 2008. An ecofeminist approach to our understanding of Hong Kong could shift the paradigm of our stagnant cultural imaginary – the urban city – and resituate Hong Kong in a closer connection with its surroundings and the world.