Swan Song R&D 3 – Hong Kong Nationalism and Identity

This blogpost is a document of a conversation taken place with two of my flatmates who are both from Hong Kong and at similar age where we went to the same high school. We discussed the core values of Hong Kong and what we stand for as a tribe.

Very quickly we realised we don’t have a nationalism, and the things that we (as a nation) felt unites us are very surface level and vague, without historical support. It is because simply Hong Kong did not exist before we became a colony. We have always never had to face ourselves as a tribe our identity within our very short history. Which made it very difficult for us right now to dissect the topic.

Most of our values are a very unique mix of both Chinese traditions and neoliberal western values. We are a product of both world melting together into a very oblique form, in an unusual political and economic status.

Hong Kong has been a very passive character. We did not really want democracy, people before the handover only wanted stability and economic growth. Most people are uneducated yet if you work hard you will get opportunities and it was all that matters to people. People were afraid of change, we dislike changes. Everyone had very different views on what it means to be stable and prosperous, our political views has been very divided since early 80s when the British Hong Kong government signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration with CCP. This division of view between our liberalists and pro-establishment camp (basically tories), remained in place and further divides the tiny colony until today.

The one true example of something that can unites Hong Kong people is a song called Under the Lion Rock. It is a song about how difficult everything was before we united here in this tiny island, and how we could build a beautiful life together though hard work and helping each other by putting down our difference, because we strife for the same things at the end. This song is known by everyone and is one of those really annoying songs to my generation because how outdated it is and how much older people latch onto it reminiscing the golden days. Personally I think people forget that it is a propaganda song and it really is very shallow that it generalised the situation Hong Kong faced and told people to just focus on working and everything will work out.

In the very long and confusing conversation trying to find out what it means to be a Hong Konger, we sort of agreed that it is nothing but made of our memories there. It is like going to camp as a kid, you bond with people you have nothing in common with cause you are forced to spend time there. Obvious it is more than that but basically it is that. So then the question is, we bear this heritage with us, and what do we wanna pass onto the next generation, or remember collectively as a nation? This question extend to the fact that we are no longer living in Hong Kong and will probably never do again. We started listing things that were important to us to our identity. Purple bins on the streets, buses without air cons, light railways in Tuen Moon, and so on.

The next problem is, how do we bring this conversation into the work itself? The big problem that comes up is that for the plot to work, Hong Kong people would want to rebel and not be take over by either China or The UK, which doesn’t really make sense because we love being colonised historically. So that is why I started to think about Hong Kong’s nationalism, an ideology that will violently tie everyone together, even if it’s a propaganda lie and a fictional plot device.

I went back to the King of Kowloon, and I think he is the obvious solution. I don’t really wanna go into the plot here cause it isn’t really important to the work itself but to me. I think the story only matters to the process but no one ever. Speaking about story-telling, the more I think of it the less I imagine the piece to be a proper linear story. While I worked so hard on maintaining the integrity of the story, I want to deconstruct it the way I would with a new writing piece in theatre, the way I have always done. And besides, this is my attempt to reclaim my identity as a Hong Kong person eve though it is a story about the whole nation. Which I can’t really speak on behalf of anyone because let’s be honest I am quite different from an everyday Hong Kong folk. Ultimately artistically it will be a personal attempt (even though I need to get the facts right), to decolonise myself and my cultural education.

The research extend now into how artist have built sonic fictional worlds, to express identities and tell stories in a non-linear way. It is like Zuni that I talk about so much:

It is about the space, how do you present a space as the vessel for your ideas and story? And then let the space become your story, to let the form be the piece?

This I think Arca does so well through her music and the way she produces records. She builds worlds where she would share fragments of the same narrative. Where at the end it is up for the listener to piece it back together, yet it becomes even more honest and visceral and intimate. I believe this is more human, because at least for me, I can’t really think linearly. I don’t piece things together in my head that way. Most of the time I am confused and connects things in a multidimensional way, I find things connected to each other in a way that’s beyond how history is told. We only tell stories that way cause it’s the way to make it clear and make sense to other people but it never is how we human think and process. It is always non-linear and non-binary.

This sort of new writing and almost mutant way of living is something I live with, even though I don’t live it as visual or the way other people have lived it. Especially in the queer sense I think, while I consider myself non-binary I don’t really behave that way other people would expect. Which is more than fine, but sometimes people need reminding that this is my identity (and people need to stop addressing me as a man). Ultimately this project is a project of mine, it will show very unapologetically who I am and how I react to the topic I set for myself to explore. It is important that I remind myself here that don’t let the complicated history and mysteries of Hong Kong to stop myself from being creative with the sound and process, to have fun with it. I can get caught up in things sometimes and forget to enjoy the creative space, to have the most experimental and challenging sound created, and to trust myself for what I make in the end.

With this being said the next blogpost will outline more details into the production schedule and more logistics.