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City Culture and Hong Kong
Urbanscape
City of the future
Alicia Kwok Chun Lok (112006)
Celia Au
Amy Wu

History of Koon Tong
? Used to be a place to produce salt
? use bricks and stone to divide the salted land
in to places
? some called 鹽塘
? controlled by the government => 官塘
? as the people hate to associate to the
government=> 觀塘

Existing problems of Koon Tong
? Pollution=> air/water
? Lack of facilities- e.g hospital/ recreational areas
? Crowded living area-poor urban planning in the
past=> too many high rise buildings=>Wall effect=>
more pollution
? Traffic congestion=> road are too narrow; so many
vehicles and pedestrians
? Poor-maintenance in old buildings: most are built
in post-war period
? rent out the flats=> low incentive to refurnish the
building

Urban renewal development
? No.1

Project details
?The middle part of the study site will be developed into a leisure and
entertainment activities center, retail, dining and entertainment facilities,
and recommended the use of the design of the pedestrian area, to avoid
conflicts between vehicle and pedestrian.
? built in 250 meters above Principal Datum slope stage gazebo and dining
facilities, allowing visitors to admire the views of East Kowloon and
Victoria Harbour in their meals
? Green Corridor along the south-west of the study site expanded to the
quarry park with an area of over 15 hectares, and?? offers a variety of
recreational and sports facilities in the park, provide a good place of
holiday for the people of Kwun Tong, Sai Kung, even the whole Hong
Kong.
? Some in the residential area of the northwestern side of the study sites
benefits from the openness of the Quarry Park environment.

Project details
? The middle part of the study sites for the main purpose
community facilities and open space, which will be the
construction of an outdoor recreational / large event
plaza, so that residents have a gathering place.
? For the convenience of residents, day-to-day
commercial facilities will be located in residential estates,
therefore, reserved for only the two smaller land for
commercial development.
? Set aside more land for the purposes of government,
institution or community facilities to meet the needs of
the residents, and to provide land for the shortage of
community facilities in the region.

Problems before finishing the
development project
? The arrangement of traffic may be
troublesome
? => as the core part of the traffic of Kowloon
East
? => a large number of buses, mini-buses to the
northern New Territories, Sha Tin; public
transport are all concentrated in the city
center

The problem of “public space”
? As the proposal says, the town center will be
divided into six different quadrants
? => half are marked as private open space
? Like the garden of private properties
? => there will be security guarding the place
? => normal citizens may have difficulties in
entering there

Lost of local culture
? After building the grand shopping malls, the
local culture of low prices living and diverse
types of shops are difficult to preserved
? Like the traditional local stores of shoe-
repairing, watch-fixing and clothes-alteration
will disappear

Problems of redeveloping Koon
Tong
? Existing residence can not buy back the newly
developed buildings
? Big shopping malls (100%) vs local stores (1%)
? No celebration of local festival 盂蘭節 by the
hawkers (as listed in the heritage)
? Coverage >5 football pitches, new shopping
mall: 4 times bigger than Langham Place
? => lost of local culture

活化工廈
? Originally: industrial areas; Factories (e.g.
textile)
? Now:
? Mini-storage areas
? Artists workshops; studios
? Music (cultural) hub

? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT-K1BA6mIk&

Blade Runner
? Bill boards shown in the movie
? Geisha: represent the oriental side of city->
Japanese culture
The Movie

Advertisements:
1)Symbolize consumerism
2)Force the people to intake the commercials

Similar things in the world
Time Square in HK
Time Square in USA

Tokyo
? The big screen TV shows the prosperity of the
place/ country=> showing off
? Brain –washing of the pedestrians
=> tell them what they “need” and their
“desire”
? City without the night=> Broadcast for 24
hours => light pollution

Neon Light signs
The Movie?
?Mong Kok

To the tourists…
? Becomes a characteristic of the place
=> tourists spot
? According to a tourist called Erin who visited
Mong Kok in 2011
? “What I loved most about nights in Mong Kok
were the neon lights. I don’t think I’ve ever
seen so many crammed into one street.”
Source: http://www.neverendingvoyage.com/mong-kok-hong-kong-photo-
essay/

But to the locals…
? An harassment: lights are on for 24 hours
every day
? Even the people living there use blinds to
shade from the strong light => futile attempts
? Have difficulty to rest &
sleep
=> high mental pressure
=> prone to stress-related
emotion diseaes

? Similar to the writings that “ ”九龍皇帝（曾灶
財） painted on the walls in HK
? Became a cultural heritage of HK
? Street Graffiti => valuable art work ( his work was used
by the local fashion designer, 鄧達智）

Dark City
Every night when the clock strikes 12:00am , the city stops.
Everyone falls asleep.

“Let the tuning commence!”
? Tuning: make things change by will power
? => alteration of existing buildings
? (00:39:56-0:41:27)

Aliens as Land developers
? Build up the new buildings and demolish the
others all for self interests
=> not for the benefit of the whole society
? “The rich gets richer” (00:43:21)

Aliens as land developers (2)
? Aliens: no “life” ; no “soul” => cruel ;inhumane
? Afraid of sunlight and water
=> the city is always at night
=> Shell Beach never exists, but a poster

Aliens as land developers (3)
? The aliens grasp the chance to exploit the
possessions of the citizens as much as possible
? They take out jewels and other valuable goods
in a row => exploitation to the people

Comparison between three
movies: Memories
? Memories are what constructed a person
? The past: family, relationships, childhood
? Unique for everyone
? The proof of our existence (beside physical
body)

In the Dark City…
? “Memories” are inserted and swapped by the
aliens to different individuals
? What you remember does not exist
? E.g. John is accused for serial murders but he is
in fact innocent
? What is important cannot be remembered
? E.g. The location and “existence” of Shell Beach
? There is no “self”, but only collective memories

? Without individuality & identity, the city is
easily controlled by the aliens
? Virtual world in the “real” world
? “Virtual reality adds a new capability: It allows
the subject to actively change this world. In
other words, the subject is given control over a
fake reality" (166)---Manovich
? Postmodernism: “Reality is no longer fixed or
determined”
? “All truth within a postmodern context is
relative to one's viewpoint or stance”
? (http://www.essortment.com/definition-postmodernism-20903.html)

Memories :Ghost in the Shell
? Cyborgs have electric brains
? => have consciousness ( Ghost)
? => Memories can be hacked
? => False memories are created for the illegal
way of obtaining confidential government
information
? E.g. the street cleaner is convinced that he has
a wife and a daughter
? But in fact he lives alone for 10 years

? Memories as tools => has to give it back to the
government after retirement
? “And life, when organized into species, relies
upon genes to be its memory system. So, man
is an individual only because of his intangible
memory... and memory cannot be defined, but
it defines mankind.” (Puppet Master)
? Yet memories can be man-made by technology
? => human has undermined the consequence of
computerization
? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113568/quotes)

Memories: Blade Runner
? Memories of replicants
? E.g. The picture and “childhood” of Rachel
? => “maintain an indexical link to ‘reality’”
? (Landsberg, pg. 197).

? “Memories are what distinguish our own identity and
individuality.”
? “Pastiche is ultimately a redemption of history, which implies
the transformation and reinterpretation in tension between
loss and desire” (Bruno 74)
? =>prosthetic memory (Bruno 74)
? Why prosthetic memory is called “prosthetic” memory
(Lansdberg, 20-1)
? 1) not natural or organic memory;
? 2) like an artificial limb, can be worn on the body;
? 3) interchangeable and exchangeable in the commodified
form;
? 4) useful and feel real producing empathy
http://arnar.icelandcinemanow.com/2011/01/23/postmodern-cinema-and-

Reference:
? http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Virtual+cities+and+stolen+memories
%3A+temporality+and+the+digital+in...-a0118377487
? http://arnar.icelandcinemanow.com/2011/01/23/postmodern-cinema-
and-the-concept-of-memory-blade-runner/
? Yuen, W. K. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/80/wong80art.htm
? http://ksangmin.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/alison-landsberg-prosthetic-
memory/

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