Constructing a decolonized world city for consumption: discourses on Hong Kong Disneyland and their implications |
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Authors: | Kimburley W. Choi |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Creative Media , City University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong smkim@cityu.edu.hk |
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Abstract: | The paper argues that, under the globalized economy, state power is far from diminishing. I study how the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government officials in 1999 developed “competition-development” discourse and “disappearing-world-city” discourse to persuade the public to approve the unequal and non-transparent Hong Kong–Disney deal for setting up the Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL). I also examine how newspaper reports have circulated and have reinforced these two pairs of political discourses in wider popular discourse. I further reveal, in the post-colonial context of HongKong, how the HKDL project functions to accomplish decolonization tasks and to reshape Hong Kong as a consumption-based tourist spot instead of a citizen-based participatory community. |
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Keywords: | cultural studies Hong Kong Disneyland Hong Kong globalization discourse urban development city politics |
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