Week 2 reading response

A few things that i found very interesting from Lee’s writing were the inspirations and influences of early Chinese films. He stated that “the development of modern Chinese cinema was closely connected with this urban setting in which cinema figured prominently as a new commodity and a new item in the modern lifestyle of leisure and entertainment” (74). Indeed, the development of cities paralleled the introduction of cinemas, giving directors new ideas for telling stories and cinematographers new angles to depict those stories in. With this rapid stride towards modernity, the Chinese public set their gaze westward, with many attempting

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Reading response: Ackbar Abbas

Hong Kong’s architecture, as argued in the extract “Building on disappearance” is constantly reinvented, allowing it to keep up with the changing times and meet the needs of the economy and society. Negatively, it has not succeeded in building up a recognizable city image for Hong Kong.    One way to prevent history from disappearing and to build up the image of a cultural city was mentioned in the extract. This involves preserving old Hong Kong buildings. Since I arrived in Hong Kong, I have become aware of how Hong Kong is divided into two parts: the modern skyscrapers and

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Reading Response: Ackbar Abbas

I pretty much appreciate the conception of ‘aesthetics of boredom’ mentioned in this article. I always feel empty and anxious when the feeling called ‘boredom’ hits me, and then I will drag something to do so that I can feel ‘filled.’ But Warhol is an artist who spends time investigating ‘boring’ things. I feel comforted knowing this. In the world, some people are bearing no effort to make their lives efficient, while some others are spending 1 second as 1 second and 1 minute as 1 minute, peacefully sitting with ‘time’ side by side. I guess that’s how the world

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Reading Response: Ackbar Abbas

Ackbar Abbas goes into detail about the “disappearance” of cities. From a cinematic perspective, film makers typically use architecture and the city as tools of story telling. For example, high density residential and industrial complex may be shown in western film to show a near dystopian future. This kind of visual representation may be shown without the film maker’s understanding of the complexity of the city. Most film makers choose to show a specific theme they wish to portray through architecture. This kind of interpretation without understanding can cause a global audience to form stigmas and misunderstandings of cities. From

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[READING RESPONSE] ACKBAR ABBAS

The author staged a somehow astonishing idea that the plausibly historical-responsible actions we have done over these modern days, to preserve historic sites, to weave ‘traditional’ elements into construction of new buildings, have actually gave rise to the atrophy and evaporation of history. From this elaborately-composed literature, there are two impressive observations toward why it is causing this that I would like to discuss about. One of the contributors to the ‘disappearance’, which has been brought forward by Abbas is that the unintended or unknowing casual paralleling of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ in the city in turn renders the image

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Reading Response :MICHEL DE CERTEAU

As I looked more and more into “The Practice of Everyday Life” by Michel De Certeau, I could see that all examples, and sometimes complicated explanations in just explaining everyday actions, fell ultimately onto the dynamics of the city space, place, and people in creating the meaning of the city. It has been seen throughout that the important thing is that we ourselves are in the city to exchange influences. The places in the city becomes spaces, as the unpredictable dynamics are created with the existence of people in the place. The dynamics in the city is not only affecting

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