Title: Construct
ion City
Site: Restaurant
- description of the theme and subject matter
Hong Kong is a fantastic city. When foreign culture was brought to Hong Kong for the first time, it had already experienced first construction. Because of these factors at the root of Hong Kong culture, it grows to be an international city nowadays. Since the breakout of COVID-19, our relationship to one another, our city and the world outside, to institutions and the government has changed. To some extent, we are facing another construction. Though we are forced to be separated in public areas and are forced to communicate with a safe social distance of 1.5 meters, our hearts are tied together during the pandemic.
The restaurant is thought to be one of the industries that are most deeply hurt by the pandemic. Also, many pandemic prevention policies are designed for catering. However, the words “warm and crowded” are always used to describe restaurants. So the research on the relationship between restaurants and pandemics should be attractive.
- method of research, documentation, and the making of the video
My method of research is to experience it myself and learn from others. I watched a few video clips talking about the pandemic and the city. I notice that most videos were made in the daytime. So I would like to show people from another angle. That’s the reason why I shot the pictures and video clips at night. The restaurant I picked provides dim sum. As far as I know, some older people still keep going to a restaurant early in the morning for dim sum, which symbolizes the typical Hong Kong life. When making the video, I used the contrast method to highlight the difference—for instance, the noisy and quiet, crowded and empty.
- objectives
The reason why I shot this short video is to show how pandemic constructs the city both physically and mentally from the perspective of restaurants. Many videos that research the relationship between pandemic and city are shot during the daytime. However, I delicately chose an early morning on the weekend. I hope that I can provide a different vision to see how COVID constructs Hong Kong.
- reflection
There’s no doubt that the pandemic changes our life. During the research, I have communicated with the owners of the restaurants, which deepened my thoughts about how the pandemic affects catering. Though the pandemic does affect our daily routine, we are also construing our life to fight against the virus.
- reference
Abbas, M. A. (2003). Cinema, Cities and the Cinematic. In Global cities: Cinema, architecture, and urbanism in a digital age (pp. 142-156), edited by Krause, L., and Petro, P. New Brunswick, NJ; London: Rutgers University Press.
De Certeau, M. (1984). Walking in the City. In The Practice of Everyday Life (pp. 91-110), translated by Steven Randall. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Officials fear new restaurant outbreak is emerging – RTHK. (2021). Retrieved 18 May 2021, from https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1579615-20210309.htm
Yau, C. (2021). Hong Kong restaurant earnings dive nearly 30 per cent in 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2021, from https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3120524/hong-kong-restaurant-earnings-log-record-decline
Yoos, J. and V. James. (2016). The Multilevel Metropolis: On the radical origins — and mundane deployment — of the urban skyway. Places Journal (May).
Fu Shitong
UID:3035772585
I appreciate that you went on an excursion around Kennedy Town and visited the dim sum restaurant at 4am. It is innovative in regard to methodologies. You maintained a good control of techniques and organisation of the content and narration. The written and verbal articulation are of competent academic standard, and adequately integrated into the overall presentation. However, the research you have presented could have been more rigorous as it is quite loose at present. Which aspect of the restaurant would you like to focus on – is it the density, the act of gathering, or the time which you have briefly mentioned? What is your perspective?