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Cat Links 2024 Blog

[Reading Response 2]“Build It and They Will Come”: Transformation of Pudong into a Copy of the Global City

Posted on 李嗞啦

The Evolution of Old and New Shanghai Through Cinematic Metaphors As one of the first cities to open up in China, Shanghai has a history of architectural development spanning over a century. In this essay, I hope to briefly explore the stark contrast between the old and new architectural landscapes of Shanghai as depicted in films, and the thoughts these depictions provoke. In the contemporary perception of the new era, Shanghai mainly presents two faces: one is the image of “Old Shanghai” from the 1940s to the 1960s, captured in movies like The Bund and many other modern Chinese historical

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[Reading Response2]- Building on Disappearance: Hong Kong Architecture and Colonial Space

Posted on u3623977

Chu Kai Ying Yannis uid: 3036239774 This article mainly discusses the disappearance of Hong Kong architecture and history. Architecture not only can showcase the aesthetic of one place, but also represent people’s identity in an intangible way. The demolition of Hong Kong unique buildings will fade out people’s memories towards a city or even a nation, nevertheless, the preservation may not represent the truth or memory of a city. As preservation is selective and tends to exclude the dirt and pain, the fantasy may be just an illusion, some of the real history may also be cancelled by the preservation.

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[Reading Response 2] Katarzyna Ancuta’s Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City

Posted on mattsee

Ancuta presents in the passage the idea that ghosts in media are portrayed differently depending on the architectural backdrop. I am intrigued by this idea since it shows how different forms of housing setting can not only affect our daily lives, but more importantly, influence how we process the supernatural and extreme emotions like terror. I find it interesting that by altering the setting, the agency and motives of ghosts seemingly transform, the focus at times shifts to the architecture, its layout and features, rather than the story of the ghost itself. By analysing ghost movies that are set in

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[Reading Response] Hong Kong: Culture and the politics of disappearance

Posted on derekdw

 Ackbar Abbas’s article, “Building on Disappearance,” delves deep into the ramifications of Hong Kong’s rapid urbanization, examining the *vanishing* effects it has had on the built environment, urban fabric, and cultural heritage. Abbas explores the relationship between architectural entities and collective memory; it highlights the heightened significance of the theme of disappearance in Hong Kong cinema, particularly in the aftermath of the pivotal 1997 handover to China. His analysis underscores the profound impact of vanishing edifices, the loss of architectural continuity, and the erasure of cultural landmarks on the city’s sociocultural tapestry. And he touches on the anxiety people in

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading response 2] – Communal after living: Asian ghost and the city

Posted on answ530

Ghost stories mainly focus on the theme of non-human and supernatural, often create a sense of horror due to its nature of mystery and unknown. Using this particular feature, the article depicts the correlation between the ideology of ghost and the urban architectural environment in Asian cities, and addresses Asian culture and their attitude towards ghost cities, eventually brings out their impact on various social issues. First, it is a common phenomenon that the underlying animistic beliefs and pratices are rooted in people’s ideal mindset, which affects the perception of ghosts in Asian cultures. The cultural rituals are the products

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Cat Links Lecture 6: Housing Stories

[Reading Response 2]: In Search of the Ghostly In Context

Posted on karinhoo

The book focuses on how Fruit Chan’s film defamiliarizes the city of Hong Kong, challenging the dominating genres at that time. He used spectral elements as a means to explore the city’s omitted problems and historical events. Chan’s film depicts haunted spaces as symbolic representations of large historical issues or repressed memories associated with those spaces, becoming a metaphorical reflection of the deeper issue that fills up the collective memory of the city. Chan describes the city as a place where ghosts gather, representing the dense history that is in tension with the act of remembering and sorrow. In the

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Cat Links Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers, Uncategorized

[Reading Response 2] Oh No, There Goes Tokyo – Anvesha Bajpai

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I was interested in exploring the deep psychological trauma ingrained in post-war Japan, particularly stemming from the experience of nuclear warfare which has a profound influence on Japanese popular culture, leading to doomsday cities such as Tokyo as recurring themes in films and media. Critics like Susan Sontag suggest these narratives serve as a means to address and cope with the collective trauma experienced by the population. Susan Sontag’s perspective on the appeal of postwar science fiction cinema, exemplified through films like “Gojira” (1954), illustrates the connection between trauma and storytelling. “Gojira” visually captures the destruction of Tokyo. Sontag argues

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[Reading Response 2]-In search of the Ghostly in context

Posted on u3609481

“In Search of the Ghostly in Context” offers a fascinating analysis of how Fruit Chan’s film captures the spirit of estrangement within Hong Kong’s urban setting by utilizing the architecture of public housing estates and historic districts. The reading deftly explores how these locales are portrayed—not just as actual places, but also as vessels for haunting memories and socioeconomic inequality that highlight the more sinister aspects of the city’s quick industrialization and historical changes. The article emphasizes how architectural space profoundly affects cinematic story and character identity, especially considering Hong Kong’s transformation both before and after the handover in 1997.

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 8: Sci-Fi Technoscapes

[Reading Response 2] Migratory Cities

Posted on Mark

I think when the cities can move, they are not ‘city’ anymore. Instead, they should be called transportation tools. There are many transportation can move people from place to place while they can work, entertain, and live on machines such as aircraft carriers, trains, airships, and rockets. Similar stories can be told by changing the ‘city’ to other carriers such as pirate ships, then the story becomes “One Piece”, stronger pirates engulf weaker pirates. The main character trying to defect the strong pirates to get treasure. In the idea of moving to a residential place, I think of the vehicle

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[Reading Response2] In Search of the Ghostly in Context : Esther M. K. Cheung

Posted on jacky714

The reading mentions the blend of reality and surrealism in Fruit Chan’s film Made In Hong Kong, which alters the audience’s sense of reality. In the movie, he defamiliarises Hong Kong and creates a “spectral city” instead. This style differs from Fruit Chan’s other films, which usually have more elements of realism. Moreover, the reading mentions Fruit Chan’s another ghostly city film “Finale in Blood”. In that film, “ghostly” is not all about including real spectres and ghosts. Instead, he uses “ghostly” as a transformative tool to defamiliarise the city, to give the film an uncanniness and uneasiness. The analysis

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