After reading this passage, it’s devastating to see how the characteristics of a generic city so accurately describe Hong Kong. The city is so desperate to define its identity after being defined by others for so long. The world might think that we won’t be able to sustain our economic power after our days as an entrepôt were over, that’s why we need to prove them wrong and continue to be Asia’s international city.
Much of this urge to grow and develop economically makes our lives so vividly dull. The clone-like high rises and our everyday life that’s literally the same every day are definitely a highlighted topic in recent years; exposing the robotic nature of our manufacturing process to create a global world that we so aspire to have.
But what’s most depressing is that, even if we want to ignore this fact, the world has become a place where even entertainment and creativity can no longer be the same. Just as the female lead in Crouching Tiger, we no longer want to be liberated by the greater power above us. This reminds me of the many disappointments that popular film has brought us recently. As an animation fanatic, it’s sad to see how every opportunity for entertainment has recently been turned into a lecture. Many have praised Soul to be life-changing, and Raya’s Last Dragon to be one of the most respectful and culturally accurate films ever. It’s amazing to have correctness, finally, after so many years of discrimination and sordidness. But when every creation and the discussion that follows is solely centred around correctness, things quickly become overwhelming.
And as Abbas mentioned in his text, “disappointment is the realisation that every desire that we want to believe is unique and original is already a repetition”. Just like Maggie Cheung’s many cheongsams with different patterns, our cities are becoming ever so prosperous and glamorous, but we’re still the same indistinguishable cheongsam silhouette. Taking away the prints, the colours, the Eiffel towers, the IFCs, it seems to me that we’re not so far from a globalised world. Similarly, art and entertainment yet again are related to our unconscious downfall. We’re so excited about recent breakthroughs with CGI and other animation technologies that seemingly every company and every project has to incorporate it. But after the photorealistic talking lions really making the classic 2D animation better? Or are the sophisticated textures and lighting distracting us from creating or noticing the aura of a story?
At this point, it seems that there is no return. Although your ancestors have probably faced this boredom towards artistic expressions and styles as well (thus the many art movements), their situations were nowhere as worse as ours. With the internet nowadays, it is like a blessing and a curse. It is especially hard to create something original as out of the billions of people online, one must have a similar thought as yours. The rapid receiving of information also limits our creative minds as we may get overly inspired by the existing.
It is curious to imagine how our generic world will be in years to come. Will we create technology that promotes the use of our creative mind? Will we go back to living in caves, underground shelters and abandon the high rises together with our fatigue? Maybe then we will look back at these views from the mountains and think to ourselves that we want to live like the way we now do.
Chan Sun Kie Dorcas, u3579263
I appreciate the extremely articulate reflection of Abbas’ text. I share the same despair toward the future of technology and architecture. For your interest, Harun Farocki’s In Comparison (2009) documented brick production around the world, from the traditional to robotics. It is fascinating to watch how a seemingly generic brick can be produced differently based on their culture, geography, and resources. You might be interested in the trending NFT art phenomenon as well which people extends their desire to own originality in the virtual world with cryptocurrency.
I also enjoy your point on the society’s obsession on “correctness” which is often associated with “cancel culture”. Such culture is potentially toxic and constraining as it forces people to jump on certain band wagons for the sake of being politically correct. One cannot look back in history with a contemporary lens; the key is perhaps education instead of erasure.