Cities are trying to boost their tourist trade by using branding strategies that make them more unforgettable and attractive, but they are one of the reasons for cities becoming “Generic Cities”. Cities would spend millions of dollars to build up their brand, which cost them their uniqueness, like their culture, their history, or their identity. This can be reflected through the generic cities’ representations in cinematic images. For example, in Hollywood films, most cities in Asia are now seen and represented as rich cities. I have discovered that in different films or television shows when people mention Hong Kong or other cities in Asia, they are usually associated with business meetings, or the people from these places are rich. This is one of the results of the branding strategies, because of Hong Kong’s image of being “Asia’s World City”, people would only remember the rapid economic development of Hong Kong, and the uniqueness of our culture and history would be ignored. Also, from the reading, we can see that films like “Days of Being Wild”, “In the Mood for Love”, “Crouching Tiger” were used as examples to show the global identity issue and the change in the representation of cities and their relation to generic cities. Therefore, we can see how the movie industry adapts and represents the globalization of cities.
Woo Sik Yu Sonia 3035797365
Good reflection on how the film industry takes part in reimagining the city. Indeed, cities around the world are paying a massive amount of money to stand out from the others, mainly to attract more people to come. In what way would you think the city’s images are (or were) being portrayed by the city? Would you think these images were well represented?