This article with the theme of disappearance mentions a very interesting opinion, that is, cities are divided into three types: real, surreal, and simulated according to the degree of relevance to their historical context. Interestingly, with different perspectives, Hong Kong will present the characteristics of all these three different urban forms at the same time. This stemmed from the long-standing conflict and interaction between Chinese culture and western colonialism in Hong Kong, resulting in floating identity recognition. Such confusion of cultural identity has led to the absence of architecture in reflecting urban culture, as a result, Hong Kong’s historical buildings, whether oriental or colonial, are often downgraded to the representative of exotic customs under the gaze of tourists. However, it is thought-provoking that the degradation of historical meaning enriches people’s imagination of Hong Kong architecture to some extent, for instant, distorted projections of Hong Kong in Blade Runner(1984) and Ghost in the Shell(1995) are examples of Hong Kong’s urban space used to support a distant narrative, and can be viewed as a kind of disappearance with representation.
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Good summary on disappearance. Regarding your last point on distorted projection, it made me relate to The Ambassador, the painting introduced in the reading. Perhaps under the circumstance of the culture of disappearance, some sort of distorted representation is needed to understand Hong Kong.