Hong Kong’s thriving film industry, especially during the 1960s, played a crucial role in shaping cultural expressions that fused together old and new, local and foreign elements.
Teddy Girls (1969) is a great example, showcasing the Westernized aspects of youth culture, including a fashion show at the Girls’ Rehabilitation Institute that was influenced by the latest designs in the West. At the same time, it also reveals the layer of local life, such as the scene where Siao’s mother commits suicide after being betrayed by her lover, which reflects Chinese traditional values that women should live for men. This film demonstrates the struggles of youths, especially women, in a society torn between conservative and traditional values and modernization and Westernization.
Similarly, A Purple Stormy Night (1968) aims to showcase a distinctive Chinese identity. In this film, Man-sing becomes a loyal disciple and a moral husband. This film also promoted mutual support among the poor, a politically correct and traditional Chinese theme. However, it also uses Western-style techniques and depicts Westernized images, such as an urban night scene with numerous Christmas lights and gifts in shop windows. This film is a product of the fusion of Chinese and Western cultures.
HK films that emerged during the 1960s embody the synthesis of both Western and Chinese cultural elements. While some films may strive to showcase only aspects of Western or Chinese elements, they inevitably demonstrate both, which are determined by the age of modernization and Westernization and traditional local roots.
You have done well to summarize the conflict between purely Chinese and purely Western portrayals of Hong Kong in media of that era. How do you feel filmmakers nowadays straddle the line between the two extremes, or do you think there is a different direction that they take?