Tag: Reading responce

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

[Reading Response] M. Christine Boyer: “The Imaginary Real World of CyberCities”

Posted on hong0418

Nowadays, social media platforms have become an essential part of our lives and can be used as synonyms to describe our identity. Therefore, the book “The Imaginary Real World of CyberCities” Author by M. Christine Boyer can help us to know how these phenomena change our understanding to the real world and the imaginary worlds. From the book, Boyer mainly explores how movies and media influence our views on life and the world. Boyer also defined “CyberCities” as a virtual space within computer networks, she explained how CyberCities blurs the boundaries between physical and virtual reality, and how CyberCities provide

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 7: Monsters, Materials & Skyscrapers

[READING RESPONSE] WILLIAM M. TSUTSUI: OH NO, THERE GOES TOKYO

Posted on SONG YIQUN

The article mentions that Japan’s cultural make-up and ideology are influenced by history and war. Japanese popular culture is filled with the darkness and pessimism of apocalyptic imagery, and people are obsessed with scenes of urban destruction and fantasies of rebuilding a peaceful landscape after that. Depictions of the apocalypse appear in many Japanese films, such as the movie Godzilla, spawned by the Japanese people’s fear of nuclear strike, which focuses the world’s conflict on a fantastical creature mutated by nuclear radiation, whose death symbolizes the demise of the threat and the establishment of a new order. The Tokyo city

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 6: Housing Stories

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

Posted on u3626460

In this article, the author discussed the intricate relationship between urban spaces, Asian cultures and the presence of ghosts. Unlike Westerners, who typically view ghosts as remnants of the past or manifestations of trauma, Asian cultures view ghosts as an integral part of the universe. It’s common in Asia to believe in the existence of ghosts, in countries like China, Japan and Korea. Therefore, to represent normalcy in Asian cities, the inclusion and accommodation of ghosts become essential. As a result of rapid urbanisation, people are leaving their traditional rural and natural environments and moving into dense, modern cities. The

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Cat Links 2024 Blog

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

Posted on liu2004

The text gives opinions on the relationship among humans, ghosts, and the city, while the author mainly focuses on Asian regions. When talking about ghosts and their spaces, haunted apartments and haunted houses were mentioned as two different concepts, while haunted houses can be clearly recognized as scary places, but a haunted apartment often looks common and could be hidden in the city. Also, haunted apartments are used more frequently in Asian horror films. Then the text brought us to the discussion on ghosts and “living ghosts”. According to Katarzyna Ancuta, the ghosts are the by-product of the city’s capitalism,

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Cat Links Lecture 2: Filming the Asian City

Reading Response: The Urban Milieu of Shanghai Cinema

Posted on hoiyiu

The change of the content of film in Chinese cinema is closely related to how the people live and urban culture at that time. The book started the discussions based on the Shanghai cinema. It explores the relationship between the film and social transformation. For example, only the most popular Hollywood movie could be showed in the first-class movie s Chinese films would be shown in lower -class movie houses.This shows the audience had a strong preference for Hollywood and European movies during early 19th century.This international movie-watching habit promoted the development of Shanghai’s film industry and provided the foundation

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 1: Architecture, Film & The Modern City

[Reading Response] Noirs: The city, The Woman and Other Spaces

Posted on u3609481

The article synthesizes the intersections of architecture and film in Hong Kong, illustrating a narrative that weaves through the city’s evolving identity from the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to depicting the individual tales of working-class women—elevator girls, office ladies, and factory workers—the noir and melodrama-infused movies of this era also highlighted the significant changes that had taken place in the urban environment. These film pieces, which represent the women’s tenacity in the face of social change, depicted their real-life experiences against the backdrop of both rising high-rise buildings and vanishing colonial architecture. The reading outlines how the preservation of

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 4: Everyday Spaces as Narrative

[READING RESPONSE] Cuts through Hong Kong by Eunice Seng

Posted on c2vonne

Cheung Wan Suet, UID 3036234401 The reading discussed In The Mood Of Love and the 1960s Hong Kong characterised by its state of temporality and conflicting existence. The impermanency awkwardly puts everything into ambiguity — the ambiguity of love and the ambiguity of this city. Even in a more modern context, I still wonder what defines as characteristically Hong Kong. Is it the Chinese culture, the coloniality, or is it a subtle blending of both? There are no definite answers, as Hong Kong still struggles with the constant phenomena of appearing and disappearing: the Kowloon Walled City, Kai Tak Airport, Edinburgh

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 4: Everyday Spaces as Narrative

[Reading Response] Eunice Seng: “Cuts through Hong Kong”

Posted on hong0418

This article is a thoughtful and profound analysis of the movie “In the Mood for Love” by Director Wong Kar-Wai. The author, Eunice Seng, explores the inevitable and irreversible concepts that the movie portrays, such as love, migration, and temporary identity, from both a micro and macro perspective. The article argues that changes are inevitable, whether it is the 1960s when the plot is set, the filming time in 2000, or even our current time of 2024. Seng also highlights the movie’s use of “spatial and temporal collage” to capture and convey the old and new cultural ideas that were

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 4: Everyday Spaces as Narrative

[Reading Response] – Spatial Stories

Posted on tsz6701

De Certeau defined place and space by “Space is a practiced place” as space is what ones take more consideration into place. According to this definition, the “difference of tour and map “ and “boundaries” walked by De Certeau following can be easily understand.   In an one-sided angle, those ideas can be understanded by “things are different according to their observer”. Place is neutral. Space is different to place since it has an “observer”. Streets become different space to walkers in city as they link to walkers’ life and memory. And since those walkers’ life and memory are different.

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Cat Links 2024 Blog, Lecture 3: The Post-war Asian City as Set

[Reading Response]: Noirs: The City, the Woman and Other Spaces by Seng

Posted on Dorothy

This article mainly discusses two film genres, namely melodrama and noir thriller set in the context of the working and upper classes in Hong Kong. Two films, Black Rose and Elevator Girl, both released in 1965 impressed me the most. The difference between the two films is that the heroines in Black Rose, the Chen sisters, come from the upper class, whereas the heroine in Elevator Girl, Nam, comes from the working class. The difference in the way the scene transitions were shot also intrigued me. In Black Rose, the scene is shot from a villa to a back alley,

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