The article mainly talks about the disappearances in Hong Kong. The most obvious disappearance is the architecture which is regarded as a commodity. These buildings can be easily ruined due to economic reasons. In some cases such as the clock tower and the Hong Kong culture centre, although the government kept the original building it is so weird to connect colonial architecture with the modern cultural centre with continuity. It is only used for visual consumption and we ignore the meaning behind these buildings. Other examples like the Flagstaff House and the Repulse Bay Hotel have a similar problem that

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Abbas’s reading put out an interesting idea that we should be selective when persevering cultural architecture and think more about the cultural aspects of architecture. In the article, the author mentioned that in Hong Kong nowadays treat buildings as commodity and just let the market mechanism affect architecture. And as a result, those building that get well preserved or get the most exposure might not sufficiently represent Hong Kong culture. For instance, the Junk in Vitoria Harbor might often be seen in many movies and these famous architectures appear in the movie might be the first cultural impression of Hong

Continue readingReading Response: Ackbar Abbas

To a moderate extent, I agree with the perspective of Abbas. Often in films, the portrayal of cities is fogged by generalization and trends and stray away from genuine portrayal. However, for Hong Kong to be identified as a generic city due to such occurrence is up for debate. Personally, residing in multiple countries, there are qualities of Hong Kong that cannot be found in other areas. While Hong Kong is known for being multicultural, there are still hints of historical genetics inside of buildings. It feels as if the buildings speak two languages, global and Cantonese. However, Abbas’s perspective

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After the reading, I couldn’t help thinking about how architecture shapes national and individual cultural identity. As far as I am concerned, the environment and society I grew up in created my own cultural identity, and architecture is indispensable in the environment. Buildings give people emotion and support. Every building tells its historical story. To demolish the building and forget the history due to the needs of urban development will undoubtedly be strongly opposed and stopped by people. The Reading points out that “architecture is defined by the people who live in it.” This sentence indicates that architecture itself has

Continue readingReading Response: Ackbar Abbas