Reconfiguration of 'the Stars and the Queen': A Quest for the Interrelationship between Architecture and Civic Awareness in Post-colonial Hong Kong

Author(s)

Liza Wing Man Kam

Abstract

Since 1997, the once symbolic infrastructure of British imperialism has seemingly become eyesores of the new Hong Kong authority. In the post-colonial era, is the transformation of former colonial structures an act of de-colonisation, or is it the 'début' of neo-colonialism? Buried with the ruins, it is the complicated and contradictory representations of the annihilated colonial heritage. The Queen's and Star Ferry Pier complex was where colonial governors disembarked from the Royal yachts when they reached the colony, as well the spot that hosted the city's first wave of social movement directed towards colonial suppressions in the 1970s.
The attempt and success of the post-colonial authority to transform colonial spaces and the public who is reluctant to take actions when losing their 'site of memory' are seen as driven by different forms of 'colonial legacy'. This book inspects the legacy's texture, by disentangling the interrelation between material history, historiography, identity, architecture, and civic awareness.

Organisation(s)

Department of East Asian Studies

External organisation(s)

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

No. of pages

190

Publication date

2015

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

604002 Architectural design, 507021 Urban history, 605008 Cultural heritage, 507005 Cultural geography

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/reconfiguration-of-the-stars-and-the-queen-a-quest-for-the-interrelationship-between-architecture-and-civic-awareness-in-postcolonial-hong-kong(0391d125-90d7-4740-9081-f76130cd3bb7).html