GEA 105

The Making of Hong

Kong Chinese Culture
Dr Carol Lau

1
What is Culture?
-The way of thinking, the ways of acting, and
the material objects that together form a
people’s way of life.

- what we think, what we act, and what we

own

Think: Can you give some examples of

Hong Kong culture?
 What is Culture?
Nonmaterial Culture –
The ideas created by members of a society
e.g. Chinese herbal tea

Material Culture –
The physical things created by members of
society
e.g. pyramids
 Culture Shock
-Personal disorientation when experiencing an
unfamiliar way of life.

[Link]

Think about:
-Do you think the working style is similar between
Hong Kong people and European?
-Any difference in the culinary culture of China and the
US?
Elements of Culture
Symbols
-Anything that carries a particular meaning
recognized by people who share a culture
-Societies create new symbols all the time.
- Symbolic meanings also vary within a single
society

Think about: what are these :( >.< =.=“ ?

Elements of Culture
Symbols
A Variety of Symbols
 Elements of Culture
Language
-A system of symbols that allows people to
communicate with one another

-Cultural transmission - one generation passes culture to

the next

- Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
- People perceive the world through the cultural lens of
language

Think about: Does language shape reality?

 Elements of Culture
- Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
- People perceive the world through the cultural lens of
language
-Evidence does not support the notion that language
determines reality the way Sapir and Whorf claimed

-E.g. Children understand the idea of “family” long before

they learn that world, adults can imagine new ideas or
things before inventing a name for them.
Values and Beliefs
Values
-Broad guidelines for social living;
-values support beliefs;
-culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness,
& beauty
Beliefs
- Specific statements people hold to be true
-Matters individuals consider to be true or false
Think about: What are the core values of Hong Kong?
What is the meaning of success in our society?
 Values

• values are enduring attitudes about a preference for one

belief over another

•Belief systems are the basis of our values

•An understanding of cultural values helps us appreciate the

behavior of other people and know how to treat them

• Values possess a normative dimension – what is good or bad,

right or wrong, what ought to be or ought not to be, what is
useful, useless, appropriate, or inappropriate.
•[Link]
china&catid=1:history-and-culture&Itemid=114
 Beliefs

• a mental attitude of acceptance or assent toward a

proposition without the full intellectual knowledge
required to guarantee its truth

•What makes our belief system important is that it is

learned, and hence subject to cultural interpretation.

[Link]
 Beliefs

• As we grow up in a culture, that culture conditions us

to believe what it deems to be worthy and true

Think: What kind of living is the ideal one for you?

 Beliefs

4/10 millennials say that they believe that their most-

watched YouTubers get them better than their friends
and family.

Also, becoming a YouTuber is now one of the most

popular career choices for children. 75% of children
between the ages of 6 and 17 say that they want to
become YouTubers.

[Link]
be-youtubers-when-they-grow-up/
 Beliefs

This is 3/4 of Generation Z and millennials that were surveyed,

saying YouTube is their most desired career.
34.2%, or one in three, aspire to be a YouTuber, and 18.1%
aspire to be a vlogger or blogger, while 16% and 15.7% would
like to be a pop star or a movie star, and only 6.4% would want
to be a lawyer.

The study distinguishes between a blogger, a YouTuber, and a

vlogger, but all three can be categorized under the umbrella of
social media influencers, which means that more than 50% of
millennials and generation Z are determined to create content
on social media and get paid for it.
Sociologist Robin Williams’ Ten Values Central to
American Life
• Equal opportunity
• Achievement and success
• Material comfort
• Activity and work
• Practicality and efficiency
Sociologist Robin Williams’ Ten Values Central to
American Life

• Progress
• Science
• Democracy and free enterprise
• Freedom
• Racism and group superiority
Values Sometimes Conflict

• Williams's list includes examples of value clusters

• Sometimes one key cultural value contradicts another

Value conflict causes strain
• Values change over time
GEB 205 The Making of Hong Kong
Chinese Culture

19
Course Objective
• The rise of Hong Kong Chinese culture involves an intricate interplay in
relation to Cantonese praxis, colonial modernity and cosmopolitan
identification.

• By focusing upon family life, political and economic culture, arts and
literature, this general education course examines how Hong Kong
Chinese create a unique version of Chinese culture through varying
cultural innovations and creative practices, particularly what the
distinctive ingenuity and flexibility are in question.

20
Course Objective
• The general objective is not to trace the presence of a constant
Chinese culture from the estranged past, but to demonstrate the
innovative transformation of Chinese culture in the Hong Kong context.

21
22
 Course Structure
• Characteristics of Hong Kong Chinese Culture – 扮俗
• 黃霑 (填詞人、廣告人、專欄作家… etc.) [Link]

• 倪匡 (電影編劇、小說作家、專欄作家… etc.)
• 蔡瀾 (電影監製、美食專欄作家…etc.)

[Link] [Link] 23
24
 Course Structure
• Characteristics of Hong Kong Chinese Culture

1. Tone and Timbre (Quality and texture)

• 2. Common Sense (日常意識)

25
[Link]
 Course Structure
• Characteristics of Hong Kong Chinese Culture

3. Ideological Elements (意識形態成份)

4. Systematic Discourse (系統論述)

26
[Link]
 Course Structure
• Culture in Southern China – Lingnan Chinese/Cantonese Culture
• Colonial Cultural Influence
• Cosmopolitan Connection

• Becoming a unique Hong Kong Chinese Culture

[Link]

秦小梨、梁醒波《光棍姻緣》 27
28
Course Structure
• Art and Literature - Movies
• Lecture 1: Mandarin Movies – Dream of “Cultural China”, produced
in Hong Kong (1950s-1960s)

• Lecture 2: Cantonese Movies – Chinese Culture Transition to

Modernity (1950s-1960s)

• Lecture 3: Kungfu Movies and Meanings of Martial Arts (1970s-

1980s)

29
 Course Structure
• Lecture 1: Mandarin Movies – Dream of “Cultural China”, produced in
Hong Kong (1950s-1960s)

[Link]

天女散花 王芷蕾 (靜婷 原唱)江山美人插曲 30

 Course Structure
• Lecture 2: Cantonese Movies – Chinese Culture Transition to
Modernity (1950s-1960s)

[Link]

難兄難弟 (1960) 31
Course Structure
• Lecture 3: Kungfu Movies and Meanings of Martial Arts (1970s-1980s)

[Link]

32
精武門 [Link]
Course Structure
• Family life, and Political and Economic Culture
• Lecture 4: Utilitarian Familism in the Post-war Hong Kong (1950s-
1990s)
• Lecture 5: Post-materialism in the Hong Kong (2000s onwards)
• Lecture 6: Social Policy, Positive Non-interventionism and
Neoliberalism (1970s-2010s)

33
Course Structure
• Lecture 4: Hong Kong’s Family Ideology and Social Policy

[Link]

34
Course Structure
• Lecture 5: Post-materialism in Hong Kong

[Link]
曾俊華：年輕人渴望心中富有 %AA%8C-%E6%96%B0%E7%94%9F%E4%BB%A3%E6%B8%B4%E6%9C%9B%E5%BF%83%E4%B8%AD%E5%AF%8C%E6%9C%89-
%E7%A4%BE%E4%BC%81%E6%88%90%E5%AF%A6%E8%B8%90%E6%8A%B1%E8%B2%A0%E8%88%9E%E5%8F%B0
35
• [Link]
Course Structure
• Lecture 6: Social Capital and Social Exclusion

[Link]
37
Generative AI Policy
• Students are expected to fully understand all content in their essays and
assignments. This means you must be able to clearly explain and elaborate
on all concepts, arguments, evidence, and analytical frameworks in your
written work during face-to-face discussions with the teacher.

• You may use generative AI tools for grammar and spelling checks. The use
of AI for text generation or writing assistance is permitted only if you can
completely explain and justify all content. While AI can interact with you
and support your thinking process, the writing, revision, and final
submission must reflect your own intellectual work.
•

38
Generative AI Policy

• If questions arise about your understanding, you will be asked to

explain your assignment directly to the teacher. Misusing AI tools,
including submitting work you cannot thoroughly explain, will be
considered a breach of academic integrity.

39
Course Assessments
• Participation in Class Discussion (10%)

• Students should participate actively in the class discussion. You are

expected to share your opinions on the topics in both lectures and
tutorials. Merely attendance won’t be given the marks.

40
Course Assessments
• Visual Essay (30%)
• By week 8, students are expected to produce a visual essay discussing
media texts related to Hong Kong Chinese culture. The essay should
connect visual images, writing, and theoretical concepts reflectively.

• Deadline: Mar 12, 2026

41
Course Assessments
• Group Project Presentation (20% Group + 10% Individual)
• Based on the group research project, students are required to give an
oral presentation in week 13 or 14 on a selected topic for no more
than 20 minutes. Then, followed by a Q & A session.

42
Course Assessments
• Individual Essay (30%)
• Students are expected to complete an essay (1500-2000 words) which
connects the empirical research findings derived from the group
research project with critical individual reflection based on the
concepts learnt in this course.

• Deadline: Apr 16, 2026

43
Society
• We are all living in society.

人就是江湖 [Link]

44
Society
• Individuals are often influenced by circumstances over which s/he has
little control.

45
Society
• Traffic Jam

46
Society
• Sometimes, interacting individuals create collective circumstances that
everyone is subjected to, but no one intends.

• Sociology is interested in the PATTERNS that people generate as they

interact, influence, and relate to one another.
47
 The Sociological Perspective
Peter Berger
• Seeing the general in the particular

– Sociologists identify general social patterns in

the behavior of particular individuals.

Think about: Does social class position affect

what women look for in a spouse?
 The Sociological Perspective
Peter Berger
• Seeing the general in the particular

• Lillian Rubin (1976) found that higher-

income women typically expected the men
they married to be sensitive to others, to
talk readily, and to share feelings and
experiences.
• Lower-income women look for men who
did not drink too much, were not violent,
and held steady jobs.
 The Sociological Perspective
Peter Berger
• Seeing the strange in the familiar
– Giving up the idea that human behavior is
simply a matter of what people decide to do
–Understanding that society shapes our lives

Think about: Why you “chose” to enroll at this

college?
It’s close to my home, I can only get in here with my
academic result, my girlfriend goes to this college,
with a XXX degree I can get a good job…
 The Sociological Perspective
Peter Berger

• Seeing the strange in the familiar

– Giving up the idea that human behavior is
simply a matter of what people decide to do
–Understanding that society shapes our lives

Seeing the strange in the familiar, by critically

identifying and examining both our own and
other people’s ethics and beliefs.
 C. Wright Mills’ Sociological Imagination
• The application of imaginative thought to the
asking and answering of sociological questions.
Someone using the sociological imagination
"thinks himself away" from the familiar routines
of daily life (Giddens).

• Sociological perspective lies in

changing individual lives & in
transforming society
• Society, not people’s personal failings, is the
cause of social problems.
 C. Wright Mills’ Sociological Imagination

• The sociological imagination transforms

personal problems into public issues.

Think about: my business closes

Hong Kong bakery chain Crostini shuts all

retail outlets
Local | 14 Sep 2022
Culture Shapes Our Lives
• We are all living in culture(s).
• Culture can be understood as map of meaning.

54
Culture
• If you want to communicate with me, then your map of meaning must
overlap with my map of meaning.

• Example: What is the meaning of this word, “Green”?

1. ____
2. ____
3. ____
4. ____
5. ____
55
Culture
• In Chinese culture, green can mean adultery. If we say a man wears a
green hat, that means his wife has an affair with other people.

• In the US, green can mean money.

56
Culture

Money
1. Color
Chinese 2. Safe US
Cultural 3. Environmentally Cultural
Map Friendly Map
4. Immature
Adultery

57
Culture
• One person can have multiple maps of meaning, depending on one’s
upbringing experience, school life, social life, mass and social media
use, generation…etc.

Hong Kong Born in

2000s

Tony

INFJ

58
 Culture
Watch TVB
Hong Kong Born in 2000s

Tony

Watch Animation IG User

INFJ

Together we call these maps of meaning - Cultural Context (文化脈絡) 59

Ingredients of Hong Kong Style

• Layers of Hong Kong Style under Heavy Competition of Urban and

Capitalist society
1. Tone and Timbre (調子與肌理)
2. Common Sense (日常意識)
3. Ideological Elements (意識形態成份)
4. Systematic Discourse (系統論述)
吳俊雄：《尋找香港本土意識》 60
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
• 1. Tone and Timbre (調子與肌理)

• Living Style (生活的風格)

• 搏殺
Video: Godiva 第一日買一送一
• 醒目
• 自私
• 走精面
• 唔執輸
• 招積
• 大聲

61
 Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
• 2. Common Sense (日常意識)
• Living Condition
• Intense Competition, Stressful, Full of Crises
• Forming some fragmented wisdom from grassroots as Experience and
Guideline

• 「萬般皆下品，唯有讀書高」
• 「在家靠父母，出外靠朋友」
• 「執輸行頭慘過敗家」
• 「識人好過識字」
• 「阻人發達猶如殺人父母」
• Characteristics: Practical, Shallow, Ordinary 62
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
• 3. Ideological Elements (意識形態成份)
• Some common sense are grounded on a broader set of relatively
systematic knowledge with contradictions

• Example: Common Sense 1「人無橫財不富」

• People learn this common sense from a range of financial guidelines,
TV financial programs, or even macro-economics.

63
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
• 3. Ideological Elements (意識形態成份)

• Example: Common Sense 2「善惡到頭終有報」

• People learn this common sense from a range of literatures, including
novels, fairy tales, religious belief, etc.

64
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
• 3. Ideological Elements (意識形態成份)
• Based on their ability, interest, and experience, people would choose
different elements to piece together and form their own different
maps of meanings and sets of morality.

• Three Sets of Elements in Hong Kong

I. Survival
II. Traditional Relation
III. Anti-authority
65
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
I. Survival
• Living as a Refugee in an Alienated Colony
• Pessimistic towards social reality
• Collecting family resources to survive the hardship in life
• Short-sighted, inward looking to the family and money-minded

66
67
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
II. Traditional Relation
• Surviving through establishing and consolidating the traditional
relation with relatives
• Forming Natives Association (同鄉會)

[Link]
68
鄉里比社會福利署可靠

69
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
III. Anti-authority
• Distrust of the rich and authority
• Mutual support – “one for all and all for one”

[Link]

70
71
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
• 4. Systematic Discourse (系統論述)
• A set of coherent discursive system that can explain how the world
and the society works.

• In the 1990s, Hong Kong has three systems of discourse

I. Consensual Capitalism (共識資本主義)
II. Chinese Nationalism (愛國愛港、回歸一統)
III. Social Democracy (社會民主論述)

72
 Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
I. Consensual Capitalism (共識資本主義)

• Hong Kong Success Story

• Colonial Legacy
• Free Market Capitalism
• Big Market, Small Government

[Link]

73
74
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
II. Chinese Nationalism
• Cultural and Ethnic Connection
• Political Reality
• Economic Success based on the hinterland of the Mainland
2018
-每
痛不
中
《
，
》
如 恨悔
國
願
日 ！
劉條
人
頭 德華未能穿一襲中山裝登春晚唱

75
Ingredients of Hong Kong Style
III. Social Democracy (社會民主論述)
• Materialism vs Post-materialism
• Money vs Morality
• Freedom and Democracy
• Social Justice

76
77
Conclusion
• Lecture 1 – Difference between Cultural China and Political China
(1950s-1970s)
• Lecture 2 – Struggle between Chinese Morality and Capitalist Logic
(1950s-1970s)
• Lecture 3 – Reinventing Kungfu from Three Different Perspectives –
Abstract Nationalism, Chinese Morality, and Capitalism (1970s-
1980s)
• Lecture 4 – Utilitarian Familism and its Social Context (1950s-1970s)
• Lecture 5 – Post-materialism in the Making (1970s-2010s)
• Lecture 6 – Social Capital and Social Exclusion (1950s-2010s)

78