Hong Kong Literature:A Modality Of Urban Literature

The special historical, geographical and cultural backgrounds of Hong Kong have led to unique cultural perspectives of Hong Kong society which are different from those of other Chinese regions. Less ideological constraints allow Hong Kong literature to develop freely and independently. The co-existence of eastern/western and Chinese/overseas values as well as the syncretism and collision of colonial culture and traditional Chinese concept result in the uniqueness of Hong Kong literature. The development of Hong Kong literature is nearly synchronized with the urbanization of this city. From the arising of Hong Kong urban literature in1950s and60s to the prosperity in1970s and80s, although its development has common features with that of Chinese literature, the particularity of Hong Kong society and the reality of multicultural environment make Hong Kong literature a distinctive form of urban literature.In this thesis, the historical development of Hong Kong urban literature and its current status were reviewed. Taking the subjective consciousness of Hong Kong urban literature presenting in different periods as a clue, the rethinking and criticism on society and humanity by Hong Kong literature at different stages of urbanization were analyzed on the basis of a systematic survey of literature reports. The evolution of the subjective consciousness of Hong Kong urban literature was studied based on the analysis of the initiation of local consciousness, the formation of local culture, the bewilderment of cultural identity, and the practice and blooming of personalized creation. From these analyses, it has been tried to summarize the uniqueness of Hong Kong urban literature. On the basis of revealing the context of Hong Kong urban literary development, the characteristics and challenges of Hong Kong literature in the process of urbanization were investigated, from which it has been tried to find out the possibility of bringing it out of the current dilemma.During competing with commercial arts, Hong Kong literature fully demonstrated its deep concern on human nature and society in a materialistic. The in depth reflection of humanistic society, e.g., the criticism on commercial culture, the rational thinking of cultural identity, the awakening and practicing of local consciousness, the formation of decolonization consciousness, and the pursuit of personalized creation, has been the highlights of Hong Kong literature. Meanwhile, due to the special colonial background, the perplexity of identity and the initiation of local consciousness have also been the important themes in addition to presenting the urban culture in the Hong Kong literature, which also becomes an important symbol of Hong Kong literature. It is clear that the efforts of Hong Kong writers in pursuing main value of literature and innovation in artistic expression have never stopped. They have revealed all aspects of city, society life, and human nature in different ways and from different angle of views. Therefore, the development of Hong Kong literature shows a diversified trajectory. Along with the current urbanization process in mainland, the research on the characteristics of development of Hong Kong urban literature would provide us valuable reference for studying the future progress of urban literature in China and the relationship between pure literature and commercial arts.Compared with mainland and Taiwan literature, there are more free spaces for the development of Hong Kong literature. However, the factors such as lack of support for literary creation in cultural policy, the constraints of commercial market on literary, as well as the widespread use of Cantonese dialect and English in daily life, make the progress of Hong Kong literature to face more challenges. From1990s onwards, Hong Kong literature has shown the trend of being marginalized, gradually withdrawing from the cultural mainstream position. However, due to its close relationship with market demand, the development of literature in Hong Kong needs to satisfy the requirement of both refined and popular tastes, and audience of both dialect and Mandarin speakers, which make the Hong Kong literature a special literary form. The difficulties faced by Hong Kong literature are thus more representative and of specific reference value.Hong Kong literature is a microcosm of the development of urban literature. Understanding and exploring the challenges faced by the Hong Kong Literature will undoubtedly provide valuable reference for studying the advance of literature in urbanization.