The Culture Imagine And Identity Exploation

Academic world in the mainland of China was once affected by traditional academicconcepts and reviewed Hong Kong literature from political angle. Therefore, Hong Kongliterature study was neglected or paid less attention to. Hong Kong was also subjectivelyregarded as "cultural desert" because of our cultural superiority and information isolation.However, more and more researchers have raised their doubts about this state since1990s. Some changes have been made in Hong Kong literature study withtransformations of academic concepts and adjustments of literature pattern. The studyhas transformed from the initial state of scattered and plane description into the state ofdeep, complete and systematic discussion. Case studies of individual writers,comprehensive study, methodology construction and academic introspection are moreemphasized in the course of discipline development. Researchers are also concernedabout the historical background, writing awareness and other important literaryphenomena of Hong Kong literature and try to explore and expound them theoretically.Compared with Chinese modern and contemporary literature study in other fields,the depth and scope of Hong Kong literature study are still needed to improve, especiallywhen it is put into the category of Chinese literary history. In recent years, researchers allencounter one problem, that is, although they have possessed a large amount of materialsfor discussion, there are flaws everywhere in their literary history.The serious flaw is not that they have left out some important writers or works, but thatthey couldn't explain what is the reason for the development and evolution of HongKong literature. In view of this situation, this paper takes the development of Hong Kongliterature subjectivity as a clue and reveals intrinsic spiritual characteristics of HongKong literature development from cultural image and identity exploration. In addition,the author attempts to go beyond the traditional way of studying literary historysuperficially and establishes her own research frames of studying Hong Kong literature.Hong Kong was a part of China since ancient times and its primitive culturebelonged to Chinese culture. Even though it later became British colony, its culture wasstill influenced by mainland culture very much. Nevertheless, there have been bothsimilarities and differences between mainland Chinese culture and Hong Kong culture,especially after the 1960s. The discrepancies in political and economic systems betweenmainland China and Hong Kong have led to less and less communication, and the quickurbanization of Hong Kong has led to the "urban identity" of younger generation in HongKong. Thus, hidden colonial ideology mingling with political apathy has resulted in theemergence of new "ideology" in Hong Kong literature, which is different from thosebased on traditional country concepts. Wang Gengwu described in "New Edition of HongKong History" that a unique Hong Kong subjectivity awareness has emerged in 1970s,which is rooted in Chinese values, but is different from those either in Britain or inmainland China.The so-called "Hong Kong subjectivity awareness" has an effect on culturalidentification and identity exploration, which actually has become an underlyingliterature complex since 1970s. With the change of external world power, that awarenessplays an important role in easing Hong Kong people's anxieties in the process of theiridentity exploration after "1997 Return" proposition was put forward.In fact, the connotation of "Hong Kong subjectivity" is rather vague and it cameinto being before 1970s. Hong Kong subjectivity awareness is not a concept in sociologyin a strict sense and can only embody history awareness of native Hong Kong people. Inthe first chapter of this paper, the author mainly points out the relationship between HongKong literature and traditional mainland Chinese literature. On the basis of historicalmaterials collected by native Hong Kong researchers and comparative reading of newsmedia and literary creation, the author reveals not only the emerging process of thenative subjectivity awareness of Hong Kong literature but also the psychological journeyof Hong Kong people in that process. That is an amendment and supplement to thegeneral knowledge in this aspect.It is apparent that Hong Kong subjectivity awareness has been embodied in literarycreation after 1970s, which can be seen in Xi Xi 's "My City" in which Hong Kongpeople get their identification and the changes of their identities are also explained. Atthe same time, we shouldn't ignore another trend in Hong Kong peopleidentification—pursuing "the third cultural space", which is represented by Ye Si. Xi Xiexpounds Hong Kong subjectivity awareness in order to boost pride in native land,whereas Ye Si is devoted to Hong Kong identity exploration and recognition of HongKong's verge position and attempts to establish friendly and interactive relationshipbetween the verge and the center. In the second chapter of this paper, taking both Xi Xi'sworks and Ye Si's works as typical examples, the author exposes features and theoreticalbackground of Hong Kong subjectivity awareness. The author especially analyzes Ye Si'sworks to which unduly attention has been paid to. In addition, the author also examinesliterary works which describe rural areas and have anti-modern features. The purpose ofdoing this is to reveal the developing process of Hong Kong literature subjectivityawareness in a wide range and scope.Hong Kong subjectivity awareness has experienced a steady and self-fulfillingdeveloping process in the 1970s and has undergone great changes and fluctuations inthe 1980s due to "1997" return to China. Hong Kong people have a strong desire toexplore their identities when faced with the disappearance of colonial identity andworried about the future of the society. "1997" return has become the focus of political,economic, historical and cultural fields and Hong Kong subjectivity awareness hasappeared in various forms. In literary works, authors, such as XiXi, Huang Biyun, Ye Si ,Li Bihua and so on, analyzed power relationship from different points of view. Inacademic world, there are heated controversies over "collision theory" and "colonialismof moving northern". In the third and fourth chapter of this paper, the author elucidatesthese phenomena in great detail. In the meanwhile, the author also points out the conflictand self-contradiction of "Hong Kong subjectivity" itself, which leads to a oftenneglected issue in present-day Hong Kong literature study, that is, the so-called HongKong subjectivity awareness should not be viewed as a whole essentially. Instead, withthe change of social environment, Hong Kong subjectivity awareness has already becomeweaker, so we need to explore new paths to explicate the features of Hong Kong literaryworks.The fifth chapter of this paper deals with the discussions of the practice andreflection of Hong Kong literary history in academic world, and indicates the problemsmainland Chinese researchers are confronted with when they study Hong Kong literatureand attempts to come up with solutions. Literary critic can have an effect on literarycreation, and is used as a presupposition to modify the way that research subjects enterinto the scope of literary history. In this sense, it is necessary that we hear the voice fromcritics and revise some deviations.It is worthwhile and effective to reveal intrinsic features of Hong Kong literaturefrom the development and evolution of Hong Kong literary subjectivity awareness. Thispaper only makes some attempts to analyze some literary phenomena with milestonesignificance, which actually doesn't cover all the phenomena. Furthermore, the authorintends to make a lucid and inherently related outline of development "history" of HongKong literature. Due to the limitation of materials and academic methodology, there isstill some room left in this paper needed to improve in the future.