Abstract
The paper argues that, under the globalized economy, state power is far from diminishing. I study how the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government officials in 1999 developed "competition-development" discourse and "disappearing-world-city" discourse to persuade the public to approve the unequal and non-transparent Hong Kong-Disney deal for setting up the Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL). I also examine how newspaper reports have circulated and have reinforced these two pairs of political discourses in wider popular discourse. I further reveal, in the post-colonial context of Hong Kong, how the HKDL project functions to accomplish decolonization tasks and to reshape Hong Kong as a consumption-based tourist spot instead of a citizen-based participatory community.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 573-592 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Social Semiotics |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 5 |
Early online date | 20 Nov 2010 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2010 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- City politics
- Cultural studies
- Discourse
- Globalization
- Hong kong
- Hong kong disneyland
- Urban development