Cultural studies and cultural politics : interrogating the identity of a cultural preservation movement

Iam-chong IP

Research output: Other Conference ContributionsConference Paper (other)Research

Abstract

Cultural studies has long been skeptical of the cultural claim of authenticity for heritage, probably because of its tendencies of postmodernism and poststructuralism. As an instructor in the Department of Cultural Studies at a university in Hong Kong, my participation in the preservation movement for the Star Ferry Pier and Queen's Pier in Hong Kong during 2006-2007 proves to be an interesting story worthy of theoretical reflection, particularly upon the political possibilities and limitations of this field of knowledge in which I have got involved since the mid-1990s. In this paper, I focus on the concept of identity, the most important subject matter for cultural studies since the 1990s, by coincidence, also a period of Hong Kong's post-colonial transition. The conceptual tools of cultural studies are helpful for me to contextualize the local identity of the movement in Hong Kong's post-colonial traumatic situation. Yet rather than simply identifying its existence, analyzing the suturing process of the colonial trauma is more necessary for assessing the relevancy of the claim of authenticity to cultural studies.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 21 Jun 2010
Event8th Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference - Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong
Duration: 17 Jun 201021 Jun 2010
http://cultstud.org/xr2010/crossroad/index.html (Event link)

Conference

Conference8th Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference
Country/TerritoryHong Kong
CityTuen Mun
Period17/06/1021/06/10
OtherThe 8th Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference will be held in Hong Kong during June 17 – 21, 2010. Hosted by Lingnan University and organized by its Department of Cultural Studies and Kwan Fong Cultural Research and Development Programme, this is the first Crossroads Conference to be held in East Asia.

Started in 1996 in Tampere, Finland, the Crossroads Conferences were to fill what was felt to be a gap in the international cultural studies community. Since then it had become one of the most important international conferences in cultural studies where scholars from all five continents get together to exchange their scholarly insights as well as to get in touch with different cultures. Organized by the Association for Cultural Studies (ACS), Crossroads conference is now held every two years in different parts of the world: Birmingham in UK, Illinois in US, Istanbul in Turkey and Kingston in Jamaica.
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