Culture-led reclaiming of public space: A history of hip-hop urbanism in Hong Kong, 1999–2019

This study explores whether and how culture-led activities staged in urban public space contribute to the reclaiming of such space. It coined the term “culture-led reclaiming of public space” (CLRPS) to designate this phenomenon. It conducts a diachronic analysis of hip-hop urbanism in Hong Kong between 1999 and 2019 to empirically answer the question. The major finding is that Hong Kong’s street-breakdancers repeatedly fought against capitalist, government, and conservative social forces to keep practicing their culture-led activities in the public space of busy districts across the city. While street-breakdancers inevitably ceded ground to opposing forces in most of these skirmishes, they also put up substantial resistance and insistently cultivate new spatial spots to practice street-breakdancing. Another finding is that although Hong Kong’s hip-hop urbanism was mainly culture-led, some street-breakdancers became sociopolitically driven enough to organize activism for reclaiming public space. These findings offer solid evidence for the presence of CLRPS and its social significance. This study’s data were collected between 2015 and 2019 through oral historical interviews with 13 active participants in street-breakdancing, informal interviews with 20 other informants, ethnographic observation of street-breakdancing sites, visual materials, and documentary sources.