Design identity of Hong Kong: colonization, de-colonization, and re-colonization

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was a focus of the world in various venues before July 1997 because of the transfer of its sovereignty to the People's Republic of China, from a capitalist economy to a communist regime. This changes influence all walks of life in Hong Kong. Although the 'one country two systems' policy guarantees the maintenance of Hong Kong's lifestyles and capitalist system for 50 years, it is difficult for Hong Kong not to evolve with the new sovereign government in a new political and economic environment. This paper provides a brief historical background of both periods under the British rule and the new rule of Hong Kong Special Adminstrative Region of the People's Republic of China since 1997. It continues with the discussion of a brief design development in Hong Kong from 1960s. This paper examines the definition of 'national' design identity and its applications to Hong Kong. It also reviews studies on the Hong Kong design history, design identity and visual cultural history that have been conducted so far. Design work examples will be used to illustrate and support the major arguments of the paper. This paper looks at 'Design in Hong Kong' from a historical perspective as a cultural product that reflects ideological changes. It argues that throughout Hong Kong's colonial history, its design and cultural identity with Chinese characteristics has always been marginalized and discouraged under the British colonial rule. It was not until the unveiling of the 1997 issue in the 1980s, the design and cultural identity of Hong Kong become the topic of discussion first in the academia, and the mass media at a later stage. However, the discussion of Hong Kong design and cultural identity began to cool down after the handover in 1997 because of various eeasons. After the sovereignty of Hong Kong was returned to China in July 1997, much has been changed in the territory. This paper continues to argue that Hong Kong is facing another form of 'colonization' in 'PRC's way' with both 'de-colonization' and 're-colonization' taking place at the same time. With the downturn of property market since late 1997, the SARS in 2003, and the keen business competitions from China, Hong Kong society and people have never felt so uncertain and lack confidence about their future. The identity crisis of Hong Kong people has never been such serious. But once again, the development of the individual design and cultural identity of Hong Kong are not preferred by its sovereign country, the Beijing's PRC government. In this paper, theories on post-colonialism presented by scholars such as Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin (2000), McLaren (1995), and Young (2001) will be referenced, and local cultural reading perspectives (Abbas, 1997; Abbas, 2001; Chow, 1991; Ma & Fung, 1999) will be employed to conduct a contextual analysis of the evolution of design identities of Hong Kong. The discussion focuses on the difficulties and dilemmas of Hong Kong design in the past and current political and economic environment. This paper hopes that the experiences of Hong Kong design can contribute to the world design history and knowledge with its unique experience