Nation formation and identity formulation processes in Hong Kong Literary, cinematic, plastic and spatial texts amidst the uneasy confluence of history, culture, and imperialism

Hong Kong is a special case in postcolonial studies. Its telos has been defined by unique colonization, decolonization, and recolonization processes. The conformation of a (post)colonial hybrid identity in its last decades as a British Dependent Territory and first years as a Special Administrative region of China was possible not only because of a traumatic awareness of its origins and its final destiny, but also because of dissenting voices that aimed at narrating local stories rather than national histories. In this light, this dissertation examines the uneasy confluence of history, culture, and imperialism in Hong Kong. That is, it analyzes literary, cinematic, plastic, and spatial texts that revolve around a set of complex questions and issues that arise because of Hong Kong's unique history: Is it possible to talk about a third identity amidst the British and the mainland Chinese identities that, to some, have shaped Hong Kong? How differentiable from former and present colonizer's identities is the Hongkongese identity? What does the emergence of a distinctive identity reflect about the innermost desires of Hongkongers in regards to nationhood? Does a Hongkongese nation or quasi-nation exist? If so, what does it mean to be a quasi-nation under the one country, two systems formula? Even so, what does it mean to be a quasi-nation in the era of socialism with Chinese characteristics? This study tries to answer all those concerns as it analyzes a variety of cultural manifestations produced in the last three decades and so by and about Hongkongers and their particular history. Some cultural producers in this dissertation are P.K. Leung, Wong Kar Wai, Xi Xi, the Hui brothers, Kith Tsang, Warren Leung, Dung Kai-cheung, Rey Chow, Timothy Mo, and Oscar Ho