This course explores the literature of Hong Kong from the late 19th century up to the present. Its goals are to introduce to students the transformation and basic features of Hong Kong literature, the works of important writers, and to further their skills in literary appreciation and analysis. This course encourages students to critically consider how meaning is constructed in local, national and international contexts.
Information for 2021W:
This course introduces the literature of Hong Kong from the late-19th century to the 21st century, with a goal to explore how the stories of Hong Kong are narrated and mediated over time. Through the lens of different literary forms and genres not limited to poetry and fiction, we will address topics such as the negotiation of identities, the politics of representation, transmedial adaptation, urban (re-)imagination, socio-political and cultural transformation in colonial and post-handover Hong Kong.
By way of literary appreciation, textual analysis and discussions, the course offers a journey to critically examine different literary and cultural spaces in flux, with regard to the entangled history and the changing landscape of Hong Kong.
All reading materials are in English.
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Why study Hong Kong?
What is Hong Kong Literature?
What makes the course special?
What inspires you?
City Inscribed
Please check out “City Inscribed,” a series of public lectures and events organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative in celebration of the launch of “Literature of Hong Kong” (ASIA 324) in 2017W.
Instructor (2022W)
Dr. Helena Wu is the author of The Handover After the Handover: Places, Things and Cultural Icons in Hong Kong (Liverpool University Press, 2020), in which she explores the manifestation of the local in colonial and post-handover Hong Kong. She has also published on the topics of Hong Kong cinema, culture, and media in Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies (2018), Chinese Martial Arts and Media Culture (2018), Hong Kong Keywords (2019), Global Media and China (2020), and Journal of Chinese Cinemas (2020).