RE-PRESENTATION OF HONG KONG THROUGH PRAXIS: A CASE STUDY ON THE URBAN PHENOMENA OF HONG KONG

Abstract

The Urban phenomenon is a dialectic process between the dominant mode of production and the everyday practices of the common people. Seeing the city as a series of representations, as discussed in Henri’s Lefebvre’s The Production of Space, it draws readers into an awareness of the dialectic relationship between the built physical environment (Representations of Space) and the social environment-one that is lived and experienced (Spaces of Representations). How Hong Kong perceives her identity under the onslaught of her political, historical and economical peculiarities can be translated in the way that spaces within the city is conceived. The paper first establishes the conventional representations of Hong Kong and their manifestations of space as employed by the discursive regimes of theories, spatial and planning professions and expert knowledge (Representations of Space). It then moves on to investigate the possibilities of reading Hong Kong urban space beyond its physical space to include another space – that of the lived space (Praxis). For the purpose of investigation, the paper examines the elements of these negotiations along the in-between spaces of skyscrapers, elevated walkways and underground pedestrian links; spaces that constitutes the “urban praxis”. The paper hopes to arrive at a conclusion that highlights how this lived space simultaneously challenges yet perpetuates official representations of Hong Kong. The ultimate purpose of the dissertation then, is to be able to establish a framework in reading urban space, beyond its visual content, via the interconnection between the collective actions in urban politics and the everyday experience.