THE STAR FERRY CLOCK IS STILL CHIMING.

Yeung Yang

Nov 11, 2006

THE STAR FERRY CLOCK IS STILL CHIMING.

THIS IS NOT AN OBITUARY.

THIS IS A PROTEST-

1. AGAINST THE CLAIMS THAT:

· reclamation is an unquestionable priority of our society;

· all other social and cultural concerns have to make way for reclamation;

· the new star ferry pier inherits ‘tradition’- the ‘tradition’ of building clock towers has been invented to rationalize and legitimate the new pier. This incorporation of the new pier into the discourse of ‘tradition’ is a violent gesture that aims at distracting the Hong Kong public from the very fakeness of that ‘tradition’. By inventing a fake tradition, living histories are destroyed;

· the new pier functions to align architecture in the pier area- the original Star Ferry Pier has existed in architecturally and culturally harmonious condition with the rest of the Star Ferry area. The claim of the need of re-alignment is a tactic of evasion and distraction;

· collective memory is a substitute for the real thing. Collective memory is an ideology actively pursued by the government as a ‘consolation prize’ for the Hong Kong public. Susan Sontag says in Regarding the Pain of Others,

“Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as collective memory—part of the same family of spurious notions as collective guilt. But there is collective instruction.”

2. AGAINST THE CURRENTLY PREDOMINANT FORMULA IN HANDLING OBJECTS AND SITES OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE.

The government should seek more creative approaches to preserving our cultural and historical heritage.

The formula of physically and symbolically killing such objects and sites, framing them into grand narratives of History and Tradition, and museumifying (hence decontexualizing and freezing their lived meanings) should be scrapped.