Financial Centre/Relic: Narrated Time-spaces of Hong Kong in China [PGR]

Going beyond financial metrics, this talk explores Hong Kong’s ‘financial centre’ status as a social construct mediated through competing narratives between netizens and officers in both Hong Kong and mainland China. This experiential presentation marshals and investigates a series of social media posts collected from both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong social media, presenting a financial Hong Kong through a collage of texts, emojis, charts, and pictures.   Following Bakhtin’s notion of narrated time-space (i.e., chronotope), the talk examines online politics of time-space in the post-2019 Hong Kong by comparing the recently emerged chronotope ‘financial relic’ on social media with the more historical chronotope ‘financial center’. Based on critical discourse analysis, I discuss the online and official narratives in 2023 and 2024 regarding the city’s financial performance and their political connotations. On the one hand, Hong Kong netizens have recycled the term ‘financial relic’—originally from online communities in mainland China—to express their views and emotions towards to the city. On the other hand, both Hong Kong and mainland officers have countered the ‘relic’ narrative by reiterating Hong Kong’s rejuvenated status as a financial centre through closer economic integration into mainland China. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

David Kwok Kwan TSOI  is DPhil candidate at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford and DPhil Associate at the Oxford China Centre. His research examines Hong Kong migrant families and housing investments in the UK in the contemporary emigration wave. His doctoral research is fully funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club and also receives fundings from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). His previous works are related to sex work economy and intimacy, the politics of memories, and the state-society relation in Hong Kong and other East Asia regions. His refereed articles have appeared in Men and Masculinities and Sexualities, and public writing on the Focaal Blog. He is currently Student Councilor at the Society for East Asian Anthropology.

ABOUT THE PGR WORKSHOPS

MCI’s PGR workshops are lunchtime seminars held in person at the Manchester China Institute. They seek to bring together students, faculty, and staff who can best provide feedback as postgraduate researchers develop their ideas. Free lunch will be provided.

Accessibility

The MCI is a listed building and therefore does not have any lifts. Please note that you must use the stairs in order to access the venue and the toilets.

Photography

The organisers will be taking photos during this event. If you prefer not to be included in any photos, kindly inform the organisers before the event starts.