Myth of identity
Styling the authentic “Hong Konger” in Wong Tze-wah’s standup comedies
This study delves into the stylization of a unique and dynamic Hong Kong identity through examining a series of
Cantonese standup comedies performed by the Hong Kong comedian, Wong Tze-wah, from 1993 to 2003. It explains the ways that Wong’s
standup comedies become the stylistic and semiotic resources which not merely iconically and symbolically represent the reality of
Hong Kong society; rather, they index many modalities of Hong Kongers’ questioning of authenticity and the relationship between
China and Hong Kong. It suggests that the comic performance, as a meaning-making process, helps to shape and reproduce the local
ideologies of identity, and to challenge the power underlying the discourse of China-Hong Kong relations.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Standup comedy in Hong Kong
- 1.2Indexicality and language identity
- 1.3Styling identity and indexing authenticity
- 2.Methodology and data source
- 3.Analysis
- 3.1Articulating the Handover by metaphors
- 3.2Parodying the economic crisis
- 4.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
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Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Lowe, John, Darlene Machell de Leon Espena & George Wong
2024.
Ten Years
as Boundary Object: The Search for Identity and Belonging as ‘Hongkongers’
.
Asian Studies Review 48:3
► pp. 561 ff.

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