ENG234: City Culture and Hong Kong Urbanscape

Introductions

• The course is titled ENG234 - City Culture and Hong Kong Urbanscape.
• The course introduces key concepts and themes related to city culture and urban landscapes.
• Benjamin Freudenberg is the instructor and can be addressed as Ben or Benjamin.
• Benjamin Freudenberg can be contacted through [email protected].
• The office is located above the library on the 7th floor.
• Attendance is important as missing more than 1/3 of the periods (12 periods or 4 complete sessions) results in a failing grade.

Course Outline

• The course content explores the interrelation of urbanity, literature, and culture.
• The course includes a presentation, a term paper, and a final exam as assessment tasks.
• Literature, secondary sources on urbanity, and audiovisual materials are included in the reading mix.

Course Aims and Assessment Tasks (ATs)

• The course aims to establish links between the studies of City Culture and English Studies across various existing disciplines.
• Including cultural texts in both print and media culture thematically related to urbanity will widen the purview of literary studies.
• Students will be better prepared to tackle issues concerning technology, the environment, personal growth, modern China, Hong Kong, and globalism.
• Educational modules are developed in liberal studies for secondary schools in Hong Kong.
• The course will explore how urban studies contributes to the construction of cultural identity and nourishes responsible Hong Kong youths.
• A framework to analyse the social dynamics and changes of multiculturalism within the urban setting will be constructed.

History of Cities

• A city is defined as a human settlement of considerable size and density, larger than a village.
• The term 'city' derives from the Latin word 'civis', contrasting with 'urbs', which gives rise to 'urban'.
• Eridu, a Mesopotamian city dating back approximately 7000 years, is one of the earliest known cities.
• Early cities developed because of natural geography, availability of food, and other resources to support a growing population.
• Roman cities featured strategic planning with grid shapes, positioning to ensure control, and supply in case of war.
• Modern cities are still subject to similar requirements; some are abandoned, and some merge.
• The Roman Empire standardized the grid plan, which became a common tool for city planning.

Grid Design

• An orthogonal layout of streets characterizes the grid plan, crossing each other at right angles.
• Gates were typically set at the midpoint on each of the four sides of the rectangle.
• Grid systems allow for easy navigation and better-flowing traffic.
• This design imposes order by determining the shape of living and working spaces.
• Upsides to the grid being aqueducts, thermae, and amphitheaters.

Modernity and Urban Life

• Modernity includes imperialism, colonialism, and triangle trade.
• The industrial revolution, particularly the steam engine, revolutionized production by moving from manufacture to factories.
• As a result rural exodus occurred.
• Overall, modernity resulted in a complete demolition and reconstruction of lifeworlds.

Major Problematics of Cities

• Cities emerge as centers of power, trade, and exchange.
• Cities are places for the articulation of (religious) power.
• Cities serve as places of exposure to critical/subversive influences.
• Urbanity signifies advantages and the ills of modern life.
• These dynamics become more prominent with industrialization, social mobility, and globalization.
• Human industry radically transforms cities into landscapes.
• Cities have become culture as opposed to or other than nature.

Space, City, Culture

• Urban space is dense, highly dynamic, and socially stratified, allowing sections/parts to be read as text.
• The flow of people and goods, large-scale wealth distribution can be reflected on maps.
• Neighborhoods can be surveyed for subcultures.
• Interior designs and layouts correlate to social structures.
• Individual buildings can be read as monuments or spatial regimes.
• Front space is the location where people put on a public 'on-stage' performance.
• Back regions are spaces where people are 'behind the scenes'.
• The front/back division, along with the use of kitchens, bedrooms, and lounges, is fundamentally cultural.
• Different cultures design homes differently, and allocate contrasting meanings or modes of appropriate behavior.
• Durkheim believed urban life would foster creativity, progress, and a new moral order, while also fearing moral decay and anomie.
• Weber regarded urban life as the cradle of modern industrial democracy.
• Marx viewed capitalism brought about progress via cities with the great leap of productivity,

Reading

• The Barker chapter available on Moodle gives an overview of problematics and productive sources.