In terms of structure, I am going to first introduce the socio-political structure of Hong Kong in comparison to Mainland China. Then I would provide some consumer products that try to build on communist nostalgia. Some of the examples I can think of right now are the clothing line “Shanghai Tang” (which mainly sells very oriental looking clothes and accessories to Hong Kong people as well as tourists) and one particular Starbucks coffee shop in Hong Kong (which is decorated to look like old “Bing Sutt” in China - see http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/a-hong-kong-starbucks-goes-time-traveling/) By looking at these examples, I hope to find commonalities or clues as to why modern Hong Kong is going nostalgic in recent years, and hopefully this will draw to the three arguments I made earlier. Lastly, I would like to conclude on the prediction of Hong Kong’s future as of its relationship with China. As China is gaining more control over Hong Kong, would there be more or less communist nostalgia in the city?
I found an article called "Designer Nostalgia" by Danny Huppatz particularly useful and interesting because it talks about how designers of consumer products have successfully used the element of nostalgia as an investment to local as well as foreign consumers. Also, I would look at “Nostalgia for the Future: The Resurgence of An Alienated Culture in China by Hanchao Lu. In addition, I would research on some Chinese newspaper and magazine articles.
The big picture of this paper is to find out why younger generation has this sudden crave of nostalgia about the past, even though they have never experienced communism or socialism; and how the imagery of China exotica is capitalized by consumer products.
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