Something about  "Alias: Xianggang"

Fact 1: A common experience when using Macintosh computers: Creating an "alias"- a shortcut to open an item (it can be document, program....). When you open the "alias" the original item that the alias links to will be opened. However, even when you delete the original item, the "alias"is not deleted along with the original item. As a result, you get an error while you try to open the "alias" without the original item.

Fact 2: Before the sovereignty handover, I saw a news program on the English Channel. I can't recall the name exactly; but I guess it sounds something like "Xianggang". At that moment, I was puzzled what "Xiannggang" is; but later I realized that it is actually the Putonghua pronunciation of "Hong Kong".  Now, six years has past, and Hong Kong is still called Hong Kong. We are still "Hong Konger", not "Xinaggang ren".

Fact 3: I attempted to capture the images of Hong Kong after 1997 to see whether there are subtle changes happening in "Xianggang"- the new Hong Kong inside my mind.

But later on, I realized that what I have captured is only an "alias" of Hong Kong. I wonder: Is the "alias"a theatre staged by Hong Kong citizens, or is it just a psychological landscape of Hong Kong portrayed in my mind?

Fact 4: Hong Kong is getting more and more dramatic, sometimes even absurd. This chaotic situation can be shown through the artificial topographic landscape built and created by Hong Kong people after 1997. We Hong Kong people feel that we have created a new Hong Kong, but haven't we just created an "alias" - an alias named "Xianggang"?

Dustin Shum

Apr, 2003