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Hong Kong as Global City

Hong Kong as Global City. Themes and Questions. Themes: The concept of global cities Hong Kong as an early world city 3. From industrialization to positive non- interventionism ( 積極不干預主義 ) 4. Manhattan Dream. Three Major Aspects of Global Cities. Command Centers

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Hong Kong as Global City

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  1. Hong Kong as Global City

  2. Themes and Questions • Themes: • The concept of global cities • Hong Kong as an early world city • 3. From industrialization to positive non- interventionism (積極不干預主義) • 4. Manhattan Dream

  3. Three Major Aspects of Global Cities • Command Centers • transnational corporate headquarters - house the crucial institutions of economic globalization, such as, stock markets, advertising agencies and teleports. • Center of cultural hegemony- concentration of cultural festivals like music, film or dance festivals in New York.

  4. Three Major Aspects of Global Cities • Socio-cultural infrastructure • Amin and Thrift (1994) identify three important elements: • Centers provide the face-to-face contact needed to generate collective beliefs. New York Central Park

  5. Three Major Aspects of Global Cities • Socio-cultural infrastructure • Centers are needed to enable social and cultural interaction, that is, to act as places of sociability, of gathering information, establishing coalitions, maintaining trust, and developing rules of behaviors.

  6. Three Major Aspects of Global Cities • Socio-cultural infrastructure • Centers are needed to develop, test and track innovations, to provide a critical mass of knowledgeable people and socio-institutional networks. "centers of representation, interaction and innovation" Silicon Valley

  7. Ghetto in New York City Chinatown in New York City Three Major Aspects of Global Cities • Social polarization: winners and losers • the richest and the poorest members of society • increasing capital intensity of production and large-scale immigration of foreign workers

  8. Vendor in New York City Three Major Aspects of Global Cities • Social polarization: winners and losers • the paradoxical relationship- between the growth of finance and producer services and the increase of an informal economy in these cities

  9. Social polarization: winners and losers • process of professionalization vs process of polarization VS

  10. Social polarization: winners and losers • The depiction of New York by Castells (1993) can be best summed up: • "Wall Street may make New York one of the nerve centers of the global capitalist system, but this dominant position has a dark side in the ghettos and barrios where a growing population of poor people lives.”

  11. Hong Kong as City-State • Singapore makes itself an Intelligent Island in Southeast Asia, while Hong Kong describes itself as the gateway to the Mainland. VS Gateway Hong Kong High-tech Singapore

  12. Hong Kong as City-State • city-states take a significant role in creating their local niches to win out the competition of the global economy. • City-states develop competitive niches through re-shaping their own unique governance structure (管治架構).

  13. Hong Kong as City-State • To survive in the age of globalization, the city-states have to re- position(重新定位) and re-imagine(重新想像) itself in the regional city network (區域城巿網絡). • In the process of repositioning, the Hong Kong SAR government argues that the role of city-state Hong Kong is that of a middleman (中間人). Hong Kong is middleman???

  14. Hong Kong as a Colonial City • "transnationality" of Hong Kong's economy is not a recent phenomenon. • Hong Kong as an entrepôt trade center was among the earliest “world cities”

  15. Hong Kong as a Colonial City and the early World City • Hong Kong as a trading centre bridging China and the Western world • "middleman capitalism" (Hui 1999) -- capture the geo-political location of Hong Kong as the stepping stone to the China market and resources in its early colonial history.

  16. Hong Kong as a Colonial City • Colonialism, as a particular form of political economy, shapes the territorial governance structure. • the territorial governance structure was basically a divided one: • the colonial government was a weak state Key concept to remember!

  17. Hong Kong as a Colonial City • organized through the collaboration of the colonial state, British merchants and local Chinese compradors. • the Chinese society linking the overseas Chinese communities via big Chinese merchant houses. • The Chinese businessmen who acted as trading middlemen Key concept to remember!

  18. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • A new international division of labor (國際分工) emerged in 60s. • the capability of HK to link a local, flexible manufacturing system (彈性製造系統) to a fluctuating global market.

  19. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • the competitive advantage of Hong Kong manufacturing was conditional upon low wages and minimal diversification • when wages rose, its competitiveness gradually eroded.

  20. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • A role of "positive non-intervention" during the industrial period. • colonial state was traditionally biased against manufacturing and favored finance-and-trade related sectors.

  21. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • “Positive nonintervention” was merely rhetoric (修辭技巧) employed to justify whatever economic action the government took. Sir John Cowperthwaite (郭伯偉爵士) The so-called “Father” of Hong Kong “positive non-interventionism”.

  22. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • No long-term industrial development planning or strategic policies . Chen (1987) comments that: • "Technological intensity and capital intensity are slowly increasing in Hong Kong manufacturing, but the speed does not seem to be adequate for the maintenance of Hong Kong’s economic position."

  23. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • The government finally set up an advisory committee in 1977. • The Open Door Policy started and the deindustrialization of Hong Kong began. • a massive relocation of manufacturing industries in South China.

  24. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • The late colonial government adopted a let-go approach. • In early 90s, over 30% of Hong Kong’s manufacturing has moved to the Mainland, among which some industries like the electronics and plastics industries even amounted to 70-80%.

  25. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • a deepening of labor-intensive industry by incorporating Southern China as the production base. • Sit (1998) a "front shop, back factory" model Integrating with Pearl River Delta Region (no alternative solutions)!!!!

  26. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • The capability of Hong Kong to maintain its "front shop" status is now doubtful. • Hong Kong fails to reinvent its advantages— • no technological upgrading and spatial governance to meet the challenges of economic globalization.

  27. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • A process of "Manhattanization" in Hong Kong- producer services, especially financial services, would be the major sources of Hong Kong competitive advantages.

  28. Flexible Manufacturing in HK andPositive Non-interventionism • Manhattan Dream was blown out by the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis immediately after the handover. • The SAR therefore was confronted with serious governability problems. George Soros

  29. Hong Kong as Global City Key concept to remember! • From "positive non-intervention" to “active imagineering” in response to the global economy. • The term "imagineering" -- a process of active imagination and projection of urban governance, even without the actual ability of social engineering and political regulation Hong Kong = South China Paris!!!??? (As shopping center only)

  30. Hong Kong as Global City Key concept to remember! • City-states drastically transform their roles as grand imagineer, consensus builder, regulator or monitor. • A contractual relation with various societal actors has to be formed in order to generate a dominant vision of city development. Civil servants (All employees in HK) should accept salary reduction!!!???

  31. Hong Kong as Global City • SAR government attempted to restructure the city by actively imagineering a grand vision of a global technopolis in Hong Kong. • This grand project required a reinvention of the active role in the new urban governance. It was the best of time, it was the worst of time.

  32. Conclusion: • Hong Kong government thus tried hard to find new development strategies. • After 1997 handover, the global cities strategies were hence launched. • New relations among state, society and market were generated.

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