Star

“Hong Kong is Asia’s undisputed food and shopping paradise, and such attractive images leads to the blooming of tourism in the last two decades. However, facing more and more vigorous competitors from all around the world, the Hong KONG Tourist Association (HKTA) tried to re-pack Hong Kong by many innovative ways. Eco-tourism, heritage tours and Disneyland are being promoted now. At the same time, to keep its position as one of the best tourist city in Asia, the HKTA use popular screen images of Hong Kong movies to stimulate tourism. The OMA movie map『香港電影地圖』was born in the beginning of Millennium.

Since Hong Kong is regraded as the “Hollywood of the East”, promoting Hong Kong film and TV locations to overseas visitors will be very effective on the local economy. In fact, there are so many manic Hong Kong movie lovers from other countries. For example, Hong Kong movies dominate the market share of Taiwan mainstream cinema for so many years. (that is why the OMA project targets at the young people in Taipei). After seeing films or TV drama series, audience may love some scenes and try their best to “return” to the location site! The map featured locations from recent Hong Kong film and television, aims to encourage the fans of Hong Kong movies to visit Hong Kong, and to increase the interest of the other tourists, encouraging visitors to follow in the footsteps of their favourite stars. Increased attendance figures, Hong Kong economy will gain a lot come from tourism-related industry such as hotel, customer service and catering.

To Understand the keyword is essential for every study. So now, I would like to clarify the Definition of Tourism first. Verbally, the word “tourism” means the trips for certain purposes such as business, education, family and of course, pleasure. Holiday is derived from the phrase “holy day” . At past, tour was equal to the trip of worship the God. To a great extent, the movie lovers see the locations as pilgrimage(朝聖地) .

Urry's work 'The Tourist Gaze' (1990) Chapter 1, pages 2-3 describes 'tourism' as: "The journey and stay are to, and in, sites which are outside the normal places of residence and work. Periods or residence elsewhere are of a short-term and temporary nature. There is a clear intention to return 'home' within a relatively short period of time."

As for Movie Tourism, it is tourist visit to a destination by the location at certain historic sites, towns, parks, gardens or even shopping malls and restaurants being shown on the cinema.

Tourist gaze

The term 'tourist gaze' is meant to be an all encompassing term to define social practices which are implemented when on holiday.

“…places are chosen to be gazed upon because there is an anticipation, especially through daydreaming and fantasy, or intense pleasures, either on a different scale or involving a different sense from those customarily encountered. Such anticipation is constructed and sustained through a variety of non-tourist practices such as film, TV, literature, magazines, records, and videos which construct and reinforce the gaze” (Urry 1990:3)

The CEO of HKTA, miss Wong Lee Wai said, from early Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Karen Mok, Gigi Leung and the famous “Hollywood”director John Woo, are the leaders of Hong Kong movies and the idols of Taiwanese teenagers, especially the rising stars such as Aaron Kwok, Nicholas Tse, Leon Lai and Sammi Cheng. That is why Hong Kong TA publish the “Hong Kong Movie map”including 10 films and 40 location sites . And the target is the young “Hong Kong-movie-lovers”

From the chart, we can easily see the main focus of the HKTA. The following is the details.

Urban landscape of the Metropolis

To build up the image of Hong Kong as a modernized Metropolis, the movie map try to introduce the remarkable magnificence in Hong Kong. The skyscrapers between Victoria Harbour has long been the sign of Hong Kong’s urban landscape and it is so famous all around the world. Enjoy watching the skyline with neon light along Waterfront Promenade[1] is necessary program for the tourists at night. “Number one” and “world record” magnificent landmarks in Hong Kong are also the major spots. Tsing Ma Bridge as the longest road and rail suspension bridge in the world as well as Mid-level Escalator which is the world’s largest outdoor escalator system are good examples. In fact, they always the hot spot in the tourist guide books and brochures. The “cyber”and fashion outlook of Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, to a large extent, represents the progressive nature of Hong Kong.

Chungking Express is a popular movie all around the world. It successfully reflects the urban landscape of Hong Kong. In the film, Hillside Escalator help us to re-discover the Mid-Level. Under the camera of Christopher Doyle, Lan Kwai Fong 蘭桂坊 becomes the symbol of international city. As Food Paradise, SoHo[2] proffers a variety of cuisines (French , Nepaelese, Mediterranean, Cajun, Manchurian and so on). Bars and Pubs are filled with both local and foreign customer. The California has symbolic meaning too.

Heritage Tour

In fact, the film map sell Hong Kong abroad not only with its modernized features, but also the local heritage and nostalgia. The map provides visitors with a opportunity to seek out some historical settings where these and many other films have been made. They are the cornerstone of Hong Kong heritage. The tourists can go to the Main Building of the University of Hong Kong’s Renaissance building style and the old Telephone booth on Castle Road to search for the colonial history. Witness the lifestyles of boat people from the Sampan ride in Aberdeen and the old folk rural village in Lantau Island (Tai O) are introduced in the map.

The tourists can also experience local lifestyle and culture by visiting the famous night market -- Temple Street night market. The tourists can base on the shot in Cest La Vie, Mon Cherie to explore Fortune telling, Cantonese opera, street snacks (red bean cake) and goldfish market. They can also go to the Public Square next to Temple Street where old citizen gathers. HKTA even recommend the traditional food like Herb and Egg Tea of Yuan Ji in Centre street to the tourists.

Commodification

Now, tourist does not only mean a traveler for recreation or pleasure, but into economic terms: the customer. Although films and therefore, the movie-induced tourism can showcase to the world the many facets of Hong Kong, the only aim of the movie map is still encouraging tourists’ consumption! As I have mentioned, the name of bargain-hunter’s paradise used to be the cash cow of Hong Kong economy. Thousands of tourists are tempted by cheap stuffs every year. "Consume" the places they visit are their way to go!

That is why you can see the selling point of the Victoria Park in the movie map is the Chinese New Year Bazaar but not its real role in Hong Kong : the Lung of the polluted city area and the place for June 4 Incident ceremony! Also, the money orientation can fully explain why not Chung King Mansion but the Nathan Road where seldom be shot in the movie will be introduced in the map!

More interestingly, HKTA try to link up the film shots with the deluxe way of shopping they always suggest in the map. Even Karen Mok are just browsing and enjoy her window shopping and Leon Lai is only riding his bicycle out of Canton, but not shopping at all. Shopping on Canton Road and Landmark boutiques carrying label: D&G, Miu Miu, Calvin Klein are still the major content of the map. In fact, living in modern world, we are all under control of Mass consumption – the so-called modern cultural life promotes standardized, mass production products that are designed to be consumed in a faddish way.

Capitalism and Post-Fordism

Capitalism marked by intense relationships between international capital now. Economics is still under the control of big businessman. In fact, superstructure and dominant ideology rule Hong Kong in supreme position for a long time. Under the rule of British colonial government, capitalism is spread. Hong Kong people used to make use of their effort to earn money. Gradually, Hong Kong runs like a big shopping mall, just like other big cities all around the world. Capitalists buy cheap manpower and the suppressed labors consume entertainment in return. Everyone in Hong Kong joins and enjoy the game of producing and consuming the sensational goods and services.

Sensational consumption

In the modern world, consumption is not just an action of buying things. The customers also want to enjoy the process of consumption. Expansion of commodification leads to an extension of culture. Styles in clothes, furniture, food, music, etc. are much less predictable nowadays. Looking for romantic scene is one of characteristics of sensational consumption.

The map allures the high class restaurants with Harbour view. The tourist enjoy the spectacular view of Victoria Harbour at the romantic dining spots such as the rooftop restaurant Felix of Peninsula Hotel in Gorgeous, Café Deco Bar & Grill in He’s a woman, She’s a man and Stanley Oriental in Moonlight Express. Queen’s Café opened in 1952 is a famous localized Russian café with nostalgic atmosphere, with the help of “Days being Wild”, becomes a favourite restaurant for the lovers too.

The identifiable location and the box office success are both major consideration of the choice of the “movies”. It shows the commercial interest of the scheme too. In addition, the HKTA promotes shops selling movie stuffs (poster, postcard, film books, original soundtracks and all kinds of movie products) on the page one of the map. Besides, 為你鍾情 is a Russian Restaurant in Causeway Bay famous for its owner Leslie Cheung. Posters, CDs, costumes and another personal belongings of him are showed in his shop to attract his fans from the Chinese society. There are shops selling stars’ second hand clothes in Tsim Sha Tsui (Up Date Mall) and Causeway Bay. The good taste of the artists are The shops, restaurants, nightclubs the artists go for shopping. Because the bosses of Star East (東方魅力綜合娛樂中心) are famous local Stars such as Alan Tam, Eric Tsang, Anita Mui, Leon Lai, Michael Wong and so on, TA use it as gimmick to sell local night life. All of the above tells us that the HKTA aims at promoting business, but not only movie or tourism!

Postmodern way of tourism

Travel is for pleasure. Tourists usually join mass marketed package holidays before, but there is a trend of decline in mass package holidays and the move to individually tailored styled holidays. Out of the original package tour, tour agencies and tourist authorities are eager to provide alternative tour format. For instance, tourist map based on the location of Japanese drama series are hit nowadays in Taiwan and also Hong Kong. We can see such travel information from local papers and magazines everyday. There are some people wrote some books (eg. 哈日族旅遊規劃) in both Taiwan and Hong Kong. Virtually all visits were independently arranged rather than organised trips.

British Tourist Association (BTA) print of the Movie Map featured 200 film and TV locations was launched in January 1996. 250,000 copies were out in a short period and it is required an immediate reprint. Overseas visitors via BTA offices in North America, Singapore, Australia, Japan and Europe to get the map during the year.

Their aim is simply to have visitor numbers jump and attract tourist revenue. Jo Leslie, corporate PR manager for the BTA said:

“We hope that the new movie map will prove just as popular with overseas visitors and increase tourist spend throughout the country,"

Facts and figures

In fact, the scheme generated an excellent return on investment. According to the BTA, between 1998 and 2000 there is a projected growth of 2 million in tourism numbers.

Here is some other figures from the London Tourist Board Overseas Visitors Survey:

1) 54% of recipients said they would not have visited the movie sites if it had not been for the map.

3) 53% of those who recalled receiving the movie map visited one or more of the sites.

4) 37% visited just one site, 33% visited two while 21% visited three and 9% visited four or more.

6) 19% of all people visiting London said TV/cinema/radio prompted them to come to the

Location Examples

1) Lyme Park, Cheshire, saw visitor numbers jump 178% as a direct result of the BBC TV series Pride and Prejudice. Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire, was used for interior scenes for Pride and Prejudice. During 1996 visitor numbers increased by 59% over 1995.

2) Saltram House, Devon, saw visitor numbers rise by 39% in 1996, over 1995. This was entirely due to the film Sense & Sensibility, as the house had not been marketed in any other way.

3) The Crown Hotel, Amersham, location for the romantic scene in Four Weddings and a Funeral is always fully booked.

4) There is now a Full Monty tour around Sheffield following both commercial and aesthetic success of the film.

According to the success for the first two editions, the third edition of the Movie Map has been launched on June 15th 1999. It includes 67 films and TV programmes, 110 locations on a grid-referenced map and many more locations mentioned in the text. Movie Map 99 up to this moment has distributed to 300,000 copies. Shakespeare in Love[3], Elizabeth[4], Mrs Brown[5] and Notting Hill[6] all appear on the map. Other hit films included on the map are Little Voice, Sliding Doors and Hilary and Jackie.

Movie-induced tourism becomes popular and popular nowadays. Major film companies enter the tourism business by opening the studios or building movie theme parks. In the United States, Universal Studio and Disneywold – MGM in Orlando and Florida have been alluring the tourists for so many years, and there is a new competitor from Australia – the Movie World of Queensland. There are artificial settings of the well-known films (mainly SFX ones) such as ET, Jaws, King Kong, Star wars and Indiana Jones. They also provide some performance related to the films sometimes. Planet Hollywood theme restaurant is also by-product of movie-induced tourism.

Other than excess commercialization, the map also fails to afflect the real image of Hong Kong. To this, Baudrillard's signs and signification theory maybe an important source. In his theory, he divided the process of signification into 3 stages.

In the beginning, which is the primitive cultures age, there is no signification at all. Then, signification began to apply in cultures. And now, the late 19th century, the mass society is dominated by the signs and symbolic meanings. The world of hyperreality[7] is formed.

Baudrillard says that signs that used to represent things are drained of their meaning (hyperreality); the relation between signifying systems and reality is confusing. In his work, Baudrillard uses America as an example to show how hyperreality undergoes. He claimed that the Disneyland and America are one and the same. There is no "real" America outside Disneyland; the walls surrounding Disneyland are there to make people think that Disneyland is only a fantasy land, and there is a real America out there.

The problem of hyperreality are similar to Walter Benjamin’s famous work "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" , which suggest the idea of “decay of aura” under the impact of new media and new cultural technologies. According to both of the theories, we know that the reality disappears with the reinforcement by the new medium. For example, from the wrong message brought from TA, the foreigners always think that Hong Kong is still a city of Sampan and Susie Wong. The movie map does nothing to send the sound message anyway.

Furthermore, the “decay of aura” , on one hand, make the local fans of TVB drama series “The tea village” go for a tour; but on the other hand, get rid of such tourists from knowing the real native life. To make it more charming, the local government may build and decorate their village to meet the image shown on TV!

Suggestions

The role of Government is extremely vital for the tourism development. To help enable the tourism industry to capitalise on the growing success of British film, the Government should encourage more effective cooperation between HKTA and local film producers. For BTA, partners in the campaign included PolyGram International and Granada Studios. The Government should encourage more local authorities to facilitate film-making in their areas.

And the most important thing is that we should make use of the local films and tourism, to tell the real “Hong Kong Tale” to the outsiders!

HK Commercial cinema has long been seeing as products under the market mechanism. Nevertheless, in my opinion, film is the mirror of the society and local movies, naturally, act also as the reflection of Hong Kong city. Roland Barthes proposed that everyday culture in all its forms could be analyzed in terms of culturally specific discourses. From this, he decided that the media's notion of reality is, in fact, a myth. In a word, cinema, as a vital component of popular culture, based on the concept of well-known film theorist Bazin, is a tool to record the real life of people. Film location tourism has had a major impact on Hong Kong, and the interest in visiting locations used for popular films is growing. Film tourism is also a key way of encouraging tourists to visit destinations away from the main cities spreading the benefits and more importantly, the spirit of Hong Kong.

Dean MacCannell. The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class (Berkeley: University of Claifornia Press, 1999)

John Urry. The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies (London: SAGE Publications, 1990)

[1] From star ferry past Hong Kong cultural centre, the dome-shaped Hong Kong Space Museum and the Hotels along the Waterfront such as Kowloon Shangri- la and the Royal Garden to Hung Hom.

[2] SoHo means South of Hollywood Road, around Elgin, Shelley and Staunton)

[3] Shakespeare in Love was shot in Broughton Castle, Banbury, Oxfordshire, Hatfield House, The Great

Hall at Middle Temple, the River Thames at Barnes and Holkham Beach in Norfolk.

[4] Elizabeth was filmed in York Minster, Aydon Castle, Warkworth Castle Cathedral, Alnwick Castle and

Bamburgh Beach in Northumberland, Haddon Hall near Bakewell,

Derbyshire, the Tower of London and Durham Cathedral.

[5] Mrs Brown used Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, Wilton House, Salisbury, Duns Castle, Lincoln Inn

Fields in London.

[6] Notting Hill was shot largely in the Portobello Road area of Notting Hill, but also makes good use of

Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath.

[7] Theoretically, there are 4 orders in the world of hyperreality:

1) Signs are thought of as reflecting basic reality.

2) Signs mask reality.

3) Signs mask the absence of reality.

4) Signs become simulacra – they have no relation to reality; pure simulation.

Movie name	Location	Major Selling Point
City of Glass	1) University of Hong Kong (Main Building) 2) The Peak	1) Renaissance style building 2) Lover’s corner (the path from Mt. Austin to the Peak Galleria)
Gen X Cops	1) Hot Gossip & KK Café and Pub 2) Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre	1) Night Life 2) Venue for Handover ceremony
Tempting Heart	The Land mark	Shopping (boutiques carrying label )
Days of being Wild	1) Castle Road (old Telephone booth) 2) Queen’s Café	Nostalgia
Ordinary Heroes	Aberdeen	Lifestyle of Boat Pople and Sampan (the sign of Hong Kong)
Gorgeous	Felix, Peninsula Hotel	High class restaurant with Harbour view
He’s a woman, She’s a man	Café Deco Bar & Grill	High class restaurant with Harbour view
Moonlight Express	Stanley Oriental	High class restaurant with Sea-view
Chungking Express	1) Nathan Road 2) Hillside Escalator 3) Lan Kwai Fong	1) The Golden Mile (shopping on Nathan Road) 2) Hong Kong SoHo 3) Night Life
Cest La Vie, Mon Cherie	Temple Street	Night Market
Love Generation	Tsing Ma Bridge	Longest road and rail suspension bridge
The Truth about Jane and Sam	1) Lantau Island (Tai O) , 2) Waterfront Promenade	1) Chalet and rural village 2) Glittering skyline
Comrades, almost a love story	1) Canton Road 2) Victoria Park	1) Shopping (boutiques carrying label ) 2) Chinese New Year Bazaar