TV Drama Review: Lord of Shanghai

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Introduction

            During the British colonization, Hong Kong was de-sinicised and developed a distinctive Hong Kong identity (Ma 1999a, p. 20). In this review, the endeavour to reestablish the national identity[1] in Hong Kong will be illustrated using the television drama, Lord of Shanghai.

Plot

The drama is about three powerful Shanghai tycoons: Chak, Kung, and Kiu in 1920s. Chak is the Inspector General controlling both the police and the gang and died because of noncooperation with Japan. Kung is portrayed as violent and eager for power and later becomes the traitor working for Japan. The cruel slaughter of compatriots by Kung, compels Kiu to kill him as to stop the death of innocents. Kiu is considered to be the most patriotic and righteous among the three.

Nationalism

The media representations are deemed playing an important role on the promotion of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). After the handover in 1997, the re-sinicisation[2] of television programmes attempted merging the Chinese identity with Hongkongese identity[3] (Ma 1999a, p. 38).

Referring to the drama, the negative representations of the Republic of China (ROC) government is emphasized. In the theme song, the national flag of ROC is shown six times in the thirty-two-second theme song, full of the scenes of gang activities, gun shooting, corrupted troops, and opium-taking. This implicitly associates the ROC government with social instability. Such a reconstruction of “national memory” through TV drama (Storey 2003, p. 84) is trying to guide the audience towards PRC’s historical portrayal, i.e., the PRC is better than the ROC. 

The inferior ruling of the ROC government is further emphasized in the plot. The early life of Kiu is under a lethal threat because he saved a girl from being raped by the head of a street gang. Instead of seeking help from the police, Kiu decides entering the largest gang group runs by Chak for survival. This suggests that the ROC government is undependable and unable to safeguard the citizens. 

After the Japanese invasion, Kiu becomes a spy for the ROC as to pry about the Japanese operation. But his identity is not restored by the ROC and is considered as a traitor after the Japanese surrender. In this way, the unthankful image of the ROC government is emphasized and therefore implying the PRC government is more trustworthy and reliable in establishing a righteous and secure society. Therefore, the nationalism and patriotism are promoted unobtrusively through condemning the inferior ruling by the ROC government.

Conclusion

            To conclude, the nationalistic messages are transmitted obliquely in the dramas, i.e., from Lord of Shanghai, pro-PRC ideology is emphasized through the contrast of the inefficient ruling by the ROC government in order to reconstruct a pro-PRC national identity of Hong Kong people. 

References

Ma, KW 1999a, ‘Mediating Hong Kong identity (I): Desinicisation’ in Culture, politics and television in Hong Kong, Routledge, London, pp. 17-38.

Ma, KW 1999b, ‘Mediating Hong Kong identity (II): Re-sinicisation’ in Culture, politics and television in Hong Kong, Routledge, London, pp. 39-52.

Schlesinger, P 1991, ‘Rethinking the sociology of journalism’, in Public communication: The new imperatives, ed M Ferguson, Sage, London, pp. 61-83.

Storey, J 2003, ‘Popular culture as the “roots” and “routes” of cultural identities” in Inventing popular culture, Blackwell, Malden Mass, pp. 78-91.

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[1] According to Hall (1996), identity is a ‘process of becoming’ instead of ‘being’ with the acknowledgement of its ‘history, language and culture’ (Storey 2003, p. 79-80).

[2] During the 1990s, Hong Kong television associated the programmes with traditional Chinese culture as to re-construct the national identity of Hong Kong people (Ma 1999b, p. 48-49).

[3] Schlesinger (1991) states that the reconstruction of national identity has to be continuously constituted with shared activities (p. 68); meanwhile, the programme content need to be of interest to the Hong Kong audience as well as to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government (Ma 1999b, p. 49).

YIK Tsz Ching
(BA in Asian Studies)

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