Signs and Hyperreality

雖然不能幫上什麼，但依然想節錄一段自己的功課。高鐵就像Baudrillard 說的，是hyperreal。普羅大眾已經不再關心甚麼是真的了。當符號掩蓋一切的時候，符號就是真實。而高鐵就正正為了我們提供一個安全地帶，讓我們繼續「跟內地融合」「跟上發展步伐」，遮蓋香港不再領先或是必定淪為中國其中一個大城市的事實。

Signs and Hyperreality

Bourdieu defined symbolic capital as “the collection of luxury goods attesting the taste and distinction of the owner” (Harvey: 77) and Harvey described the contemporary middle class needed those capital to achieve social distinctions and explained that products, as well as urban environment and architectural styles then became differentiated. (Harvey: 79-82) Continuing from the thread of private housing estates, we can see how symbolic capital works in Hong Kong. In the advertisements, the estates would be presented as somewhere in Europe, often 19^th century, or in a garden or greenfield never found in Hong Kong. The names of the estates are often grandiose and unreal. To name a few: The Arch, The Beverly Hills and Villa Esplanada. Such marketing strategy creating signs of style, distinctions and high status responds to the buyers’ need to define themselves through these signs. As if by living in the Beverly Hills, the buyers are equivalent to the residents in the Beverly Hills in the United States!  

The Beverly Hills in Hong Kong, to a certain extent, refers back to the Beverly Hills in the States. It seems that there is no break between the signifier and the signified and the signs are still referring to the reality. However, such a relation is unstable and on the verge to go into the Hyperreality. Hyperreal is the reversal of the relationship between the map and the territory. Usually the map is a presentation of the territory, but when hyperreal is like the map precedes the territory and even becomes the territory. (Poster, ed.: 166) Applying this reverse map-territory relation to that of signs (mainly images) and reality, reality is now irrelevant, only the signs of reality are left.

Now we can see the Beverly Hills (Hong Kong) has some hyperreal elements. Despite its referral to the counterpart in the States, it actually carries signs of privilege and fabulous life. Furthermore, nobody cares whether the Beverly Hills really looks like the original the Beverly Hills. Only the sign is important and this is the precession of simulacra (or simulation)

With the advancement of technology, advertisement penetrates every moment of our lives, television, on the Net and during your travel on various transportations. Signs are everywhere and how we know about the reality is largely mediated by different media. One recent event in Hong Kong demonstrated the hyperreality: the construction of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (the Express Rail Link) and the land resumption of the Tsoi Yuen Village. The Express Rail Link is portrayed by the government as “fast” and “time-saving” and this is reproduced by media for many times when reporting the Tsoi Yuen Village residents opposed to the land resumption. The general Hong Kong public, except some concern groups and one newspaper (SCMP) have never questioned the effectiveness of the project. Indeed, now railway and shuttle bus to link Hong Kong and mainland China exist. The location of the proposed station in Hong Kong is highly criticised by experts. However, the general public does not care. As the reality perceived by the general public is mediated, the symbols of “fast” and “integration with mainland” became “truth”. One important characteristic of hyperreal is its ability to conceal the reality. (Poster, ed.: 171-174) The general public does not object to this ineffective project is because it conceals the fact Hong Kong is no longer economically advantageous than China like decades ago; we are just another Chinese city. Just like the US people think Watergate is a scandal to conceal the fact that capital is evil and cannot be regulated. Just as Disneyland persuades us childishness is within the theme park but not outside. Hong Kong needs a sign of “integration with mainland” to comfort herself.

Work Cited

Harvey, David: The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change,

Blackwell Publisher, 1990

Poster, Mark., ed. Jean Baudrillard Selected Writing, Standford University Press, 1988