Reimagine Hong Kong

CO-CREATING HONG KONG In Reimagine Hong Kong, Jia Jia explores the cultural identity of China’s special administrative region, which began to emerge in the mid-twentieth century during its time as a British colony. His critique delves into the contradictions and dichotomies that have defined Hong Kong, weaving together history, philosophy, sociology, and economics. Jia Jia believes it is time to take a long, reflective look at his hometown, two and a half decades after its return to China. He started writing this memoir during the last wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. His analysis of real estate, urbanism, popular culture, linguistics, literature, and food culture offers a unique and thought-provoking perspective on the global financial centre’s past, present, and future. Reimagine Hong Kong addresses three fundamental questions: Does Hong Kong have an “identity crisis”? Why has it been labelled a “cultural desert”? Has Hong Kong fostered its own “meaninglessness” and “tastelessness”? This compelling thesis reimagines the metropolis “from a distance” while addressing global universal issues through its local culture. The author takes readers on an unforgettable journey from London’s theatres to New York’s skyscrapers, Tokyo’s nano homes, and back to vernacular heritage architecture, neon signs, and tea restaurants, alongside various social phenomena. This anthology is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the unprecedented conflicts from the early twenty-first century, shaped by geopolitics and ideologies, including the “woke” movement.’ Accompanied by a captivating photograph by Wong Wei-him, each chapter serves as a study on the cross-cultural impacts of the digital revolution, postmodernity, postcolonialism, and late capitalism on social structure, human behaviour, aesthetics, and taste. Jia Jia concludes by reflecting on futurism and posthumanism.

At the age of twenty, Jia Jia’s first project was covered by several Hong Kong interior design journals. Around the same time, he wrote his first article for International Property, a magazine based in Britain. After graduating from the London School of Economics and Political Science, he has been engaged in different businesses and creative works related to real estate in Hong Kong. His notable projects have been internationally recognised in books and documentaries, as well as exhibited in museums, including M+ in Hong Kong.
Jia Jia has been involved in volunteering work for non-profit organisations, including being a director and co-founder. Passionate about art and culture, he has attended talks and discussions as a speaker and moderator at universities and major events. He has written many published articles, including ones for a column in Capital Entrepreneur, a Hong Kong business magazine.
In 2023, Jia Jia created a series of poems for ‘After Sunset’, an art project involving over fifty artists from different disciplines. This piece of literary work has since been extensively exhibited in different Asian cities on many occasions, including ‘Venice Architecture Biennale Hong Kong Exhibition’ in 2024 co‑organised by the Hong Kong Institute of Architects.

Customer Reviews

4.8

5 reviews

Benjamin Cha, CEO, Serakai Group, board member of Asia Art Archive, trustee of Urban Land Institute, former board member of M+, Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts, and West Kowloon Cultural District

Reimagine Hong Kong by Jia Jia stands out as a nuanced meditation on how architecture, urban planning, and collective memory shape the identity of Hong Kong. Drawing on comparative analyses, the book deftly critiques the city’s housing paradigms, juxtaposes local and global urban patterns and interrogates the deeply complex class and cultural structures embedded in Hong Kong’s development. Jia Jia’s personal reflections bridge the macro and micro, unpacking the city’s postcolonial anxieties while advocating for creative, human-centric solutions, ultimately foregrounding imagination and diverse cultural agency in envisioning urban futures. This is a vital book for anyone with even a passing interest in Asia’s most globalised city, and especially for those seeking cross-disciplinary insights into one of the last remaining colonies of the last century in order to reimagine urban transformation, postcolonial futures, and plural belonging in cities across the globe today.
Cedric Chan, composer, pianist, and music director

“The author presents a fresh view of pop music in Hong Kong, highlighting influences from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. I was inspired by his insights into stylistic and visual changes around the millennium and their impact on idols.”
Renjie Li, PhD candidate, Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Macau

Drawing on the philosophies of key figures in Western metaphysics—such as Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and others—Reimagine Hong Kong (2025) is not written in the traditional style of a philosophical monograph within academic discourse. Rather, the author seeks to invite readers to go on a path to “reimagine Hong Kong.” Then we will have to ask, what do we mean by living in Hong Kong today? For this is a necessary preliminary to the other question – what makes Hong Kong become Hong Kong? The book reflects on the very notion of Hong Kong through the author’s own observations and experiences, spanning issues of real estate, culture, language, autonomy, and beyond. To him, Hong Kong discloses itself dialectically, continually reshaping itself between the forces of globalism and the longing for local spirits as a form of self-consciousness. Over the past few decades, Hong Kong has undergone a series of decisive historical transformations: from British colonial rule to the handover of sovereignty to the People’s Republic of China, from the Asian financial crisis to the COVID-19 lockdown. These episodes are not merely historical facts; they illuminate how Hong Kong emerges as a singular, individuated historical being situated between East and West. Then, how should we define “Hong Kong”? Is it a city, a people, or a spirit named “Lion Rock spirit”? For Jia Jia, Hong Kong must be grasped in its confrontation with modernity, which he pursues by engaging the philosophical and metaphysical legacy of thinkers such as Hegel, Heidegger, Deleuze, and so forth, while at the same time weaving in local narratives of cultural and economic development drawn from his own experiences and community dialogues. The book’s narrative arc is particularly compelling in how it anchors its reflections on the event of COVID-19. The pandemic not only reactivated the question of nation-states but also ruptured the process of globalization; the coronavirus penetrated and suspended every connection that is supported by techno-logos between every nation at the time. It is precisely this moment that the question of Hong Kong’s identity comes forth: should the city continue to adopt Western-derived policies and institutions, or align itself with the alternative blueprint offered from the other side? The pandemic brought about many unforeseen realities. In its wake, it becomes difficult—if not impossible—to define Hong Kong as a fixed concept. Hong Kong has already reconfigured itself multiple times across different historical moments, and has ultimately become a city where people, above all, recognize a sense of home (Heimat) (see Chapter 9). In this sense, what Jia Jia calls readers to reimagine is Hong Kong as a process of constant decision-making in the phenomenological sense: a city that invokes its past that is inherited from generation to generation, while simultaneously transforming the legacy into new possibilities. Retrospectively, Hong Kong is a resolution, always in the process of becoming itself.
Stephen Cheung (Past President, Rotary Club of Smart Hong Kong)

A very comprehensive review of Hong Kong’s past with in-depth cross-disciplinary analyses. It reminds me of the complex challenges we faced during the 3-year Covid-19 period. The conclusion has interesting imaginations of the world’s future.
Ong Chin Huat – former social editor of Hong Kong Tatler & South China Morning Post.

Leaving no stone unturned, Jia Jia’s hefty tome titled “Reimagine Hong Kong” is a comprehensive and detailed study into one of the most unique and special places on earth. Originally planned as a One Country, Two Systems model, this book chronicles the challenges Hong Kong has faced and is facing with singularity and curiosity. With a straight-forward style and brevity of prose, Jia Jia livens up his narrative with metaphors and historical quirks, referencing pop culture, sociology and the all-important concept of business and money and how all these factors combine to make Hong Kong tick. This book is more than an ode to his beloved hometown - reading it opens up the mind of an outsider and well as gives the reader a glimpse into the psyche of a son of this fast-paced and dynamic city.