Cathy Lam, curator, dramatist and pastor, recipient of Young Artist Award (Drama) by the 18th Hong Kong Arts Development Award
When I first picked up Reimagine Hong Kong: A Hong Kong Memoir by Jia Jia, I did not expect to be so fascinated by its approach. The book carries the precision of a scholar, the insight of an architect, and the curiosity of a Hongkonger seeking to understand home. Jia Jia writes not from outside the system, but from a unique vantage point within it — as a child of privilege, educated in Britain, and deeply connected to Hong Kong’s economic and social elite. From this position, he refrains from critiquing or judging. Instead, he reflects, observes, and tries to make sense of what he sees — using his personal experiences and insights to trace the logic of Hong Kong’s economy, culture, and identity. His writing is a thinking process, a lens through which readers can explore the city alongside him.
1. POWER AND PERSPECTIVE Jia Jia’s vantage point is both intimate and distant. He lives within the structures of power, yet maintains a reflective awareness of how they shape the city. He examines Hong Kong not to critique it, but to understand it — to follow the threads of influence, history, and culture, and to make sense of how they intersect. This dual perspective allows him to observe the city’s architecture, economics, and governance while also reflecting on subtler cultural and social rhythms. Readers are invited to share in this exploratory thinking — to see the city as Jia Jia sees it, from his unusual position.
2. SPACE, ECONOMY, AND CULTURE As an architect and developer, Jia Jia links the city’s physical structures directly to its cultural rhythms. Hong Kong’s self-confidence — and its anxieties — are rooted in its property-driven economy. Land here is not only a currency but also an identity, social status, and memory. Yet even within this system, culture persists. From the working-class humor of Half a Catty, Eight Taels to the global optimism of 1980s Cantonese cinema, to the rise of MIRROR, ViuTV, and contemporary pop culture, Hong Kong’s subcultures emerge from the desire to create a local voice. They exist not in opposition to economic structures, but alongside them — a subtle, persistent dialogue between people and place. Through this lens, Jia Jia’s reflections illuminate how space, economy, and culture intertwine, shaping the city’s imagination and its people’s understanding of themselves.
3. POST COLONIAL AND BELONGING Perhaps the most poignant aspect of the book is its reflection on identity. Jia Jia embodies a postcolonial tension: British-educated, rooted in Hong Kong, aware of global influence, yet seeking a local sense of self. His reflections raise questions rather than provide answers: “If I am not British, and not entirely Chinese, then who am I?” Through his thinking process, he maps how Hong Kong itself has struggled with similar questions. Identity is not fixed; it evolves through history, culture, economics, and personal experience. For the reader, Jia Jia’s reflections act as a mirror — an invitation to consider our own place within the city, and how we contribute to its ongoing story.
4. TO IMAGINE IS TO EXPLORE Reimagine Hong Kong is not a manifesto. It does not provide solutions or blueprints. It is an invitation to think, to wonder, and to connect the dots — between personal experience, social structures, and cultural history. Jia Jia’s thinking process allows readers to see Hong Kong from a fresh perspective: a city that is always in motion, always being remade, and always open to imagination. Hong Kong’s story is not finished. Its identity is not static. And our understanding of it grows richer when we follow his reflective exploration — seeing the city, its people, and its culture with curiosity, attention, and care.
5. A FAMILY LETTER TO HONG KONG By the end of the book, I realized something: Reimagine Hong Kong is not simply a history book. It is, in many ways, Jia Jia’s personal Hong Kong family letter. Through its narrative, you feel as if a friend is sitting across from you, sharing the story of his family, his upbringing, and his perspective on the city. The moments are romanticized, deeply personal, yet entirely grounded in historical truth. Each anecdote, each reflection, is anchored in real events, but told through memory and imagination. Reading it, I began to think about my own story. Coming from a middle-class family, studying abroad, and working in the arts, I have often wondered about Hong Kong as a “cultural desert.” I have asked myself, as a theater-maker: what does it mean to be a stage artist in Hong Kong? To whom does the city belong when we create and perform? Jia Jia’s book made me imagine what it would be like if I were to write my own Hong Kong family letter — a history book from my perspective, informed by my experiences, my identity, and my aspirations for the city. It inspired me to see history and memory not as fixed facts, but as living narratives — stories we continue to shape, tell, and reimagine. Reimagine Hong Kong, then, is more than a reflection on a city. It is an invitation: to observe, to imagine, and to write our own letters to Hong Kong — each of us contributing our voice to its ongoing story.
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.
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