Article published In:
Chinese Language and DiscourseVol. 14:2 (2023) ► pp.363–380
Myth of identity
Styling the authentic “Hong Konger” in Wong Tze-wah’s standup comedies
This study delves into the stylization of a unique and dynamic Hong Kong identity through examining a series of Cantonese standup comedies performed by the Hong Kong comedian, Wong Tze-wah, from 1993 to 2003. It explains the ways that Wong’s standup comedies become the stylistic and semiotic resources which not merely iconically and symbolically represent the reality of Hong Kong society; rather, they index many modalities of Hong Kongers’ questioning of authenticity and the relationship between China and Hong Kong. It suggests that the comic performance, as a meaning-making process, helps to shape and reproduce the local ideologies of identity, and to challenge the power underlying the discourse of China-Hong Kong relations.
Keywords: identity, comedy, authenticity, stylization, semiotics
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Standup comedy in Hong Kong
- 1.2Indexicality and language identity
- 1.3Styling identity and indexing authenticity
- 2.Methodology and data source
- 3.Analysis
- 3.1Articulating the Handover by metaphors
- 3.2Parodying the economic crisis
- 4.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
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Unknown author
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