Hong Kong cinema in the 1930s: docility, social hygiene, pleasure-seeking & the consolidation of the film industry

The final blossom of Hong Kong’s film industry in the 1930s was nurtured by the multiple histories of regional folk culture, anti-colonial resistance, urban growth, and the evolvement of leisure/pleasure facilities in the domain of the everyday. The new film arena of the 1930s was interpellated by the Hongkong-British administration’s reconciliatory politics to sustain effective government, the Chinese capitalist’s expansionist marketing activities, and the Chinese cultural elites' call for progressive, patriotic conscience. What resulted was the sinicization of the public sphere, a notably marked out concrete space for leisure/pleasure, where the everyday person consolidated a local identity both Hong Kong and Cantonese.