The discursive construction of a world-class city

With the coming of globalization there has been increased competition among cities internationally to become so-called 'World Cities', i.e. centres of high technology, industry, trade, banking, finance, professional activity, higher education and the arts. This article describes and analyses how Hong Kong has attempted to discursively construct itself as such a city. Applying ideas from Critical Discourse Analysis, genre theory and branding, the article considers the governmental consultation process designed to promote Hong Kong as a World City and shows how this is influenced not only by the government's control of the various genres which make up the consultation, but also by its use of language. Textual analysis, as demonstrated in the analysis of three documents, grounded in the political situation, highlights the manipulative nature of the consultation process.