Skip to navigation – Site map

HomeIssues140Special featureProjecting Images of China:Star H...

Special feature

Projecting Images of China:Star House as a Shopping Centre between Red China and Self-Orientalism, 1960s–1970s

Henry Sze Hang Choi
p. 31-40

Abstract

Current scholarship shows that the 1960s and 1970s, during the Cold War era, were pivotal to Hong Kong’s development. The Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, a famous tourist destination since the 1960s at the southern tip of the Kowloon Peninsula, presented an attractive Hong Kong to win global foreign visitors. To examine how Hong Kong culturally encompassed both East and West during the Cold War, this paper examines Star House, a unique liminal space in Tsim Sha Tsui. First, it explores the reasons and methods behind Hong Kong’s adoption of Orientalisation in the 1960s as a publicity and tourism strategy. Second, it analyses how Star House, a shopping centre located next to Ocean Terminal, presented alluring images of China to attract the attention of visitors. Built by the pro-PRC tycoon Henry Fok and later sold to Hongkong Land, Star House was geographically within the “Westerner’s stronghold” and primarily aimed at selling Oriental images of China. I therefore argue that businesspeople in Star House consciously engaged in self-Orientalism, catering to the gaze of Westerners who saw China as the other.

Top of page

Editor’s notes

Manuscript received on 27 September 2024. Accepted on 6 March 2025.

Excerpt

Full text document will be published online on March 2026.

Outline

Introduction
“The Orient is Hong Kong”: Hong Kong’s move toward Orientalisation
Star House: Red China within the Westerner’s stronghold
Orientalism and self-Orientalism in Harbour Village
Conclusion

First lines

Introduction

New scholarship on the Cold War in Hong Kong has emerged in the past two decades, offering a fresh perspective for understanding the Cold War within the East Asian context. Starting with Chi-kwan Mark (2004), the Cold War in Hong Kong is analysed through the lens of great power rivalry, focusing on military defence, covert intelligence, diplomacy, and economics. Christopher Sutton (2017) highlights Hong Kong’s proactive role in addressing the Communist threat through stringent public order measures. Pricilla Roberts and John M. Carroll’s (2016) edited volume makes a major contribution to studies on Cold War Hong Kong. Why do stories about Hong Kong matter in Cold War studies? The rules of the global Cold War established by the US and USSR were sometimes disregarded in Hong Kong. The Cold War in East Asia developed its own internal dynamics and trajectories, independent of the major powers’ influence. Describing Hong Kong as the “Berlin of the East” can therefore be misle...

Top of page

References

Bibliographical reference

Henry Sze Hang Choi, Projecting Images of China:Star House as a Shopping Centre between Red China and Self-Orientalism, 1960s–1970sChina Perspectives, 140 | 2025, 31-40.

Electronic reference

Henry Sze Hang Choi, Projecting Images of China:Star House as a Shopping Centre between Red China and Self-Orientalism, 1960s–1970sChina Perspectives [Online], 140 | 2025, Online since 01 March 2026, connection on 19 April 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/17835; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/13ptf

Top of page

About the author

Henry Sze Hang Choi

Henry Sze Hang Choi is Lecturer in China General Education China Programme, Office of University General Education, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Room 802A, Heung Yeung Shing Building, CUHK, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR (henrychoi@cuhk.edu.hk).

Top of page

Copyright

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

Top of page
Search OpenEdition Search

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search