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Article published In: Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 14:2 (2023) ► pp.363–380

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Myth of identity

Styling the authentic “Hong Konger” in Wong Tze-wah’s standup comedies

ORCiD logo with link | University of Arizona
Published online: 13 October 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.21042.yu
Abstract
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.
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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Web references
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Xu, Huimin & Csilla Weninger
2025. Digital resistance against linguistic invisibility: Discursive positionings of resistance in the #Pro-Cantonese movement on Douyin. Discourse, Context & Media 64 ► pp. 100865 ff. DOI logo
Lowe, John, Darlene Machell de Leon Espena & George Wong
2024.  Ten Years as Boundary Object: The Search for Identity and Belonging as ‘Hongkongers’ . Asian Studies Review 48:3 ► pp. 561 ff. DOI logo

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