The Mediated Metropolis

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The Mediated Metropolis: Anthropological Issues in Cities and Mass Communication

Author(s): Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong and Gary W. McDonoghSource: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 103, No. 1 (Mar., 2001), pp. 96-111Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/683924

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CINDYHING-YUK WONGMedia CultureCollege of StatenIsland/CityUniversityof New YorkNew York,NY 10314GARYW. MCDONOGHGrowthandStructure f CitiesBrynMawrCollegeBrynMawr,PA 19010-2899

The MediatedMetropolis:Anthropologicalssues n Citiesand Mass CommunicationCinema,radio, television, video, the Internet, ndothervisual mass media have foundniches in the dense creativityoftwentieth-centuryrbanife, altering ocialpractices ndcultural ncountersworldwide.Yet,withoutcitieswhereproduc-ers andaudienceshavecongregated,massproduction,exts,distribution,ndreceptionack human oundations.Thissym-biosisdemandscarefulethnographic nalysisof mediawithinconcreteurbanhistories.We illustrate hisapproachromworkwith film andviewershipn two cities.Hong Konghasgainedglobalfamefor its films,often scrutinized or clues toits identity;we examine how moviegoingitself and the contexts of transnationalpectatorship efine a changingcity.Philadelphia, y contrast,hasrarelycontrolled ts filmimages;here, t is useful to contrast heproduction ndreadingofvisualimagesaboutthe city withimages produced hroughnarrowcastmedia thatspeakto urbansocial issues. In bothcases,urbanvisualcultureshighlightcontestation ndcreativityn local andglobalframeworks.film, grassrootsmedia,urban magery,Hong Kong,Philadelphia]

T he visual culture of cities, whether mediatedthrough mass production of film and television orembodied in vernacular structures of architecture

and murals, represents a central formative feature of thelives and identities of contemporarycitizens. While ques-tions of film and the city have come to be associated withcommunication and cultural studies (Clarke 1992; Donald1999; Gandini 1994; Lamster 2000), they also are centralto anthropological inquiry. In fact, as Sara Dickey hasnoted in her 1997 review of anthropologyand mass media,such analyses often demand ethnographic fieldwork andcultural analysis as fundamental aspects of communica-tions research(see Spitulnik 1993). As we arguehere, suchinterdisciplinarystudies also illuminate contemporaryur-ban life, divisions, and futures in both local and global di-mensions.Consider the early cinematic memories of Yuen-ling,bor in the late 1950s in the fishing village of Shau KeiWan (an area now fully incorporated into metropolitanHong Kong):

I saw movies ever since I can remember. guess I startedwhenI was twoyearsold or2'/2. n ShauKeiWan,therewerethreemovie houses.... Besides the good moviestherewereall thetear-jerking antoneseoperas.

And of course the food-all those exotic foods like watercockroaches(long sut), squid and char siu. I enjoyed mylunch in the movie house. Before my pre-schooltime, mymommytook me to movies.... In Primary , everydayaftermorningschool, my mommy would bringme to buy somechar siu andwe wouldgo to see tear-jerkingmovies ... he-roic womenmovies....In Shau Kei Wan, the movie house was all wooden withlots of sut (fleas).Wong Fei Hong was playingalways,andlots of Fan Bo Bo. Thesecond one was Golden Star. t some-times hadforeignlanguage ilms. Help. I saw Disneythere.[interview1997]

Hong Kong cinema, especially since the 1980s, has be-come known worldwide for its rapid choreography of ac-tion and imagery, its visions of a city of franticenergy andtowering verticality, and its relation to a city caught be-tween colonialism and return o China. This recurrent tyleand urbanity has led filmmakers, critics, and citizens tosearch for metaphoric meanings in films from Tsui Hark'sWickedCity (1992) or Ann Hui's Song of Exile (1990) toFruit Chan's TheLongest Summer (2000). Yet, such filmsnever constituted the entire cinematographic universe ofHong Kong citizens nor were they isolated from social ex-periences of viewing and choice. For Yuen-ling, going to

AmericanAnthropologist103(1 :96-1 11.Copyright? 2001, AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation


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WONG AND MCDONOGH I THE MEDIATEDMETROPOLIS 97the movies was a significantandfrequent vent,minglingfilms,foods,andcommunity.Thisexperience, n turn,re-inforced amilyandidentity: going o the movies was acentralsocial and culturalpracticeof post-WorldWar IIHong Kong. Highly local imagesand familiaractors andplots (theendless swordsman equelsof WongFei Hungortheheritageof Cantonese peras) ontrastedwithHolly-wood's alternative antasies and the glamourof first-runmovie palaces. Local and global intersectionsbecamecleareras Yuen-ling grew up, choosing first-runHolly-wood theaters n the entertainment enter of CausewayBay,art ilmsin smallhousesor filmfestivals,andproduc-tions thatshe has seen while living abroad.Meanwhile,theaters n Shau Kei Wan slowly have closed down. InHong Kong,films notonlyevokequestionsof postmodernstyle(Teo 1997)anddisappearanceAbbas1997),but alsoparticipaten worlds of receptionand appropriatione-fined by intersections between Chinese and colonials,neighborhoodand urbandevelopment,martialarts andDisney. Together,these reconstituteboth visual cultureandhybridurbandentities.Films also conveyotherurbanmessages.As we draftedthisessayin 1999,forexample,TheSixthSense,whichof-fered many scenes of Philadelphia,becamethe highest-grossingmovie in releaseworldwide, he numberone boxoffice draw n Spain,France,and the UnitedKingdomaswell as an Oscar-contendern the United States. Whilecriticsmoreoften discussed ts evocativestoryor turn othesupernaturalhan hesetting, orthose nGreater hila-delphia,viewingalso was accompanied y a sense of rec-ognition,of seeing local sites andcitizens on the screen.While some localcritics amented hat he filmlookslikeitwasproducedn collaborationwith thetouristboard,otherviewers identifiedwith ourstreets, oursupermarket,or the historical essons of the city's past thathauntthefilm.Thisimpactalsoplayedout on a widerscreen.KevinFeeley, spokesman or mayorEd Rendell,noted, Phila-delphia s photographedo beautifullyand with so manypeople comingto see the movie it can'thelpbuthelpus(Brown1999).Anothernewspaper uoteda new out-of-townvisitorastestimony ochangingmagesandcommer-cialimpacts: 'IalwaysthoughtPhiladelphiawas a crime-ridden,rat-infested,mayor-torching-a-neighborhoodell-hole. Butwhenyou see a movie likeTheSixthSensewithits cosmopolitansettings, your image of Philadelphiachanges.... Oh, I've seen Rocky, I've seen TradingPlaces,I've seen Witness,'he says. 'But I was nevermoti-vated o cometo PhiladelphiantilI sawTheSixthSense'(Rickey1999:Fl).At the sametime, the commitmentof the local writer/director,M.Night Shyamalan,o continueproducingilmsin the area bolsters an urbancultural ndustry hat hasbroughtn $168milliondollars ince 1992.Likeother itiesworldwide,Philadelphia'silmofficeworkswithproducers

to make hecityanaccessiblesettingwhether he result s atouristic panorama,a post-apocalypticvision (TwelveMonkeys,1995), or the city disguisedas Cincinnati Be-loved, 1998).The goal is continuingvisibility.Indeed, nlate2000,thePhiladelphia nquirerproudly eported n alocally borntelevision star,Kim Delaney, slated for anABC drama et in thecity.As producer tevenBochcoex-plained, It'sKim'shometown.Thatput t in ourheadstobeginwith.... It'sa cool Eastern ity.It'sgotage.It'sgotweather. t's goteverything hat'sgreatabout he Eastex-cept t's not beenoverexposed. t's notNew York Shister2000:D8).Yet mainstream roductions,while they broadcast m-agery,often overlook magesand ssuescrucial o citizenswhofind voice innarrowcast roductions y public elevi-sionandcommunitygroups.These reframehecityin dif-ferent imagery, issues, and audience. Such grassrootsworksmayhave limitedappealbecause of genre(nonfic-tionfilms) or specificityof issues outsideof theircity orcommunity, uttheyunderscoreheheterogeneous xperi-ences of cityandmediaasproducers,ext,andaudiences.It may seem perplexing o begin an analysisof mass-mediated rban isualculturewith socialmemories,politi-cal economicramifications,ndglobal/local hoicesratherthan magesthemselves.As ethnographersndstudentsofmedia,however,we argue hatholisticsocial andculturalinterpretationf urbanvisual culturesrepresents centralchallenge o urbananthropology s well as a key contribu-tion for thediscipline o makein interdisciplinaryiscus-sions. Visualrepresentationsf thecity andof conflictiveaspects of urban life have existed for millennia:maps,plans, paintings,architecture,ceramics, sculpture,andother arts.Theyhave been showcased n museums, hea-ters,andpublicspacesorin events,parades, ndrituals. nfact,these have alreadybecome standardubjects or an-thropological nd socialhistoricalnvestigation.nthisar-ticle,ourprimary oncerns ie withmass andpopular is-ualmedia, ncluding ilm, television,video,and news thatexpandaudiences, mages, and interpretations-thecityobserved,the city moving, the city seen synchronicallyacrossspace,theinteractive ity of websitesandmultime-dia.Here,the disciplinestandsnear the threshold f newanalyticventures ndnewcontributionso urban tudies.

To explorethis topic, we juxtaposework in two citieswith different xperiences f bothmediaandurbanism.Al-thoughneitherhas the centralityof Hollywoodor NewYorkas globalmediaproducers,Hong Konghas been acapital or film productionntertwinedwitha strong ocalimagethat has developedwithina framework f limitedself-determination.s a colonialandpostcolonial itythatnonethelessbecame an economicpowerhouse n produc-tion, exchange,and consumption, ts mass media offershimmeringvisions of a hybridsociety, as TurnerandNganhaveunderscorednHong Kong60s/90s:Designing


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Identity 1996).Philadelphia,nce a global ndustrial ow-erhouse,has declined n the late twentiethcentury. t alsoparticipatesn a nation-state nd a nationalmarket withglobal reverberations)where productiondecisions havebeen shapedby a New York-Hollywoodaxis. No one inPhiladelphia-auteur,production ompany, ilm office,ordistributionhain-can claim to control hecity's filmim-age in the sameway thatHong Kong producersand dis-tributors o for thatcity.HongKonghasa moredistincto-calidentity, xpressednfilmsprimarily roducedor ocalandregionalAsianaudiences;Philadelphias one point na largermarketof signs,products, ndaudiences.Yettheirexperiencesallow us to discuss a rangeof intersections fcinemaandcitywhilerecognizing therperspectives ettobeexplored.'While othercities mighthavebeen chosen to illustratethe same processes,these are also cities wherewe havelived, worked,researched, ndparticipatedn theproduc-tion andreceptionof imageswith an intimacy hatallowsus toexplorebothfilmand hecityinholistic erms.We donot force parallelstudiesbut, rather,use these cases tocomparecities in terms of creationand spectatorship sprimaryexperiencesof mass mediation.Both examples,moreover,share transnationalonnections hroughmediaandcitizens.That s, Philadelphiansave envisionedHongKong through lobalmass media(althoughwe onlytouchon Americanvisions nourreference o moregeneral ead-ings of The Worldof Suzie Wong[see McDonoghandWong in press]). PhiladelphiaChinese, meanwhile,haveused visual media to construct oth a Hong Kongidentityabroadand American dentities,often intersectingn thesame media(see Wong1999b).Theseconnections emindus that mass mediarepresent realmin which local andglobal are constantlyrenegotiated, ometimes with pop-corn.

Visual Culture and Urban ExperienceUrbanvisualculture ncludesproduction, mages,andexperiencesthat build upon each other as complex in-tertexts.Theiconicmeaningsof the Eiffel Tower for Parisor IndependenceHall in Philadelphia,or example,wereconstructedby travelers, ritics,architects, nd historiansbeforethey became embeddedas a mythicshorthand orplacein films fromHollywood o Bollywood. Today, ikeHong Kong's new monumentalBank of ChinaandHongKong andShanghaiBank towers(Williams 1989), theseemblemscanbe used to defend ocalidentity, elldevelop-mentsites,comment ronically n localtransformations,rsimplysituatea plotdevelopmentn films.Through extslike JackBarth'sRoadsideHollywood,ubtitledTheMovieLover'sState-by-StateGuideto FilmLocations,CelebrityHangouts,CelluloidTouristAttractions, ndMore(1991),spectatorscan map out a cinematic nation from Seattle,WashingtonItHappenedat the World'sFair, 1963;The

ParallaxView,1974;Streetwise, 984;TheFabulousBakerBoys,1989;etc.)to Baltimorefilmsof BarryLevinsonandJohn Waters, among others; see Barth 1991: 25-28,221-232).Themeaningsof films andcities nonethelessdi-vergebetween citizens who live withand re-create hesecityscapesdailyand hose who see themreproducedcrossnational ndglobalscreens.Differentmeaningsalso reverberatehroughurbanvis-ual cultureat the local level. Watching heeveningnews,orreading henewspaperhrough horthand hotographicimages of bad or elite neighborhoods,how do weknowour own city?A friendbom andraised n Philadel-phia, orexample, nsisted hatTradingPlaces was his fa-voritemovie forthecity- that anyonewouldknowthosehouses are on the Main Line. While the film identifiesPhiladelphia,his observationof universality s more astatement f local citizenship hanglobalspectatorship-whichnonethelessmakes t important.Yet,whatdoes thatknowledgemean,amongand withincities?Here,we mustbe awareof whatStephenFore(applyingJosephStraub-haar o Hong Kong)has labeled culturalroximity. hatis, fora star ikeJackieChanbreakingnto theU.S.market,stardomnHong Kongevokes a distinct ontext:

InEastAsia,whereChan s already major tar, he Chinese-ness of his persona s, of course,moreclosely alignedwiththe culturalheritage and life of the average moviegoer,whetherat a primary evel of culturalproximity(for audi-encesin HongKong,TaiwanandthePRC),or at a secondarylevel (for non-Chineseaudiences n Asian countrieswhereHong Kong movies are widely distributed). n the UnitedStates, hough,wherethelevel of Chan'sChinesenesss low,New Line found itself faced with a double dilemma.[Fore1996:247]As StephenTeo adds, As JackieChan ncreasinglyrainshis eyes on the internationalmarket,his personalitybe-comes more pliable, more rubbery.This makes Chan'scharactersn his internationalilms less distinctivelyChi-nese,or evendistinctivelyHong Kong 2000:6).Beyondthe cinema,of course,urbanvisualculture n-cludes responsesas local as graffiti sprayedover urbanmurals or vice versa),as personalas criticalreadingsofglobalcinemaorexpatriate ostalgiaand as widespread ssocialrejectionof a workas unreal, oreign,ordangerous,or thelionization f nativedaughters ndsons.Through llof these,film and othermassmedia becomeincorporatedintodebatesoverurban dentitiesamid ocaldiversityandon worldmediastages n eventsandreadingshatareoftenintertwined. hiladelphia,orexample,celebrated heyear2000 witha mass runupthe stepsof the ArtMuseum in-cluding then-mayorEd Rendell),imitatinga well-knownscenefromRocky 1976). On almostany visit to the mu-seum area,one sees tourists and residents mitating hiscinematic image of resilience against a post-industrialcityscape.Yet, local debate has ragedfor decades overwhetheror not this site is anappropriatelacefor a statue


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WONG AND MCDONOGH / THE MEDIATED METROPOLIS 99of Rocky.Moreover, hisimagedoes not alwayscoincidewithelitestrategieso sell thecityviahighculture,history,opportunity,r evenas the place hat ovesyouback.At a more ntimateevel,theinstitutions nd places fmass visual culture hus createexperiencesof urbanciti-zenship and public spheresbeyond elite norms.MiriamHansenhaseloquently rguedhiswithregardo spectator-ship,class, andgender n the nickelodeonsof New YorkCity:

Thenickelodeonwas a realplace,located n thecenteror themarginof theimmigrants'world,ordinary ndeasilyaccessi-ble. At the sametime, t openedupinto a fantastic pace,giv-ing pleasure n thejuxtapositionof diverse,oftenincompat-ible, and at times impossiblesites and sights-in the veryprincipleof disjunctionhat nformed he variety ormat....The aestheticsof disjunction otonlycontested hepresumedhomogeneityof thedominant ultureandsocietyin the nameof which immigrantsweremarginalized ndalienated,moreimportantly,t lent the experienceof disorientation nd dis-placement heobjectivityof collectiveexpression. t is in thissense that the notion of the cinemaas heterotopia onvergeswith the conceptof an alternativepublic sphere-as a me-dium that allows peopleto organize heirexperienceson thebasis of theirown context of living, of specific needs,con-flicts and anxieties. 1992:108].Certainly,we mustbe careful o distinguish mongme-dia andexperiencesn theconstruction ndreadingof ur-ban visualculture.Somevisual mediaprovelocal in theirown way:architectures simplynoteasilytransferable uttakes on new meaningswithinmass media,as cities likeBarcelonaandBilbao havediscovered n the 1990s. Tele-vision is both nationaland local. While some radio andtelevisionnetworksor stationgroupssend pre-packagedformatsandprograms ll overthecountry,many ocalsta-tionsneed to attract ocalaudienceswithprogrammingnmundane,yet popular ssues like the weatherandsports.They may serve as vehicles for discussionof the city al-thoughthey often risk becomingthe purveyorsof darkmyths o suburban onsumers.The Internets global, ocal,and ndividualistic,withdifferent ointsof production, is-tribution, ndreception.Evenso, whileAmazon.commayseem virtual, ts warehousesare real andhuge. All thesemediademand ocalcenters orglobalproduction-maga-zines,film,andtelevision hatshape heirpresenceandre-

ception.Hence,Los Angeles figuresprominentlyn Hol-lywood because it includes Hollywood and offers aconvenient hooting tagealbeitoneopento multiplenter-pretationssee Davis 1998).No matterhow fast informa-tion and images can overridethe restrainsof time andspace,humanbeings ive inrealspaces,orplaces,and imeevenastheysee throughmediatedmages.Elements of urbanmass visual culture also underpincompetitionamongcities. Hence,Hong Kong celebratedits 1997 handoverromBritain o Chinawith 100DaysofCinema, ts best knownmultimedia roduct,andits Film-

Mart,which soughtto sell thoseproductsabroad.Globalfilm starJackieChanhasfeatured rominentlyn theHongKongTouristAssociationwebsite. Othercitiesjockey togainsuchexposure andprofits).TheChicagoFilmOffice(http://www.ci.chi.il.us/SpecialEvents/FilmsOffice/Abohtml),forexample,reports n its websitethat300 produc-tionshave left $730 millionin thecity, while Chicagosshowcased n film andtelevisionproductionseenby mil-lions all overtheworld.Thishigh-profile xposurehelpstoestablishnew impressionsof the city andincreaseglobalawareness. n an era of mobilecapitaland informationflows, the imageof the city thatmass mediause, create,andextend ranslatesntochoices of residence,production,and development.Even small cities like Ocala, Florida,proclaim hatthey are camera-ready. t the sametime,critics worry that administratorsike Ed Rendell, con-cerned with post-industrialmageryand marketing,mayhave been transforming hiladelphia ndothercities intothe Cityas Disney extravaganzawith floats lit up by athousandpointsof light, the City increasingly ashionedanddesignednotfor those who live within t but forthosewho neverwill (Bissinger1997:371).Withinthis global mediaweb, however,not all citiesproveequalin salience,construction, r meanings.Somehave been home to productionas well as distribution:Hong Kong,Los Angeles,Bombay,New York,andParisareglobalmoviecapitals.Others,whileofferinga varietyof audiencesandspaces,aregenerallybackground atherthanhomes to producerswho will interprethem anew. Inthese secondcities, in fact,we must also pay attention odifferentroles withinthe processof creating ilm. Balti-more,forexample,while a smallercity thanPhiladelphia,has been lovinglychronicledby two nativesons-BarryLevinsonandJohnWaters-whose filmsdiffer n memoryandevocation rom he useof thecityas scenario nHolly-wood films. We mustalso notea rangeof broadcastandmorenarrowcastroductionsn which elevisionandvideoexpand heworld of urbanmages,creatingmeanings essuniform hanthose of culturalndustries, speciallyas weprobediversereadings n everyday ife. Even so, we canscarcelytouch upon the issues raisedby Nestor GarciaCanclini or citiesinundatedwithforeign magesof urban-ityandmodernity1999).

Intheend, mass media andvisualculture hus forceusto thinkaboutrelationsof powerandresistance.Whopro-duces mages?Whodistributeshemand hroughwhatnet-work?Who readsthemand underwhatconstraints?Whounderstands nd nterpretsmissions?TheSixthSense,forexample,lacks majorspeakingroles for AfricanAmeri-cans although they constitute a sizeable proportionofPhiladelphia's esidents.How is thisabsenceread n a lo-cal AfricanAmericanneighborhoodheater?At the sametime, films focused on gang violence among AfricanAmericans,ikeBoyzN theHood(1991)orNewJackCity


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(1991),confirm tereotypes mongsuburbanwhitereadersand led mall theaterownersto avoidbookingsbecauseofthe actionsthey feared from theiraudiences,reaffirmingthe constructionf urbanAfricanAmericanyouthas adis-ruptive orce(Baker1999).Thismeshingof experienceandimageryalso forces usto reconsider he complexityandcontradictions f urbansymbolism.While the Eiffel Towermay stand or Paris,especially n Hollywoodfilms, it omitsmanyelementsofParisiansociety and struggle.Even JacquesTati in hismasterfulPlaytime(1967) evoked it as an elusive imagethat tourists only glimpse on posters or in reflections(BarthesandMartin1964;Ockman2000).As IenAnghasshown,readingsof the same text differaccording o thecultural nd social formation f audiences 1985).Withre-gard o Hong Kong,forexample,we haveargued hatTheWorldofSuzieWong 1961)conjuresverydifferentmean-ings and associationsoutside the city, and withinHongKong among expatriates s opposedto Chinese citizens.Whilefromthe outsideSuzieWongfitpopularOrientalistimagesof an exoticfemale,subordinatedo a whiteknight,Chinesepeoplein Hong Kongcontested ts linguisticandracial verisimilitudeduringproductionand ignoredthefilm subsequently.As Hong Kongbecamea major inan-cial power internationally, uzie Wong became increas-inglyirrelevanto locals.Nonetheless, heTouristAssocia-tion still marketsHong Kong as Suzie Wong's abode tooutsidersMcDonoghandWonginpress).Previousanthropological tudies have alreadyraisedimportant uestionsaboutmassmedia, ncludingpioneer-ing workby HortensePowdermaker1950)onHollywoodandIanJarvieon Hong Kong (1978). Morerecently, hecinemasof SouthAsia have been the subjectof model in-vestigationsof mass media and urbanculture, ncludingtheworkof SaraDickey(1993, 1997),CarolBreckenridge(1995), Purima Mankekar1999), and TejaswaniGanti(in press). Susan Ossman has proposeda more holisticsense of urbanvisualculture n herPicturingCasablanca(1994);RonBurnett1993),JeffreyHimpele 1996),MarkLiechty 1996),ArjunAppadurai1996),andBrianLarkin(1997) all have raised compelling questionsof ethno-graphicandtransnationalrban eadings.While not urbanin focus,EricMichaels'ssensitiveanalysesof the interac-tions of culture and video among Australianaborigines(1992) also have been modelsin ourwork.2At the sametime,we realize hat hestudyof urbanvisualculture s aninterdisciplinaryield in which anthropologicalmethodsandtheoriesmust share.Here,forexample,film theoristsandhistoriansofferethnographicnsights ncluding hoseof MiriamHansen 1992)on silentfilmand hecreation fnew urbanpublic spheres;David Clarke 1992)and MarkLamster's(2000) collections on film and urbanform;Turnerand Ngan (1996), Law Kar and Stephen Teo(1997),Law Kar 1999),Li Cheuk-To 1996, 1997),LindaLai (1997), StephenTeo (1997, 2000), David Bordwell

(2000), StephenFore (1996, 1999), and otherson HongKongfilm;andDavidDocherty,DavidMorrison, ndMi-chaelTracey(1987),DavidMorley(1996), JudithMayne(1993),GraemeTurner1997),andmanyothersonspecta-torship.Our interesthere, however,is not to reviewvol-umes of general tudieswithwhich we feel urbananthro-pology intersects,but to underscore he contributions fanthropologyo this establisheddebate.Hencewe turn oourownmaterials.

The Electric City:Experiencing Films in Hong KongHong Kongfilmmaking ndviewingemergedwith theearliest days of cinematographicnnovation worldwide(Hong Kong Film Archives 1997). After the ChineseRevolutionof 1949,HongKongfilmmaking,ike other n-dustries,wasinfusedwithcapital,expertise,andpersonnelfromShanghai ndfromotherChinesewho fled the Com-munistregime.Thepresenceof Chinesefromdifferent e-gions, speakingdifferentChinesetongues,contributed othegrowthof a multilingualChinese ilmindustry ased nthe territorywhose productionsreached a peak of 676films and videosin 1996 (HongKong Reports1997:319;Teo 1997).Whilethis is anextraordinaryevel of produc-tion for a territory f 6.5 millioninhabitants,he industryfed an EastAsianmarket s well asan internationalmarketof Chinesediaspora.Hong Kongkung-fu ilms alsofoundcross-culturalmarketing uccess fromNepal to Africa totheAmericas.MarkLiechty, orexample,refers o the im-portanceof English ilms amongurbanyouths n Kath-

mandu, itingpicturesbyBruceLee (1996:123).Thispowerof cinemadid notescapethe attention f thecolonialgovernment,whichtook films by truck o refugeesettlements n the 1950s and builtcinemasin large-scalepublic housingestates even as they exercisedcensorshipandother controlson local distribution.Hong Kong alsobecame he firstBritishcolonyto receivetelevisionvia ca-ble in 1957,creatinganothervenue fornegotiatingmageandcontrol.By the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong Style evenchangedHollywoodaction licks. Directorsandstarshavebeen recruited or big budget productions n the UnitedStates from JohnWoo's Face-Off(1998) to Chow Yun-Fat'sstarring ole inAnna andtheKing(1999)on a stageset in Malaysia (anothervisual-spatial displacement).Meanwhile,Hong Kongfaced tsowntransitionromBrit-ishcolonyto autonomousegionwithin heChinesestate.HongKongmoviegoingas socialappropriationf mov-ies also haschanged n recentdecadesof economic devel-opmentandhybridizationf globalconsumptionpatterns.Those from whom we collected stories aboutneighbor-hood theatersandfamily picnicsin cinemas of the 1960sweremore ikelytogo as adults nthe 1990sto sleek multi-plexes associatedwithcommercial enters hroughout he


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WONG AND MCDONOGH / THE MEDIATED METROPOLIS 101

city, symbolsof thenew and successfulHong Kongand tsconsumption TurnerandNgan 1996).These sameyearshave witnessed ncreasing oncernsabout ocalaudiences.While moreHongKongtheatersare builteachyear,audi-encesdroppedrom98 million n 1967(forapopulation f3.7 million)to 20 million in 1999 (for 6.9 million).ThemarketsorCantonese ilms,highlyaudience-drivenom-modities, have especially suffered. Competitionfromvideo,laserdisc,VCD,andDVD as well as televisionrep-resentsa long-standingoncern,butsaggingquality n lo-cal productions lso has beenblamed or lowerbox officerevenues. Film producershave adapted heirproduct operceived consumption,distributors ave slashedprices,andtheatershave createddiscountdaysto amelioratehiscrisis.These experiencesare hardlyunique to postcolonialHong Kong. Indeed,while the models for contemporarycineplexes,theirconcessions,and theirHollywoodtie-insbetrayAmericanmarketing,imilarconsumptions sharedin BuenosAires,Barcelona,andPhiladelphia.Yet aneth-nographyof moviegoingas urbanexperience lluminatesdistinctionsandcontradictionsn Hong Kong visual cul-ture andeverydayconsumption.Local andglobalmean-ingsof the cinemabeyond hescreen-including architec-ture, ambience,prestige and choice of product,sharedclientele and experiences, and even food-also haveshapedHong Kongmovies sincetheir irstpublicperform-ances. As we have noted in ethnohistorical esearch ince1996,the choice of site,company, mages,andexperiencealso have reconstructedivisionswithinmetropolitanoci-ety.These ncludecolonialcaste andethnicity,divisionsofclass andmobility,and otherconstructions f age, gender,cultural apital,and thecity itself. While the imageof thecityis compellingn Hong Kongfilms,so is theexperienceof thatimage and its alternatives ndtheirincorporationintoeverydayife and dentity.Evenaftercolonialruleended n 1997, ong-standing i-visions between an English-speakingaudience(British,American,and otherexpatriatesand Chinesebilinguals)andChinesespeakers,who makeup 98%of the popula-tion, remainclear in the territory'smore than 60 dailynewspapers.English-language ewspaperadvertisementslist less than half of the screenings n the territory dver-tised in the Chinese press. English-language dvertise-mentshavefocussedon first-runheaterswithcomfortabledecor,easy parking,andaffiliationwith local chains andinternationalistribution. hese theatershavealso tendedto be associatedwith business/entertainmententers:nocinemasemerged n areas dentifiedwithcolonialresiden-tialdistricts ike thePeak orStanley.First-runheaterpal-aces also have relied on Chinesepatronsand advertise nChinesedailies as well. Some English-speaking atrons,meanwhile, go to predominantlyChinese theatersforHong Kongmovies. Yet thecontrastnpublicity hows the

divisions of imaginedand communicativecommunitiesstillperceivedo exist(drawing n Anderson1991).Theintermediaryopulations f colonialsociety,mean-while,developedotherviewinghabits.With ts economicboom, for example, Hong Kong has become home to170,000contracteddomesticworkers,80% of whomarefrom the Philippinesandprimarilyemaleswho reside nthe homes of theiremployers(Hong KongReport1998:122;Constable1997).According o those withwhomwetalked,they generallydid not go to movies unless shep-herding heiremployer'schildren: inema was expensiveby contrast o Filipinopricesand maids lacked free time.On the otherhand,businessesandinformalarrangementscatered o Filipinoswho gathereddowntownon theirdayoff witha livelytrade nFilipinovideos.By the late1990s,Filipinocable stationswerealso available or homecon-sumption: ence,anexpatriate isualculture elinkingm-migrantso thePhilippines merged n culturaldistinctionto bothHong KongandHollywood.Thelongerestablished ndmore ntegrated outhAsianpopulation ttendedbothEnglishand Chinesecinemasaswell as maintaining pecializedvideooutlets orHindiandotherfilms. An informantalso reported hatthey rentedhalls for special showings of Indian cinema that alsoservedmultiple ommunityunctions:

SouthAsianMovies arescreenedn theHKConventionCen-tre at leastonce a month orabout$100-150HK($13-20US).Ipersonallyaveneverbeen o onebecause oucangetthe samemoviea week ateron tapefor$10HK. Mostofthesemovies re ommercialilmsnotevendocumentariesrSatyajitRaymovieswhich s a realshamebecauseRay'smoviesareexcellent.Moreover,hese ilmscreeningsrean-other orm f socialgatherings- Oh,ookwhoshe swith,anewman?Cinemas n Hong Kong also mustbe differentiatedntermsof genre,withconcomitantmplications f class andotherdivisions attached o the textualimageryon screenand some implications or the space of spectators.Apartfrom he first-runheaters, inemasoutside hemainstreamalso specialize n art ilms andpornography. hedomesti-cation of children's inema, n turn,underscores ociocul-tural hanges n theurbanilmgoingexperienceovertime.Artcinemas, n fact, sharemanycharacteristicscrosscultures hat we know as filmgoers.Hong Kong'sBroad-way Cinematheque,n its name, expressobar, intensiveverbalmaterialson currentofferings,and otherfeatures,would notbe unfamiliarn Philadelphia r BuenosAires.In fact,art cinemas n Hong Kong tend to offer the sameglobal programmingound elsewhere to a self-selectedcosmopolitanclientele definedby tastes hat roam faroutsideHongKong.Culturalroximitys relative, owever.The intellectualworksof Wong Kar-Waiareregarded sdifficultnHongKong,but heyplay n mainstreamheatersrather hanbeing relegated o art houses by the equation


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WONG AND MCDONOGH / THE MEDIATEDMETROPOLIS 103

appeared n newspaperadvertisements nd film distribu-tion. This trendagain parallelsdevelopmentn theUnitedStatesandEurope,markinga suburbanizationf theaters,which,while notnecessarily liminating n urban ore,of-fered similar services at more convenient centralpoints.BothHollywoodand Cantoneseofferingsnow respond othe decentralizationf populationwithin new towns likeSha Tin and Tuen Mun. At the same time, multiplexeshave moved to consumption enters,amid stores and fastfood serviceslike McDonald's(see Watson1997) or thelocalfastfood of Caf6deCoral.This shift to multiplexescoincided n interestingwayswith growingstrength n Hong Kong filmmakingduringthe boomof the 1970s and1980s,the eraof the New Wave(Law 1999). Hong Kong films regainedbox office pri-macy domesticallyand expandedin overseas marketsthroughstrategic nterventionsncluding participationnfilmfestivalandartist ircuitsaswell asmajor ommercialcircuits (Leung and Chan 1997:146; Li 1996). Majorworksby TsuiHark,JohnWoo,andRingoLam builtcon-tinuingreputations longsidethe more artisticcareersofWong Kar-Waiand Ann Hui. New patternsof exhibitionspacesand distributionmeant hatHong KongandHolly-wood films are screened side by side in new worlds ofchoice,whichmayeven have sustained omeHong Kongprojectsor allowed hema wideraudience.Whathave all thesechangesmeantfor the consumer'sexperienceof cinema?New multiplexes ffermoreameni-ties of consumption-rangingfrombettersoundand seats(without laborate ecor) o choiceamongmultiplemoviesat the samesite.Theymayalsoimplymoreuniformity l-beit wider distribution f limitedofferings.An alarmedcommentfromthe FrenchCahiersdu Cinema, or exam-ple, warns hat themultiplex-mega complexesof moviehouses near commercialcenters-are flourishingevery-where in Francenearlargecenters, endingto makecin-emaabanalproductorconsumption Pardo1997:60,ourtranslation).Movies,to suchacritic,becomenot anexperi-enceinthemselvesbut another hoicein the mall.Dataon the experienceof cinema since the 1980spro-vide us with interestingsupport or this view. A HongKong University tudentwho recalled ocalismandfamilyin her childhoodmemories,when asked aboutplacessheregularlywent in the 1990s,quickly replied: UA TimesSquareor Queensway.Because they're newer. Newer.Andthey showthe kind of moviesI wantto see. Andmyfriendsgo there. Another tudentalso denigratedhe ex-perienceof Chinese movie theaters: Theyshow Chinesemovies so I amdealingwiththe samereality.And then hesound effects and the image effects are not so good asUA. Still another pontaneously aluedthe consumptionfeaturesof themultiplex: There re six movies to choosefrom ... and it's comfortable. With a dramatic drop inspectatorship,heflexibility f many maller heaters ecame

astrategyor ownersas well as consumers MingPao, July13, 1997).Yet, these cinemasalsorespond,on the whole,to more narrowlytargetedconstructionsof the typicalviewerandproduct.As affluence,maturity, ndeducationbecamemorewidespread ythe1990s,this facilitatednewdimensionsand choices in movie consumption.Perhapsnowhere s thisrelationship etween heaffluent onsumerand the multiplexmodellaidoutbetter han n ThePlacemagazine 1991-1994), publishedby the SwireCompanyto sell its investment n the upscalePacific Place mall.Here,amidads forglamorousmultinationalmerchandiserslikeSeibu,Montblanc,GianniVersace,andHermes,wereinterviewswithcinemapersonalities r featuresdetailingHong Kong links with Hollywood,accompaniedby pre-views for the mall's UA multiplex.Shopping or movieslooksmoreandmore ikeshoppingoranyothergoods.The primaryalternative o cinema palaces for manyHong KongChinese ilmgoersof thepostwarperiodwerecheaper,ocal structuresikethosedescribed yYuen-ling.Theatershroughouthe olderChinese ettlements f HongKongonce offerednot only a continually hangingroundof second-and third-runmovies,butalsoescapefrom thecrampedand crowded conditionsof postwarhousing.Inbothproduct ndexperience,heyreaffirmedhe identitiesof smallercommunities.Neighborhood inemas were fa-miliar; moreover,they had other attributes,as a HongKong Universitystudentrecalled: Therewere a lot ofhawkersnthe theatre all.We'dbuya lot of thingsandgointo the movie.Infact, t was the most nteresting hing, hemost attractivehing or meingoingto movies.Because asa childyoudon't understandhe movie thatmuch. Yetby1978 comments, hese theaterswere suffering he fate ofcentralpalaces,reducingHongKong'stotal heaters o 79.Again, this has resulted from many factors includingneighborhoodedevelopment,amily mobility,new hous-ing, andcompetition rommultiplexesand alternateme-dia.Thedisappearancef neighborhood/working-classhea-ters has not marked he end of Hong KongChinesecin-ema. Whenwe asked riendsand moviespecialists orthemost authentic Hong Kong viewing experience n the1990s,we were directed o latenight showingsfor youngaudiencesat largepopularhouses in the urbanentertain-mentcenters. nKowloon,forexample, heChinachemnthe popularnightlifeareaof Tsim Sha Tsui East offers alivelymixtureof ChineseandWesternmovieswithshowsrunning ontinuallyhroughouthenight o livelycrowds.Whilethese andsimilar heatres adcharacteristicood,ambience,and noise levels, they arenot unlikeshowingsthatappealed o similarage groups n the UnitedStates:onemightconsider he ambienceandmythof drive-incul-tureas a comparison.Theimpactof theyouthful onsumerhas been reinforcedby fan magazineslike Milky WayJournal NganHauWahPao)since the1950s.Youngstars


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104 AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST * VOL. 103, NO. 1 * MARCH2001todayseekmultipleexposureacrossAsiain rockconcerts,television,and commercials s well as movie events; heirphotosareforsale andtheir ives and loves fill fanmaga-zines.As in the UnitedStatesandEurope, hisaudience,tsenthusiasm,and its buying power have spurredmarket-drivenproductionsike theyounggangmoviesof the later1990s,whichHongKongproducers peedily reproduced.To cash in on the success of Youngand Dangerous(GuWakJai,1996),forexample,Young ndDangerous I andIII were shot andreleased n the same year,withanothersequelfollowing n 1997(Li 1997).Althoughgenerallyn dense Chineseurbandistricts ikeMongkokor Wanchairather hanmalls, these large,di-videdtheatres eemedto overlapwith bothneighborhoodtheatresand new chains. In none of ourvisits,moreover,did audiences howthelegendary pirit or whichtheyarefamous in Hong Kong-talking back to the screen orthrowing hingsatit, apart rom some illegalsmokingandlouder conversation hanwould be permittedn a multi-plex.Marketing ampaignsikethereduced ickets orteenmovies or the two-for-one lovers tickets that were at-temptedat variouspointsremindedus in fact thatthesewere audiences or whomChinese heatres ompetedwithmoreglamorous hains.Whilethese theatersmightshareactionpicturesorhigh-profiletarsanddirectorswithmul-tiplexes,however, heyalso retainedpossessionof severalintenselylocal genres includingromancesandcomedies,which,as Lai (1997) argues,oftenperforman extremelylocal identityunlikely o pullin crossoverorforeignaudi-ences.

Obviously,this story of film as experience might beelaborated hroughanalysesof the roles we have men-tioned for televisionand for home-viewingdevices, in-cludingVCRs,DVDs, andVCDs, which makecheappi-rate copies of currentlyplaying films availablealmostinstantly,againcomplicatingheeconomicsof citizenship.Moreover,we mighttalk in more detailaboutchanges nimage andcontent(see Wong and McDonoghin press).Yet, at the same time, the urbanvisual cultureof HongKong should also be seen beyondthe city andterritory.Film inHongKonghasalwaysbeen a globalphenomenon.As such, in the Chinesediaspora, ilm and its reproduc-tions andcommentary avecomplemented therfamiliarinstitutionsof urbanidentityrangingfrom food stores,churches,and restaurantso regionalassociations o for-eign-language ewspapers.Globalismalso createsnewlo-calisms.Movies, videos, and televisionprovideChineseand otherswithconnections o their homelandandplacesof identity n theirnew urbanworlds.Hong Kong videosprovidefamiliarexperiences,whetheror not immigrantscamefromHong Kong.InPhiladelphia,orexample,Chinesemovieswereshowntheatricallynthe 1990sonlyatmidnight n Saturdaysnanoutlet mallmultiplex theymoved n 2000 to anotherhea-ter in NortheastPhiladelphia). eroxedannouncementsre

plasteredon Chinatownwalls; only recently have theybeen added o thegeneralmovie istingsof localalternativepapers. Dependingon the popularityof the film and itsstars,attendancerangesfrom about 40 to 1,000; somefilms (likethose of JackieChan)also show up in compet-ing mainstream enues.Thisscreeninghas become a cen-ter notonlyforChinesebut also forotherAsian andAsianAmericanadolescents.This dearthof targeted heatrical creenings,however,does not reflect Asian-Americanconsumption.Videostoresdot the streetsof Chinatown;mallerrentalcollec-tionsarejammed nto the cranniesof food andstationaryshops. Most serve a predominantlyChinese clientele:manyprograms reavailable nlyinChinese,whileclientsandclerksgenerallyare more fluent n ChinesethanEng-lish. Hong Kong videosare also available n other Asianethnicvideo stores: hus,Cambodian nd Vietnamese m-migrants n Philadelphia ent dubbedHong Kong videosfrom theirown neighborhoodtores.In this sense, again,HongKongmovieandcassettedistributionlreadyhas be-comeAmericanizedseeWong1999b).Technology changestime as well as space;televisionprograms s well as feature ilms travel romHong Kongto America n a matterof days,whether heatricalhits oreventslike the Miss Hong Kong pageant.Moviesbecomeavailable as soon as videodiscs are sold in Hong Kong,dubbed ntoNTSC/VHS apes.According o storeowners,however, mmigrants refer elevisionprograms ackagedas cassettes o featuremovies. Themostpopular apesarethose of soap operas,historicalromances,andaction se-ries. These productions,f successful,run for a year ormore in Hong Kong (e.g., the recent GenuineFeelings[Jun Ching]). The latest addition o Hong Kong transna-tionalvisual culture s satellite,which allows the house-hold to receive programming rom Taiwan, MainlandChina,andTVBJade, hemajorHong KongChinese ele-vision channel.Not only is this a familiarexperienceofwatchingwell-knownshowsin a familiar anguage,but italso reinforcesculturalproximity:as one friend said,when see the fire inLai CheeKwok,I calledmy friendsand relatives right away. Yet new connections arestressed: Myfathercomesto my house more oftennow,he likes to watchsatelliteprograms, ndmy kids'Chineseis gettingbetter.Middle-classamilieswho have nstalled his dishrarelyrentvideosanymore.However,exceptfor newsprograms,Jade does not permitdirect,instantaneous ransmissionfromHong Kong, tryingto controla rentalmarketchal-lengedby those whotape romsatellitebroadcasts nd ex-changethe productsamongfriends,reconstructing vir-tual neighborhood f viewingandcommentary.In these ways, Hong Kongfilms and televisiongo be-yondentertainmentoreconstitute nurbanmmigrant is-ualculture.Theseaudienceshavethe cultural ompetenceto readthese texts, both in language and in intertextual


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WONG AND MCDONOGH / THE MEDIATED METROPOLIS 105references hatareveryculturally ounded.This desire orconnectednesswitha homeland s also marketed uccess-fully by TVB, who controls he largestChinese-languagetelevision programmingn the world. Immigrantsearabout show business news from ethnic newspapersandglossy magazinesand rentthe videos to see the latesthotstars or society events.They also exchangetapesamongthemselves and constructconversationsaround hese fa-miliar topics, and they transmitcontemporaryChinesepopular ulture o theyounger,oftentimesAmerican-bornsecond generation.Yet these consumersof Hong Kongfilm andvideo are no less cosmopolitan han theirHongKong counterparts.ndeed,althoughthereis no way togatherconcretedata,discussionswith friends n thePhila-delphiaChinesecommunitysuggest that Titanicor TheSixthSensewasjustas popularwithChinesehere as withotherAmericans.The difference n audience hen, n bothareas, s not so much in what they choose to see or howtheyevaluatet but nthearray f meanings heyconstruct,and intertexts hey use, in which Hong Kong media andAmericanproductions re bothcomponents.Thissymbio-sis, infact,underpinsHong Kongcinemaandaudiences, thome and ndiaspora, lthoughhe contextof mobilityandquestsfor cultural dentitychangethe meaningsof view-ings in each case as well as acrossother media channelslike radioand elephone.

Eclectic City:Creating and Reading Images in PhiladelphiaIn contrast o Hong Kong,Philadelphia as not been a

center or film productionn the UnitedStates,despite hepioneeringwork of SiegmundLubin,self-styledKing ofthe Movieswhoestablished is Lubinville tudios nNorthPhiladelphiaEckhardt 997).Yet overtime,thecity wascertainlya centerin otherways for images.WithCurtisPublishing ellingtheSaturdayEveningPost with ts Nor-manRockwellcovers,Philadelphia hapeda global mageof American ife (Friedrich 970;Hennesseyand Knutson1999).World'sFairsandothereventsbrought ecurrent t-tention o thecity.Indeed,patriotic istory mpressed ponAmerican choolchildrenndvisitors romabroad he im-agesof IndependenceHall andtheLibertyBell as symbolsof a city andthe nation,albeit one trappedn andby itspast. Philadelphia,moreover, emains he fifth largestna-tional elevisionmarket ndanimportant ointon nationalfilm distribution.Yet, how does a city without HongKong's marketposition n the production f urban ilmicimages negotiate heseimagesto its owndiverseresidentsas well as to thosewho live outside hemetropolitanrea?Weapproachhisby lookingattextualmagesof thecityinmainstream ilms in relation o local experienceand nar-rowcastmedia hatconstruct he visualcity,notonlyasim-ages,butalsoasplaceswhereproducers ndaudienceive.

As a large city with an identifiablename,Philadelphiahastakenon a protagonisticolein repeatedmovies,espe-cially with regard o space and class. The PhiladelphiaStory 1940),forexample, ranklygnored hecityto focuson the affluent uburbanMainLinein a storypatternedntheactual ife of a local socialite.These magesof class andconflicthavea longerhistory n Philadelphia nd tsrepre-sentations nclude hemelodramaticKittyFoyle(novelbyChristopherMorley;movie 1940); The YoungPhiladel-phians (1959), which again pits the hidden histories ofMain Line elites againstthe virilityof the working-classcity;or Hitchcock'sMarie (1964), whichplaysoutclassissues between he MainLine(perhaps) ndworking-classBaltimore.TradingPlaces (1983)recastsclass andrace na rarecomic portrait,while the disappointingDowntown(1990)bringsa MainLinepolicemannto thehardscrabblecity. Tom Hanks, n Philadelphia 1993), playsa lawyerwhogrewupin the MainLine,has a gayrelationshipnthecity where he works, and is redeemedby an AfricanAmericanattorneyromthe urban lite's prejudice gainstAIDS. Even CitizenKane (1941) uses Philadelphiaas asite for the libraryof the stodgy lawyer who controlledKane's nheritance.3Class,ethnicity, ndspacealsopermeate ne of themostsuccessful andemblematicPhiladelphiamovies, in termsof box officereceiptsand mpact:Rocky 1976),whosere-lation o thecityis ascomplexasthatof The World fSuzieWong o Hong Kong.Inthis movie and its sequels,SouthPhiladelphia, working-class,talianAmericanneighbor-hood (now increasinglypopulatedby SoutheastAsians),and othersectionswerebroughthometo otherpartsof theUnitedStatesandthe world as symbolsof personalresil-ience. This geographyhas permeated therfilms as well:Two Bits (1996) romanticizedSouth Philadelphian theDepression,while The Sixth Sense contrasteda homeySouth Philadelphiawith the culturedSociety Hill andCenterCity. TwelveMonkeys(1995), meanwhile,usedKensington,anotherworking-classneighborhood acingdevastatingransformations,o presenta near-apocalypticworldnot unlikea stereotypicalocal news reporton theBadlands, familiarurbancliche of decay,racism,anddespair.Local documentariesikePovertyOutlaw 1998),infact,directly ontest hisimageof Kensington.

These moviescreatepowerful ntertexts or thecityas asetting,partly or ts shortcutdentificationf someformofclass, racial,or ethnic dentificationsorHollywood.Otherissues also ariserepeatedlywithinthesefilms,includingavaguesense of a historiccity hauntedby pastsins.Whilevivid in thecontemporary heSixthSense,one mightalsorecall the voice-over first lines of The YoungPhiladel-phians: A man's life, they say, is the sum of all his ac-tions. But the actions are sometimesthe results of thehopes,dreams,anddesiresof thosewho came beforehim.In thatsense,my life beganeven beforeI was born....


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106 AMERICANNTHROPOLOGIST VOL. 103, NO. 1 * MARCH 001Thisforeshadows he web of impotence, llegitimacy,andconcealment nraveledater n the movie.Yetmemoryandcorruption reequally present n TerryGilliam'sadapta-tion of La Jeteeto a Philadelphiaetting or TwelveMon-keysandMarnie-a mythictheme thatraises hequestionof cinema as the creatorof moral as well as visual land-scapes.While one may argue ora Hollywood-createdmythofthecity,as distinct romcosmopolitanNew York,politicalWashington,or the decadenceof the South (McDonoghand Wong 1993), others choose Philadelphia or othermorepragmatic easons.The SixthSense's writer-directorM. NightShyamalan,orexample,wasbor and raised ntheMainLine,and onenewspaper eports:

The suburban hiladelphiaCatholicschoolhe attended-andits groomed awnsand historicstonebuildings-was the siteof his second movie. The downtown train station that hewalks throughregularlyon the way to New Yorkwill be acentralpartof his upcomingfilm. And a little knownSouthPhiladelphiatreetshowcasingthe close proximityof neigh-borhoodrowhousesopenshis currentblockbuster,The SixthSense.I live here, my experiencescome fromhere, so I makemovies that are set here, said M. Night Shyamalan,whojokes abouthis obsession forfilmingin Philadelphia. Iwasin talks o write'Planetof theApes' the remake or Fox and Iwas like, 'How can I place this in Philadelphia?' [Brown1999]To the world outside of Philadelphia,he settingseldomhas the prominence hatlocal readersaccord t, as is evi-dentin the lack of analysisby film critics. Forexample,whenreviewingThe SixthSense,critics mentionedPhila-delphiain passing or neglect it altogether.Anotherre-viewer in TucsonplacedTwo Bits in Chicago.OutsideoftheUnitedStates, ess criticalreadersdentify hecitywithAmerica,withoutseekinglocal or nationaldistinctions,nthe sameway Hong Kongfilms becomeChineseor Asiandespitetheirpreponderantrban ndustry ndlocal flavor(Fore1996;Wong 1999b).These issues of themes, whethercomplimentaryornegative,used orrejectedn thecity,illuminate not nsig-nificant ssueof what t meansfor citizensand officialstodealwithmass mage. nHongKong, hisemerges hroughconjunctionof sharedculture, sharedexperiences,andsharedresources n filmmakingrather hanthroughanygovernmentntervention.nPhiladelphia, ithout he samelocalizationof production, inance,and significantaudi-ence, otherquestionsemerge.The local film office doesnot havetheresources o sell aparticular mageof thecity;instead,it works to attract ilmmakersby the ease withwhichtheymaywork aroundpermits,police,settings,etc.The only reticence he office noted, n fact,involvedpor-trayalsof the police, who have hada controversial rbanhistoryandseriouslynegativemass mediaportrayals,ic-tionalandnonfictional. ocal ilmmakersikeShyamalanor

WoodyAllen n New YorkorBarryLevinson nBaltimore)createauteurs'visions of cities andmay attractoyal fanbases as well. City officials and businessmenalso havebeen concernedwith magery, urninghecityitself into anoff-Broadwaystage for the 2000 RepublicanNationalConventionRoberts1997;Von Bergen1999).Ironically,one of the most effective controlson imagerymaybe thesheerweightof repetition nd intertext- one cannotsud-denlyre-present hiladelphia s a cityof sexual ntrigue rglobalespionagebecause hestagehasnotbeen set in pre-vious movies.Inthissense,cities and culture nteract vertime: the imageof Rockyhas a profoundmpacton boththefuture ityand uture ilms.Hence,a featurenthe Hol-land Sentinel (Michigan)melded public efforts towardchangeandpastmedia magery n theheadline Philadel-phiashedding Rocky's'hometown mage 1998).Here, hegemonicissues, both local and global, havetended to homogenize imageryand voice, whatever heimpactson the city. Yet Philadelphia emainsa complexandconflictivecitywhosediversityalsoeruptsnto metro-politanvisualculture.Localvoices and ocaldiversitygainlimitedscreenings hroughpublicevents like the Philadel-phia Film Festival,the InternationalHouse, and publictelevisionstations hathavenotonlyscreenedbutalsopro-duced films. Theseprovidevaried andilluminating om-mentary nafloatingworldof Hollywood magery.Public television stationWHYY's nostalgicvideo ofPhiladelphia'spast, Things that Aren't ThereAnymore(1993), andits sequel,for example,stress the lost monu-ments and experiencesof the city, from Connie MackBaseballStadium o downtownmovie palacesandnight-clubs. When used as fund-raisingtools, announcersstressed heimportance f thehistory hat hecityhadlost.In an ironicrecognition f demographic ecline, hey sug-gestedusingthevideosasgiftsforPhiladelphians ho hadmovedelsewhere o that heycould relive theirpast n thecity. This evokes intriguing ntersectionswith issues ofmemorythathauntsome Hollywoodproductions n thecity.PhiladelphiaDiaries (1999), anotherWHYY produc-tion,recast ome of the termsandgeography f Hollywoodimagery by focusingon racially charged ssues in NorthandWestPhiladelphia.tdrew on cityscapesand commu-nity efforts like the extensive mural program hat hasemergedespecially n blightedneighborhoods.nadditionto broadcastinkages, hisproduction lsoincorporatednInteret production iary hatreadsas a chronicleof inter-actionwith thecityoverthe weeks of production.Other documentaryproductionshave taken polemicstanceson urbanssues.FrederickWiseman'sHighSchoolpointedout theproblemsof NorthEastPhiladelphiaHighSchool.4Squatters:The OtherPhiladelphiaStory(1980)(whosetitleclearlyrefersback to a class icon of Holly-wood Philadelphia)hronicled he effortsof ACORN toreclaimabandoned ousing,while theKensingtonWelfare


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RightsUnion has alsoproduced feature-lengthocumen-tary on the housing struggle,Poverty Outlaw (1998),whichbringsvoices of women fromKensington aught npostindustrialwelfare to the screen.While some produc-tions illuminate ometimeswryvisionsof thecity, likethe2000 GayBingo,othersarecaughtupin ongoing ssues ofrace, class, and conflict. Bombing on Osage Avenue(1986), for example,dealt with a controversial ity attackon the radicalactivistgroupMOVE,which continues ohaverepercussionsn boththeneighborhoodndthecity.The last film, producedby Toni Cade BambaraandLouisMassiah,alsospurred nongoingproject o promotecommunityactivismthroughvideo thatre-poses ssuesofurban imaginationand control. Scribe Video Center,foundedn 1982,has actedas aclearinghouseorvideogra-phersand filmmakers ngagedin variousurbanprojects,frompersonal tudies o documentation f changingstreetlife. Among theirinterests, he CommunityVisions Pro-ject, initiated n 1990,has soughtto train ocal groups ouse videos aspartof theirorganization.cribeprovidesad-vice andtrainingn scripting, amera,andeditingas wellas professional acilitatorswho work with organizationalteams.Finally,Scribeschedules he work'spremiere tthe(local) InternationalHouse;manyfilms are also screenedon localpublictelevision.Subjectmatter, orm,anddistri-bution/use rechosenby thegroup tself.Thisproject,nowresponsibleor 36 films,hasproduceda widevarietyof workswithin ts definitionof underservedcommunities.These includemany works based in Ken-singtonandworkingwith ocalcommunity roups, uchasKensingtonAction Now's WeHope theMessage is Get-ting Through(1991). Othergroups and videos includeCommunityMentalHealth,MentalRetardation ervices'Weare All in ThisTogether 1993);We thePeople'sNewFaces of AIDS (1994), and the Anna Crusis Women'sChoir's WhenSpeechFlows to Music(1995).Theformofthe videos includespolemic pieces as well as those byyoungeractivists hatoftenecho musicvideos.Distribution nduse, as Wonghasfound(1997),repre-sent the most variable eaturesof suchgrassrootsvideos.Some are used in trainingand fund-raising,with activecommentaryfrom organizational epresentatives.Somehave been sharedwithmembersbuthavehad littlemoredissemination.Some wereabandoned ecause of changesin program,nternal onflicts,or disappearancef the or-ganization tself. Few organizationshave repeated heirproductions, iventheeffortscatalyzedby the initialvideoandturnover f interested ssociates,amongotherreasons.A closerreading f onesuchvideo,Faceto Face:It's NotWhatYouThink 1997),on whichWongworkedas facili-tator,ndicates heprocessesby whichurban isualcultureis createdandsharedat thegrassrootsevel.This videowascreated by ten youths working with Asian AmericansUnited. It focuses on their experiencesand anti-Asian

prejudice n the city and ends poignantlywith personalrecognitionsof familyand a dedication o one videogra-pher'ssister,who was killed in a video storeincident nSouthPhiladelphiawhile the videowasbeingmade.When making Face to Face, the problemof AsianAmericanrepresentation5as discussed at lengthby theeightCambodianAmericansand two ChineseAmericanswho constituted he core groupas well as their KoreanAmerican ndChineseadvisors.Yet,whilethe work s al-ternative,both in formandcontent,the producers hem-selves were not die-hard ommunity/mediactivists.Theyouthsgot together orthe videoprimarilyo finda chan-nel to express heirconcerns.Theywere alsoconsumers fmainstreamAmericanmediaculture,with someexceptionvia programmingrom their nativecountriesas well asHong Kong.Hence, while these producerswere transna-tionals,their medialiteracywas derivedmainlyfromthehegemonicdiscourse.This explainsthe moreMTV styleseen at the tape's openingand laterparodickung-fuse-quences,as well as theyouths' amiliaritywithHollywoodmovies ikeSixteenCandles 1984).Thesevideographersut manyof theirconcernson thetape-schools, stereotypes, angs,ethnic dentities.How-ever,theyalso omitted hemescentral o their ocieties andcultures, uch as families andgenerationalonflicts.Dur-ingthefour o five monthswhen theyouthsmeteverySat-urdayatAsianAmericanUnited o discussthetape, manywereconcernedwiththeirrelationshipswiththeirparents.They would say thattheirparentsstill think thatthis isCambodia,ather hanAmerica.Theywereexpected o begoodchildren,who do well in schools,dressappropriately,and stayhome at the righttime. This subjectwas neverbroughtup on tape,however,becausethe youthsdo notwant to offendtheirparents.Furthermore,heyknowthatthey wantto makea tape reachingnon-Asians, he mainmessageof whichshouldbe theproblemof racism hatallshared ather hanpointsof difference thehome).As producers, hough, neither these kids nor AAUthought learlyaboutaudience.Yetthe video hasreceivedrelativelywidedistribution ndreaction. t has beenshownin different chools andfestivalsand s nowdistributed yNationalAsianAmericanTelecommunicationssociation(NAATA).Generally, t was well receivedby educatorsandfellowAsianAmericans,whohaveexpressed ommu-nitythrough ommentsat theQ & A sessions.Others,es-peciallywhite Americans,are simplynot aware of anti-Asian racism and find the tape educational.However,AfricanAmericanaudiences, speciallyyouths,havebeendivided: omehavenotedshared tylesuniting hemto themodelminority, while othershave been criticalof thefilmbecauseof thecomplexurban acialrelations etweenthe twogroups tdepicts.The video is powerful n its own reflectionson mediaand identity.Yet as both agents and texts, process and


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108 AMERICANNTHROPOLOGIST VOL. 103, NO. 1 * MARCH 001

productcreate and re-createAsianAmerican dentitiesasglobal consumers n urbancontexts.They incorporaterangeof influencesandexperiencesof Americansocietyand cultureto be readdifferentlyby subsequentgroups.Face to Face is a powerfulas well as an intriguing tate-ment to be readin manyways-personal, ethnic, urban,and even global,based n thedividedcitizenshipof Phila-delphia.These linkagesof product,production, nd audience nnarrowcastmass mediaandtheirechoesin otherprocessesof limited screening n Philadelphia aise very differentquestionsabouturban isualculture, ontrol,anduse of thecity.IntheCommunityVisionsProject, lass andethnicityare not metaphors rkey scenarios,butgroundsof strug-gle. Memories and injusticemay still be haunting,butthese are not motifs in a plot but causes to be righted.Moreover, ince audiences ftenknowproducers ndsharetheirurbanmilieu,textsbecomeinterwovenwith thepro-ductionandreproductionf urban ommunity ndconflict.Morethan culturalproximity, hen,we deal with culturalproduction,withina frameworkhatrecognizes hestyles,themes,andeven prejudicesof mass mediadepictionsofthecity andgrowsfromthatknowledge n newvisual me-dia andculturalnterpretations.

ConclusionsOvertwo decadesago,IanJarviecalled our attention omanyfacetsof film andmass media as experiences n or-derto opena windowon thecomplexworldof HongKong:We tendtotake he mundane inema orgranted;t is the eastglamourouspartof the film industry.Yet it is the heartof ittoo. Productionwouldceasealtogether ndthecinemasof theworld could go on forevershowingandre-showingthe im-mense accumulation f old movies-as happened n Russiaafter he 1917revolution nd nHong Kongafter heJapaneseconquest.... Hong Kong's cinemas are not as exotic orquirkyas those of some lands,despitesnacks of driedbeef,melon seeds, soybeanmilk, babies in slings on backs. TheChinesedo not,as theJapanesedo, hiss in quiet appreciationof stronglyeroticscenes;theydo nottreat he auditorium s asocializingextensionof their ivingroom,as in Israel; heydonotgo in for the loudput-down emark n a tensemoment,asin theEnglishspeakingworld; heydo nottreat he cinemaasa cultural vent,as in France; heydo try,like theBritish, osit apartfrom strangers.Still, the cinemas and what theyshow-as also whattheydo notshow-are a vitalpartof so-cial life. [1978:71]

By respondingto his challenge and comparingHongKong's urbanvisual experienceswith those of anothercity, albeitone linkedthroughHong Kong transnational-ism, we have also soughtto recapturehese vitalpartsofsocial life, as tools and insightsandeven shapersof thecity.The examinationf film within hevisualculture f twocontemporaryities only allowsus to sketch some of theimplicationsf moresystematic tudy,usinganthropological

tools of ethnographicobservation, deological analysis,and theories of spaceandplace, throughwhich we mayfurther illuminate modem/postmoder cities and theirtransformations.n so doing,we wish to underscore inksbetweenthe shapeandexperienceof cities andthe mean-ingsthat heircitizensreadoff screens ntotheirown lives.At the sametime,we mustremainopento creativewaysin which these readingscan reshape ocal identitiesandmeanings,whetherwith broadcast rnarrowcastilms. InlateNovember2000,forexample,aneditorialn thePhila-delphia Weeklychallengedan Inquirercritic who, re-sponding o M. Night Shyamalan'sUnbreakable2000),haddecried hegrimportrayalf thecity thatseems to runthroughPhiladelphiailms. Instead, he editorialproudlyproclaimed:We're not a city predisposed o brightnessand affirmation.Attemptso feignthatwe are,particularlyorthesake of com-merce, ailmiserably.

Insteadwe area city filled withmysteryandmagic;a citywhere the unexplainedand the inexplicable ind safe haven,where storytellerswith refined acumen-like EdgarAllenPoe andM. Night Shyamalan-can sense the secrecyin ourmoods andcreate toriesbuiltaround ur wonder.Look around.Youcan see it. You can feel it.We shouldfeel proudwhena camera atches t. [Whitaker2000]Thoseof us who work ncities around he worldall havewitnessed intense mass-mediatedransformationn ourlives or in the field-if not in movies,in television or theInternet.Often, however, we take visual cultureas the

framework oreverydaychangesandnormality. nthe fu-ture,urbananthropologymust recognizemore not onlymass mediabuturban isualexpression,distribution,pec-tatorship,ndactivereadings s vitalandpowerful ompo-nentsof urban ife. Withthesetools,then,we canincreaseandenrichourunderstandingsf contemporaryities,theircitizens,and heirdestinies.Notes

Acknowledgments.This paperis based on researchfundedby the Councilfor the International xchangeof ScholarsFul-brightProgram, he Universityof Pennsylvania, he City Uni-versityof New York,andBrynMawrCollege.We would alsolike to acknowledge hecolleaguesand studentswho have dis-cussed these ideas with us, includingpresentationsof partsofthepaperat the Society for CinemaStudies,the UniversityofTarragona, he American AnthropologicalAssociation, andthe Bryn Mawr College Visual CultureColloquium Series.Special thanks go to friends in productionand criticism inHong Kong and to Louis Massiah,HebertPeck, and ScribeVideo, and to SethaLow as ourorganizerand editor.1. A more detailed accountof these ethnographicdata onHong Kong and their implicationswill appear n Wong andMcDonogh (in press); Wong (1997, 1999a) provides a moredetaileddiscussionof ScribeVideo.


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WONG AND MCDONOGH / THE MEDIATEDMETROPOLIS 1092. While these studies are situatedprimarilywithin film,others have also worked in television, photography,advertis-ing, and the Internet but are too numerous to review here.Dickey (1997) offersanexcellent review.3. We are leaving aside some issues of continuingtelevi-sion portrayals,which include a more middle-class vision( thirtysomething, BC 1987-1991), an attemptat grittyur-

banrealismand thepromiseof Bochco's new work.Othercit-ies have developed strong televisual images-Chicago andhospitaldramas,Providenceandmelodrama NBC 1999-pre-sent), or Baltimoreandcrime shows like Homicide:Life onthe Street NBC 1993-1999), yet this remainsa distinct andcomplicatedissue. In Philadelphia,such portraitsshould becontrastedwith the role of public and independentstations,below.4. This film, like otherWisemanworks,has had complexlocal repercussions; or legal reasons, it remainsunavailableforpurchaseorexhibition n theGreaterPhiladelphia egion.5. The presentAsian Americanpopulationin the UnitedStates andPhiladelphiahasbeenshapedby the 1965immigra-tion act in which nationalquotaswereeliminated,afterwhichfamily chain migrationbecame easier. This contributed o adramatic ncrease of this populationand a wider non-Asianawareness of them. Still, these Asians came from differentpartsof Asia, at differentperiods,and can be enemies of an-othergroupin their home countries,like the Vietnameseandthe Cambodians.Even within the same ethnic group,for ex-ample,a recentHong Kong immigrant ike Wong is verydif-ferent fromthepeoplewhojumpedoff theGoldenVoyagerora third-generationChinese AmericanRepublicanaccountantin terms of class, history,religion, language, and region. Inreadingthe film, we must see this as a strategic abel, on theone hand,imposedby mainstreamAmerica,while simultane-ously manipulatedby people who considerthemselvesAsianin America. Very often, this category includes most non-white, non-black, non-Latino, non-Native American, and,sometimes, non-Arabs or non-SouthAsians. Relations withAfricanAmericansareespeciallycritical n thisfilm.References Cited

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