Workshop: SSPMKC in Hong Kong

The workshop is led by a group of experts in urban planning, architecture, sociology, and educators in forms of lectures, discussion, fieldwork, tutorial, and problem solving exercises.

THE WORKSHOP is designed for a group of high school students.
The five-day training provides an opportunity to:
1) develop a better understanding of their comminity;
2) identify issues in the social and built envrionment;
3) exercise the learned materials to come up with a plan to resolve the issues.

SPEAKERS / TUTORS
Lisa Cheng, M.A., MHKIP, RPP
Regional and Community Planning, University of British Columbia, Canada
Raymond Lau, AADip., RIBA
Architectural Association, London, UK Chartered Architect, Royal Institute of British Architects Founding Director, GAP Architects Co-founder, 4C5M Studio
Ho Hon Leung, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, Chair for Center for Social Science Research, SUNY College at Oneonta, USA Co-founder, 4C5M Studio
Henri Tung, Ph.D.
Visiting Lecturer (part-time), School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic Univers




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The Pacific Mall in Markham, a major city next to Toronto, Canada, raises a very intriguing question.  Under what circumstances has the mall become an ethnic icon that signifies the “Chinese mall” in Canada, possibly in North America?  An analysis of the intertwining relation between ethnic identity and architecture sheds light on the (re)construction and (re)interpretation of “Chineseness” in the mall.  The naming of the corridors, and the unusual small size of the shops on first floor, and the design of the Heritage Town on the second floor evoke nostalgic emotion of Hong Kong, an essentialist sentiment to many Hong Kong immigrants and stereotypical images to many non-Chinese and Chinese alike.

Leung, Ho Hon and Raymond Lau.  (2009) “Making of Pacific Mall: Chinese Identity through Architecture in Canada.” in Imagining Globalization: Language, Identities, and Boundaries, edited by Ho Hon Leung et alNew York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

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