From metro to metropolis : production and reproduction of urban spaces in Hong Kong by the MTR

by Yeung, Yuk-sing; ??{223768}, null

(Uncorrected OCR) Abstract of thesis entitled

From Metro to Metropolis:

Production and Reproduction of Urban Spaces in Hong Kong by the MTR

submitted by

YEUNG YUK SING WILSON

for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong

in April 2004

This thesis claims the MTR system as an important "architecture of movement" in the establishment of the Hong Kong metropolis. It examines the space of the MTR in Hong Kong from the viewpoint of Henry Lefebvre's "production of space." It aims to elucidate the social interactions among the MTR space, the city's urban spaces and city dwellers of the metropolis after the construction and operation of the MTR system since 1979. The central argument of this thesis is that we shape our MTR and our MTR shapes us; consequently, we share our MTR to shape the metropolitan space of Hong Kong.

The thesis argues, first of all, that the MTR space is a distorted "reproduced space" based on the original urban space of the city. The MTR, initially a representation of the original metropolis, has transformed itself into a real empire-the "metropolis." The MTR space overlaps, interferes with, and even threatens the original metropolis of Hong Kong. The first spatial realm, the representations of space and the second, the spaces of representation of the MTR are illustrated by ten spatial images of the MTR system: (1) Mass Transit System; (2) infrastructure project; (3) network of streets; (4) longitudinal building structure; (5) layering structure; (6) caves, holes, underground passages and burrows; (7) labyrinth, maze and rhizome; (8) historical time line and historical record; (9) map; and (10) hourglass and reverse motion of a film. The third spatial realm, spatial practice, is finally analysed in terms of Lefebvre's "rhythmanalysis", and it is argued that city dwellers are able to transform the confined MTR space into their own living spaces through tactical spatial performance to live out the "appropriate time" within the space. (280 words)