The girl in contemporary Hong Kong

• Main Author: Kam, Chui Ping Iris
• Published: Cardiff University 2010
• Subjects: 305
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.584822

The twin aim of this thesis is to (1) enlarge the field of girl studies at a conceptual level, to as to include the non-western girl, and (2) to develop a detailed case history of the girl in Hong Kong.  In order to identify what is distinctive about the everyday life of these girls I focus on three areas of experience – sex education in secondary school, made-for-teens romance films and teenage lifestyle magazines.  Particularly, I highlight how the questions of ethnicity, tradition and religion play a greater part in the everyday life of girls in Hong Kong than they do in the life of the girls considered by Driscoll's study.  It is the major claim of this thesis that girl studies as it is presently practised is western-centric and its outlook needs to be broadened to include the non-western world.  The significance of this thesis lies in the findings of the various form of heterosexuality in different social fields, which provides different space for girls to live in the present.  However, this thesis also finds out that the argument of the non-correlation between the female body and the constitution of femininity is not sufficient to the conception of girlhood.  This is because, as this thesis has indicated, the concept of Hong Kong girls cannot get rid of the shadow of the theories of modern subjectivity, in which the construction of the girl is in opposition to, or defined otherwise than, the mature, independent woman. In a long run, it is important to strengthen the power of 'becoming' in the construction of the concept of the girl in gender studies and cultural studies.