In recent months, I' ve occasionally
been asked by perplexed first-year university students about the Hong Kong Anthropological
Society' s lectures: "Is Cantonese pop music anthropology?" "Is language policy
in Hong Kong today anthropology?" Are the ways in which shopkeepers in Tsim
Sha Tsui cheat customers anthropology?" Their confusion is mirrored in the general
public, which tends to see anthropology as a matter of studying bones and traditions.
In fact, all of the above topics
are anthropology. In the past, anthropology was indeed primarily the study of
traditional ways of life, in the Hong Kong context, Hakka villages, New Territories
lineage halls, and old customs still surviving in rural pockets where Hong Kong'
s skyscrapers and superhighways hadn' t yet reached. Such study continues to
be a part of anthropology; but anthropologists have come to realize that to
accurately understand culture, we must focus not only on the old, but also on
the new; not only on tradition, but also on modernity. In today's Hong Kong,
Big Macs are just as authentic a part of Hong Kong culture as pun choi; Shanghai
Tang is just as integral a part of Hong Kong culture as the street hawkers'
dai pai dong; Cantopop is just as authentic a part of Hong Kong culture as Cantonese
opera; the bankers in Central and shopkeepers in Tsim Sha Tsui are just as important
in understanding Hong Kong culture as the fortune tellers on Temple Street.
Anthropology is the study of culture: not just the culture of exotic others,
but the culture of us all.
Many of us find this shift in anthropology'
s focus to be deeply exciting, for it makes anthropology directly relevant to
the world that most human beings today actually live in. How in today' s complex,
mass-mediated world, do human beings culturally comprehend their lives? The
Hong Kong Anthropological Society will continue to try to bring you some of
the exciting new developments in anthropology today and tomorrow; we look forward
to your continuing support in this endeavor.
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