In Spring 2025, I took Hong Kong Cinema. In order to enroll, we had to interview with the professor. There were over 30+ people who applied for our 12 student-class which made me even grateful when I got accepted. Not only did we learn about Hong Kong’s culture and watch a numerous amount films, we also got the opportunity to go on a 10-day faculty led trip to Hong Kong to put the content we learned in class into context.

For some background, Hong Kong has been a Special Administration Region (SAR) of China since 1997. Before then they maintained more separation from China. The class started with the history of Hong Kong and its cinema, focusing on the influence of the Chinese government and its language of Mandarin (Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong). We watched about 25 films in the 6 weeks before traveling to Hong Kong.

The immersion part of the class was extremely formative in my experience understanding HK Cinema and where it is heading in the future since there has a been a gap in popular HK Cinema. HK films were global in the 80s, inspiring American directors like Tarantino, but they have just recently started to find footing again in a new age of filmmakers. We were able to speak personally with both older and younger directors and understand their perspective on why Hong Kong cinema has this “gap”.

I decided to take the class because of my love and interest in different cultures. The summer before this class I had an internship with a Korean company called Bound Entertainment and was able to learn how important culture and geography is in what is or isn’t marketable in a country. I am glad I got to expand my cultural knowledge even more through this class.  This comes through in my own writing, as I take in a  global perspectives.

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