Archive drive of the unprivileged against the privileged: Ten years and alternative archive
Article
The post-Umbrella Hong Kong is a site where the unprivileged memories are faced with a systematic eradication against the privileged and dominant memories of mainland China. A strong ‘archive drive’ exists in the scene which makes the memories of Hong Kong struggle to preserve themselves in defense to their obliteration. For memories to become archived, or an archive, they should go through two consecutive steps. First, they need to acquire a physical space where they can be preserved. Second, they need to be given a law, order, or way of interpretation and enunciation. While the privileged memories unquestioningly undergo the process, those of the unprivileged confront difficulties in both steps. By looking into the post-Umbrella Hong Kong’s omnibus film Ten Years, this essay will examine the archival struggle of Hong Kong memories where they show emotional anxiety and frustration, but also seek for an alternative way to become an actual archive.
At Home in Public: Intimacy and Belonging among Filipina and Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong in Ani Ema Susanti’s Effort for Love (2008) and Moira Zoitl’s Exchange Square (2007)
Article
This article discusses how Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong claim and transform transnational sites as portrayed in Ani Ema Susanti’s 2008 short documentary film Mengusahakan Cinta [Effort for Love] and Moira Zoitl’s documentary video series Exchange Square (2007). The films depict how Indonesian and Filipina domestic workers negotiate precarious working and living conditions by deploying forms of intimacy, through their social practices and alternative sexualities, that enable them to gain agency in finding their own community and sense of belonging. This article argues that while their relationship to both private and public spaces in Hong Kong is transformed, these migrant women also actively transgress the borders of private and public spheres and personal and political realms.
