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The video interprets the libraries of Hong Kong University as a microcosm of the fusion of cultures ...

The video interprets the libraries of Hong Kong University as a microcosm of the fusion of cultures in modernity and of the world (especially of Hong Kong) itself. It begins by visually and geographically locating Hong Kong (and by extension the libraries of Hong Kong) in the world across vavious epochs using images of maps and globes found within the Main Library. This is meant to evoke the historicity of the University and the Libraries' integral importance to it, as well as serving to promote a general sense of the history of Hong Kong as the child of an awkwardly arranged marriage of 19th century British global imperialism wedded with reticent local Chinese culture that eventually blossomed into the beautiful and distinct flower we enjoy today (Hong Kong's flag symbol is of a flower originally found here after all).

The score that I composed for the video delves into this theme further with synchronized elements of "Classical" and Chinese musical compositions, and concludes with the fast pace and syncopated rhythm of transcultural modern music with matching sped-up visuals of typical scenes found in and around the Main Library. Thus the chronology of the film is dialectical, as is Hong Kong, and the library itself: it incorporates the dualisms of East and West, Chinese and non-Chinese, past and present, ancient and modern, in an attempt to transcend them and conclude that those are ultimately limited conceptual categories. In that sense, it is an exploration of the unqiue hybridized identity found here.

The video and soundtrack of this short piece plays with the irony of students from all over the world travelling to the Libraries of Hong Kong University to turn around and explore it, albeit academically. Of course, the film also advertises the many "treasures and services" offered by the Libraries as highlighted in various captions throughout.