Abstract :
This article is a case study of state–society–capital conflicts
over the preservation of the Central Police Station (CPS) compound in
Hong Kong during 2003–08. The conflict was between two fundamentally
different approaches to urban space: a cultural economy approach that
took culture and space as a source of economic profit, and an opposition discourse
of preservation that emphasized cultural, historical and humanistic
values as an end. The struggle turned out to be a moderate success for
anti-commercialism. Drawing on and extending the notions of collective
memory and spatial politics, this article examines how the various civil
society actors, in their struggle against commercialism, sought to define
and enhance the cultural value of the site through a variety of discourses
and practices relating to history and space. It addresses the specific question
of why and how certain constructions of collective memory succeed (or fail)
to work with certain places in particular instances. The study shows that
memories of the CPS compound contained both state-associated and
people-associated accounts, between which the former prevailed. The
state-associated account was embedded in a familiar, hegemonic story
about Hong Kong, which, via an abstract process of symbolization around
the notion of the rule of law, successfully turned the compound into an iconic
symbol of identification for the city. Beyond this, the civil society actors
