LANA LAMlana.lam@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 26 July, 2015, 4:39am
UPDATED : Sunday, 26 July, 2015, 8:34am
Most will agree that Hong Kong is a financial and transport hub. But is there any truth to the idea that Hong Kong is at the centre of arts, culture, innovation, regional education and start-ups? Photo: Vincent Yu
It's the buzzword our bureaucrats and politicians love. Hong Kong's claim to be a hub for more than 40 sectors, industries and activities - from Islamic finance to shopping - means it could almost be the world's hub for hubs.
But what is the city getting out of this hub hullabaloo?
Language experts say the trend to label cities "hubs" can give a metropolis an air of "globalisation" and can make something "more true". But they also warn that chronic overuse of the term risks diminishing its value.
Professor Adam Jaworski, a University of Hong Kong professor of language and communications, says hub is often now used as a synonym or replacement for "centre" and may be intended to define cities as "global".
"Many cities in the world are now competing for investment or more tourists so creating the imagery of a city as 'global' may be quite desirable," he said.
Most will agree that Hong Kong is a financial and transport hub. Throw in logistics, luxury brands and banking, thanks to our ports, love of high-end fashion and the pursuit of money.
But is there any truth to the idea that Hong Kong is at the centre of arts, culture, innovation, regional education and start-ups?
Then there are the less desirable areas for which Hong Kong has been labelled a hub: drug trafficking, money laundering and ivory smuggling.
The Tourism Board's website spouts more than a handful of "hub" claims: Asia's cruise hub, aviation hub, its history as a manufacturing hub, creative industries hub, entertainment hub, financial hub and even an after-dark shopping hub.
The board says this is all about widening its appeal.
"For example, while Chinese cuisine holds strong appeal to Japanese visitors, visitors from Taiwan may find a greater interest in Hong Kong's arts and local culture," a spokeswoman said.
The government has also played its part. Rarely does a chief executive's policy address pass without at least one hub being touted. For example in 2007, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen touted the city as a centre for Sharia-compliant bonds for Muslims.
But dubbing a place a "hub" can also give rise to misleading expectations, says Dr Andrew MacFarlane, a lecturer in linguistic science at York University in England.
"It would be reasonable to suggest that by increasing the use of the term, this 'meme' spreads and enters casual conversation and media discourse. Once it becomes widespread enough, it takes on a certain reality," he said.
And when something is easy to remember, people often mistake it for something important and believe it to be true "even if this effect was only achieved through linguistic frequency".
However the same process applies for negative tags like "money-laundering hub".
MacFarlane, who spent a year teaching English in Fanling, said while Hong Kong could lay claim to being at the centre of key industries such as finance, other titles such as arts hub and creative hub were questionable.
Dr Andrew Sewell of Lingnan University's English department said adopting the term was also about competition.
"It implies an attempt to out-do other perceived 'centres', such as Shanghai and Singapore," he said. "The problem is that overusing the term risks making it meaningless."
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1843740/how-hong-kong-became-hub-hubs
