TRANSNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS, LOCAL COMPETITIVENESS: MAPPING THE GEOGRAPHIES OF FILMMAKING IN/THROUGH HONG KONG

ABSTRACT. Through the Global Production Networks (GPN) analytical lens, this paper shows how politico-economic developments in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia are instrumental in developing Hong Kong as a premier filmmaking centre, and how Hong Kong-based filmmakers have to weave new cross-scalar production networks and target new markets so as to remain competitive. The broader objective of the paper is to contribute to extant debates on urban-based, cluster-driven policies by showing how cities, in developing their industrial capacities, need not necessarily be in competition with other places at different geographical scales. Rather, as the empirical materials evince, cities should collaborate to compete. Apart from the presentation of available historical and statistical materials, the discussion is informed by twenty-seven in-depth interviews with Hong Kong-based film workers, government agency executives and film industrial association heads, as well as an interview with a Singapore-based film producer with ongoing production linkages with Hong Kong-based film production companies.