Transmedia Sai-lou: The evolution of Hong Kong’s core values through comics, film and street protests

Abstract

In this article, I investigate the evolution of the core values of the Hong Kong people through the term Sai-lou 細路, by means of storytelling in a transmedia context and with a focus on different historical stages, from approximately the end of the Second World War to the 2014 Umbrella Movement. Using the late 1930s four-panel comic strip, Sai-lou Cheung 細路祥 (Kiddy Cheung) created by Yuan Bou-wan 袁步雲 (1922–95) as the origin work for the term, this study examines the core values reflected in the 1950s film Sai-lou Cheung細路祥 (The Kid or My Son A-Chang) starring 9-year-old Bruce Lee, the 1999 film Sai-lou Cheung 細路祥 (Little Cheung) directed by Fruit Chan as well as news reports of the 2014 sit-in street protests whose student leaders the public regarded as Sai-lou 細路 (‘kids’).