Graffiti in Hong Kong: An Intertextual Reinterpretation of Hong Kong

A city walk can function as a direct analysis of Hong Kong's intertextuality. Through

the physical process of navigating the urban landscape, the act of walking evolves into

a form of interaction with the city. This embodied experience allows for a gradual

immersion into the city's atmosphere. My organized walk through Central and Sheung

Wan used the theme of graffiti to explore this complex relationship between the art and

the city. Graffiti writes upon Hong Kong, and the city becomes the larger text that

contains these writings. As Worton and Still note, the idea of the text as a structure

marked by otherness and repetition, shows that each graffiti piece carries many voices.

These include local political feelings, global street art styles, and the mix of English

and Chinese script. None of them are purely original because they repeat and transform.

existing signs.

Through the voices of graffiti, which contain the global visual codes, Hong Kong can

be read as an urban text where meaning is produced through repeated external forms

and differences. The exterior of the text is not a fixed reality but a living system (47).

The elements of the city assemble organically and interact with one another. Graffiti

engages with the urban text of Hong Kong as words, exposing and restoring what

remains unseen in the city’s narrative. Each graffiti mark interprets and redefines

Hong Kong’s identity. Every social and cultural form, including graffiti, operates as a

semiotic act that produces meaning.

Following Derrida’s notion of the general text (48), the city and its graffiti belong to a

single, continuous field of signification. Graffiti does not function as an isolated

linguistic element but as a living urban text. Through the act of writing graffiti, the

meanings embedded in Hong Kong’s context are reinterpreted, revealing new insights

into HK’s social life. As Derrida suggests, no text exists in isolation, and each is

connected to other texts within an ever-shifting network of relations. In the

poststructuralist view, context itself is dynamic, defined by fluid and interdependent

relations rather than fixed boundaries. Graffiti, therefore, should be read not as an

independent sign but as a social representation that redefines the meanings of the city.

By rearticulating Hong Kong’s context, graffiti textualizes urban life and interweaves

its meanings through new spatial interpretation, thereby continuously redefining the

urban experience.

Work cited:

Worton, Michael, and Judith Still, eds. Intertextuality: Theories and practices.

Manchester University Press, 1990.