Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates anthropologically the social process in the spread of Japanese popular-cum-cultural products in Hong Kong. Creativity is defined by the historical effects, which depend on the reciprocal mediation between the Japanese popular cultural products and the Hong Kong society.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is an anthropological attempt to understand the nature of creativity through the investigation of the spread of different Japanese cultural products into postwar Hong Kong including TV dramas, popular music, food, and pornography. We will show each of these Japanese popular-cum-cultural products has different historical effects, which is contingent on the reciprocal mediations between the Japanese popular cultural product and the Hong Kong society. We argue that the major methodological focus should be put on the dynamics of the reciprocal mediations which involve the producer/exporter on the Japan side, the importer/promoter and consumer on the Hong Kong side, and their complex negotiation. For in the complicated negotiation, the Japanese cultural products are not only reproduced but also creatively produced and more importantly the property and character of their historical effect are specified. This speaks to the fact that creative process is always simultaneously a forward-looking and a retrospective process; it also highlights the fact that the mode of creativity is dependent on the dynamics of the reciprocal mediations. Through such theoretical framework and its associated methodological focus we are able to explain why in some occasion particular individuals are considered as big creators and why in other occasion certain collectivities such as social groups, companies, or even the Hong Kong society or culture as the creator. We can also account for why creativity is relative to the context in which creative processes occur as well as why the result of any creative process is not predictable.