Keywords

1 Introduction

This chapter aims to examine the role of nostalgia in the development of potential film tourism products and activities in Hong Kong, particularly those that target Korean audiences that enjoyed Hong Kong films produced from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The results presented in this chapter are partially derived from a larger film tourism research project investigating the structural relationships between key concepts in film tourism, including nostalgia, cultural proximity, and involvement. The chapter primarily focuses on the results of nostalgia for about Hong Kong films among prospective Korean film tourists and the related film tourism products and activities. The results are presented in three main sections: (1) characteristics of the samples, (2) nostalgia about Hong Kong films among Korean audiences, and (3) support for Hong Kong film tourism product development and preferred film tourism activities. Given that the data were derived from a very particular setting, namely, Korean fans of Hong Kong films made in the 1970s to the late 1990s, the chapter commences with an introduction of the research locale.

2 The Popularity of Hong Kong Films in Korea

Hong Kong films gained unrivalled popularity as the hub of the Asian film industry prior to the new millennium (Wong and McDonogh 2001). Many film audiences in Asia grew up watching Hong Kong action movies featuring martial arts, gangsters, and crime stories, with some exceptions such as romance or comedy movies (Pan and Ryan 2013). In particular, Bruce Lee became an iconic star of Hong Kong films through his famous collection of martial arts films, including The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972), Enter the Dragon (1973), and Game of Death (1978). Lee was a legend in Asia, especially among young male audiences at that time. In the following decades, many of these audience members maintained fond memories of Lee’s films, which they first saw at a time when other entertainment was very limited (Chosun Ilbo 2016). These audience members are now in their 40s or older, and for many of them, Bruce Lee’s films still trigger memories and nostalgia for a cherished past. Consequently, middle-aged people often visit the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, which exhibits Bruce Lee memorabilia. Likewise, Lee’s iconic statue on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong is a popular tourist destination, where middle-aged nostalgia-driven tourists go to reminisce about his films and re-live those poor but happy days, by re-enacting Lee’s actions and even taking photographs of their re-enactments.

Though Hong Kong movies were popular throughout Asia, they struck a particular chord with Korean audiences. During their heyday, Hong Kong films influenced the worlds of fashion, design, lifestyle, personal values, food preferences, and the entertainment industries in Korea (Lee 2006). Watching Hong Kong films in the theatre or on an analogue television set with video cassettes hired from video rental shops was considered an enjoyable pastime among the Korean youth. Video rental shops mushroomed in the 1980s up until the 1990s, and Hong Kong films were always in high demand.

Thus, the popularity of Hong Kong films in Korea at that time led to a kind of generational hype as social phenomenon (Chosun Ilbo 2016). The phenomenon even provided a vehicle for some Hong Kong movie stars to appear in commercial advertisements on Korean television. For example, Chow Yun-fat appeared in a soft drink commercial (1989), while Leslie Cheung was in a chocolate bar advertisement (1989). These commercials were immediately and immensely helpful in boosting product sales. Popular journalism highlighted that Korean fans of Hong Kong movies often mimicked the actions of Hong Kongese actors and actresses by performing martial arts, wearing sunglasses, smoking cigarettes, posing like gangsters, wearing the same make-up, and/or imitating scenes word for word (Kim 2015; Lee 2006).

3 Literature Review

According to Howard (2012), nostalgia is defined as a longing for the past or a fondness for possessions and activities associated with days gone by. It can elicit a variety of emotional and affective responses by reflecting things associated with the past. The concept of nostalgia has been explored in a variety of disciplinary areas including gerontology (Synnes 2015), pathology (Dey 2016), advertising (Zhao et al. 2014), anthropology (Berliner 2012), consumer behaviour (Holbrook 1993), and media studies (Zaatari 2015). It has also begun to be applied to the identification of motivational factors or experiences of senior tourism (Hsu et al. 2007; Sellicka 2004), heritage tourism (Bartoletti 2010; Leong et al. 2015; Yeh et al. 2012), and sports tourism (Gordon 2013).

Furthermore, nostalgia plays a crucial role in the transformation of an ordinary location into a symbolically special place that inscribes identity, ideology, power, myth, history, culture, symbolism, freedom, romanticism, and philosophy (Chen et al. 2014; Leong et al. 2015; Sellicka 2004). Similarly, the troika of nostalgia, film, and audiences has been documented well within the context of film tourism. When media audiences such as film or TV audiences visit film locations, their personal attachment with the locations can partially be understood as symbolic memory or nostalgia (Kim 2012a; Roesch 2009; Reijnders 2016). This is because they are continuously psychologically and emotionally involved in the plots and stories, actors, backdrops, songs, and scenic backgrounds while watching their beloved media programmes (Buchmann et al. 2010; Couldry 1998; Pan and Ryan 2013; Roesch 2009). Film narratives in particular contribute to positive evaluations of film locations where the landscape, as either the front or back stage of the film, is associated with positively perceived values such as nostalgia, happiness, freedom, and imagination (Reijnders 2016).

Thus, a film’s location forms a focal point as a prestigious performance stage upon which film tourists often re-enact or mimic their favourite scenes and narratives (Kim 2010; Reijnders 2016; Robinson 2015). They often become more sentimental when touching props, imitating the motions of actors, reciting actors’ lines, and singing songs from the original soundtrack when visiting film tourism destinations and waiting for cast members and film makers at fan meetings (Kim 2012a). These are characteristics of specific or purposeful film tourists (Kim 2012a; Macionis and Sparks 2009; Rittichainuwat and Rattanaphinanchai 2015). This emotional connection is linked to an interest in a “sense of place” or “place attachment” (Kim 2012b; Roesch 2009) or the identity of film locations (Couldry 1998). Likewise, film tourists are interested in experiencing locations from the perspective of the beloved character(s) (Buchmann et al. 2010; Reijnders 2016; Roesch 2009). As such, nostalgia plays a crucial role not only in stimulating perceived familiarity with film locations but also in motivating film tourists to visit locations and providing satisfying on-site experiences.

Despite the above effort of prior studies on film tourism, the role of nostalgia has, until now, not been fully theorised and integrated in related theories on film tourism. Rather, it has been documented based on the results of empirical inductive research and thus has been limited to empirical examinations and subsequent interpretive explanations of nostalgic sentiments or activities in a film tourism destination. An exception is the work of Kim (2012a) who posits that intimate, memory-related film tourist experiences are the main drivers in the creation of memorable tourism experiences. Emotional or affective involvement while watching a media programme (e.g. films and television dramas), albeit different genres (Connell 2012), contributes the most to film tourists’ experiences of intimacy and memory (Kim 2012a; Kim and Assaker 2014). The memories of beloved stories performed by beloved actors are therefore central for film tourists as former audiences to develop symbolic connectedness to and increased familiarity with and nostalgia for film locations.

4 Research Methods

To develop items pertaining to nostalgia about Hong Kong films, an extensive review of journals, magazines, and books relevant to film critiques, social trends, culture and film, and the characteristics of Hong Kong films produced in the 1970s to the late 1990s was conducted (Lee 2006; Pan and Ryan 2013; Robinson 2015; Suni and Komppula 2012; Wong and McDonogh 2001). Previous studies of consumer behaviour were also reviewed (Holak 2013; Holbrook 1993; Marchegiani and Phau 2013).

A preliminary questionnaire was then developed, and its items were further discussed and clarified through in-depth interviews with a pool of 20 Korean residents who reported enjoying Hong Kong films from the relevant period. The topics covered during the interviews included the respondents’ emotional and behavioural involvement, the effects of the films on the respondents and their lives, the films’ social motifs, the circumstances of the domestic film industry, the respondents’ intentions to engage in film tourism in Hong Kong, and their preferred activities and film tourism programmes.

Based on the above, the items chosen to identify and measure nostalgia after watching Hong Kong films included participants’ memories of scenes or backdrops; images of Hong Kong that are featured in these films; the films’ stories, feelings, music, and background images; the visual effects of Kung Fu films (e.g. flying in a Kung Fu movie); re-enacting or discussing the film after having watched it; and interest in the culture, society, or history of Hong Kong. The items chosen to identify and measure participants’ preferred film tourism activities (without any guide or tour) and products included film tourism tour programmes in loco, TV, or mobile programmes on film tourism activities and special event programmes themed around Hong Kong films and film stars. The items chosen to identify and measure their preferred film tourism activities included visiting film sites, fan meeting events, and tasting Cantonese food (e.g. visiting the restaurants or cafes featured in the films). The questions were then revised using a pilot study involving 50 Korean residents who were familiar with old Hong Kong films.

The main survey was conducted using an online survey tool, which was chosen for its advantages, such as the rapid collection of samples from the target population, the ability to control sample selection using planned quotas, and the user friendliness of the website (Grönlund and Strandberg 2014). Data were collected from October 1 to 15, 2015, using an online company with 1.12 million panellists. The selection of respondents was restricted to individuals who were 40 years of age or older, had not visited Hong Kong yet, had watched at least two Hong Kong films from a list of 30 released from the 1970s to the late 1990s, and recognised at least one film star from a list of 11 film stars from that time. Of the 620 questionnaires completed, 610 were used for further data analyses because of missing data accounting for more than 25% of total answered questions.

5 Results

5.1 Characteristics of the Sample

A frequency analysis of the respondents’ demographic profiles showed that 51.3% were male, and 84.4% were married. The age group distribution is as follows: 34.9% of the sample were aged 40–49 years old, whereas 30.6% were in their early 50s, and 26.4% were 55 or older. With regard to occupation, 45.4% were company workers and 22.3% were housewives. From the sample, 62.8% lived in a metropolitan or large city and 32.3% lived in a medium-sized or small city.

Regarding their individual exposure to Hong Kong films released in the 1970s to the late 1990s, 21.8% of respondents reported having watched three films or less, 27.2% had watched four to six films, 16.4% had watched seven to nine films, and 34.6% had watched 10 films or more. In short, more than half of the respondents had watched at least seven Hong Kong films during this time. More than 81% of the respondents reported recognising at least ten Hong Kong movie stars from that time. Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee were the most recognised, with 99.5% and 99% recognising them, respectively. More than 90% of respondents also knew the following Hong Kong movie stars: Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung, Sammo Hung, Andy Lau, and Wang Zuxian. About 26.5% reported that they still watched Hong Kong films. The top three most watched Hong Kong films out of the 30 listed in the questionnaire were: A Better Tomorrow (1986), Swordsman II (1992), and Police Story (1985).

Concerning the Hong Kong film fandom during that period, 59.8% of the respondents agreed, whereas only 9.3% either disagreed or strongly disagreed that the label of fandom referred to them. Approximately 59% of the respondents had already experienced film tourism destinations or film shooting locations either domestically or in foreign countries. This 59% are therefore more likely to visit Hong Kong as a film tourism destination in the future, as those with previous film tourism experiences are more likely to visit film tourism locations again (Kim and O’Connor 2011; Macionis and Sparks 2009).

5.2 Factor Analyses and Reliability Tests

To identify the underlying dimensionality of the instruments used in this study (i.e. nostalgia for Hong Kong films, preferred nostalgia-driven film tourism products, preferred film tourism activities), exploratory factor analyses were conducted using principal component factoring and varimax rotation.

First, a nostalgia scale containing 26 items was factor analysed, which determined that a five-factor solution, in which each factor had an eigenvalue of over 1.0, was appropriate. An examination of a scree plot supported the factor solution. The five extracted domains explained 17.84, 12.26, 11.10, 9.58, and 6.90% of the variance, respectively. The value for the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy was .92, and the Bartlett’s test for sphericity produced a value of 6578 (p < 0.001). These values validate the factor model and the existence of one or more factors in the factor solution. The factor loadings, which measure the correlation between the observed measurements and the factors, were located between .43 and .85, closer to and far exceeding the 0.45 threshold proposed by Comrey and Lee (1992), respectively. In terms of internal consistency for the items within each domain, the reliability alphas for the five factors ranged from .79 to .84. The reliability alphas for all five factors were in excess of the threshold (0.70) recommended by Nunnally (1978). Table 9.1 presents the results in full.

Table 9.1 Factor analysis of nostalgia about Hong Kong films
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Second, the factor analysis of the preferred nostalgia-driven film tourism products generated a three-factor model with an eigenvalue greater than 1.0. The results from the examination of the scree plots confirmed the three-factor dimensionality structure. The three domains explained 31.5, 23.8, and 20.9% of the variance, respectively. The value for the KMO measure of sampling adequacy was .95, and the Bartlett’s test for sphericity produced a value of 4872 (p < 0.001). Thus, the factor solution was valid and confirmed the existence of one or more factors in the factor model. The factor loadings ranged from .43 to .82. Regarding the measurement of internal consistency for the items within each domain, the reliability alphas for the three factors were .91, .84, and .80, respectively. The reliability alphas for all three factors far exceeded the threshold (0.70). The results are exhibited in Table 9.2.

Table 9.2 Factor analysis of Korean audience’s interest in Hong Kong film tourism product development
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Lastly, the factor analysis of the preferred film tourism activities driven by nostalgia produced a three-factor solution in which each factor had an eigenvalue exceeding 1.0. The three domains accounted for 28.78, 26.65, and 21.31% of the variance, respectively. The value for the KMO measure of sampling adequacy was .92, and the Bartlett’s test for sphericity produced a value of 3958 (p < 0.001). This indicates that the factor model was valid and the number of extracted factors was one or more. The factor loadings were between .45 and .86. Regarding the internal consistency of the items within each domain, the reliability alphas for the three factors were .89, .76, and .82, respectively. The reliability alphas for all three factors surpassed the threshold (0.70). The results are presented in Table 9.3.

Table 9.3 Factor analysis of Korean audience’s interest in film tourism activities
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6 Nostalgia About Hong Kong Films Among Korean Audiences

Korean audiences of Hong Kong films rated their personal memories of the films’ content (e.g. storyline) and movie stars as being the most important nostalgia domain when recalling old Hong Kong films that they had watched, with a grand mean score of 3.83. In particular, “martial arts scenes”, “gangsters’ fighting scenes”, and “attractive stylish Hong Kong film stars” were rated highly when it came to triggering nostalgia about Hong Kong films. This suggests that a deep emotional connectedness between the audience and the film content – celebrities, characters, and story in particular – is a key factor in them becoming film tourists (Kim 2012a, b; Lee et al. 2008). The significance of celebrity involvement with film audiences has been also documented.

The next important nostalgia domain was related to their memory of film backdrops, with the second highest grand mean score of 3.58. In this context, film backdrop includes “background music” and the “cityscape, streetscape, and landscape in Hong Kong” that have been used as backgrounds and foregrounds in film productions (e.g. alleys, traditional markets, restaurants, the skyscrapers that surround Victoria Peak, Hong Kong harbour). As such, the busy, chaotic streets and alleys of Hong Kong that are always featured in Hong Kong films, with their neon signs, teahouses, and food stalls open day and night, are atmospheric and are often seen as a cliché or a staple of Hong Kong’s traditional and unique culture and society. It is these film backdrops that Korean audiences immediately and strongly associate with Hong Kong films from days gone by. Background music also plays a crucial role in allowing the audience to recall film stories and backdrops, as music can add a powerful augmented means of expression to the existing visual images and imagery by particularising its affective resonance, thanks to its important ability to create atmosphere and underline the psychological states of the characters (Copland as cited in Carroll 1996, p. 139).

Although earlier studies on the role of music in film tourism and nostalgia are very limited, the role of music in creating personal and emotional memories and nostalgia for locations visited by global music fans, in the context of music tourism, has been documented (Bolderman and Reijnders 2016); this has been often conceptualised as a nostalgia industry (Gibson and Connell 2007). Also, Kim (2012c) highlights that background music as a non-visual sense supports and enhances the overall memorable viewing experiences of films. Background music associated with particular memorable scenes can be therefore very emotionally resonant; this is closely related to our memory and nostalgia, whether the scenes are exhilarating or poignant. In this regard, Roesch (2009) showed a picture of a Star Wars fan watching the horizon in contemplation while listening to the sound track on his earphones.

It is suggested, for example, that Korean audiences who vividly remember Chungking Express (1994), which portrayed the light and dark of Hong Kong society, immediately associate the film with some of its greatest background OSTs (Original Sound Tracks), namely, Dreams originally sung by The Cranberries and California Dreaming by Mamas & Papas. This is similar to Only You from Fallen Angels (1995) and the Cantonese remake of the 1980s classic Take My Breath Away from As Tears Go By (1988).This is again about music as a tool for reminiscence as mentioned earlier; it has a close relationship with emotional and affective aspect of film tourist experiences.

By comparison, cognitive information about the social, cultural, and historical backgrounds of the country in which a film is set, which are unfolded and represented in the film’s storyline, was the least important stimulus of nostalgia. The “envy of Hong Kong society” and “memory of Hong Kong history and culture” domains of nostalgia were given grand mean scores of 3.28 and 3.25, respectively. Although Korean audiences agreed that the item entitled “Hong Kong films were the topic of talk or gossiping among friends” as a collective social memory-related nostalgia item (3.77) was an important trigger for their nostalgia about Hong Kong films, they did not strongly believe that the domain of the reminiscence of mimicking, with a grand mean score of 3.29, was as important as their memories of film content, movie stars, and film backdrops.

7 Support for Hong Kong Film Tourism Product Development and Preferred Film Tourism Activities

Korean audiences of Hong Kong films produced from the 1970s to the late 1990s generally expect to experience a tailored film tourism destination product when visiting Hong Kong as a nostalgia film tourism destination, with a grand mean score of 3.34. They wanted the tour programme, if developed, to include visits to Hong Kong film sets, places, and locations featured in films, as well as the Hong Kong Film History Museum. It is interesting to note that they rated a special interpretation tour programme of famous Hong Kong films from the 1970s to 1990s with the highest mean score of 3.42. They also more or less welcomed the introduction of a travel guidebook specialising in the scenes and locations of Hong Kong films, with a mean score of 3.30. This finding is contrasted with an early study of Reijnders (2010) in which the fans of James Bond movies were found to be more individualistic and independent as travellers, tailoring their own itineraries, whereas it is consistent with the findings of Buchmann et al. (2010), who suggest that the majority of the Lord of the Rings fans who participate in dedicated film location tours do so in order to encounter the fellowship of other enthusiastic fans. While this mixed narrative cannot be interpreted using the Western and non-Western (i.e. Asian) dichotomy, this is an interesting area that needs to be further explored in a wider context.

Although they support the development of a Hong Kong film stars’ fan meeting event (with a grand mean score of 3.13) and TV or mobile programmes about Hong Kong films and film stars (with 3.07), they seemed less interested in film tourism products associated with Hong Kong films that do not involve actual corporeal mobility and visits to locations and places featured in the films they enjoyed watching in days gone by. One interpretation is the importance of physical presence and embodied interactions with film locations and places from a film tourist perspective (Buchmann et al. 2010; Couldry 1998; Kim 2012a), given that film tourists often want to confirm “iconic parts or everything of what was depicted on the screen through their eyes and camera lenses” (Kim 2012a, p. 394). It is noteworthy that they were, however, more interested in Hong Kong film-themed music concerts, with a mean score of 3.26. One implication, therefore, is that background film music and OSTs are, at least for Korean audiences, strongly associated with their nostalgia for Hong Kong films and the pastime of watching them on VHS, which confirms the role of music in creating powerful augmented affective resonance and nostalgia.

Regarding film tourism-related activities, Korean audiences rated tasting film-related food, such as the Cantonese cuisine featured in these films, and eating in restaurants featured in these films as being the most preferred tourism activity, with a grand mean score of 3.47, followed by meeting Hong Kong film stars (3.36) and visiting film locations (3.27).

8 Conclusion

To some extent films can stimulate nostalgia when they tell stories of the “good old days” or when they are analogous to one’s own story or that of one’s community in this case, the Korean audiences that enjoyed Hong Kong films produced from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The content and storylines of old films stored in an individual’s memory can often serve as nostalgic vestiges of times past and can encourage an individual viewer to form an emotional and symbolic connection with particular stories or scenes. Locations used in the making of films or TV dramas, whether as backgrounds or foregrounds, can then become nostalgia-stimulating spaces for some audiences, whose memories and reminiscences are evoked by the stories and events associated with the shooting locations. Therefore, one’s memories of a film’s location can be a crucial guide to his or her selection of a tourism destination, given that nostalgia-creating films present positively familiar and important images of such locations in the minds of audience members (Kim 2012a; Kim and Assaker 2014; Robinson 2015; Suni and Komppula 2012).

Despite the above significance of nostalgia in such a context, few studies have explored the potential for preferred film tourism products and activities. In this chapter, the potential described above was theoretically discussed and empirically tested and confirmed. For Korean audiences of Hong Kong films produced from the 1970s to the late 1990s, nostalgia formed by lasting memories of these films from the “good old days” is represented and embodied by (1) memories of films’ content and film stars, (2) memories of film backdrops, (3) reminiscence of mimicking, (4) envy of Hong Kong society, and (5) memories of Hong Kong history and culture. Stronger feelings of nostalgia and sentimentality, particularly associated with film content and film stars, as well as film backdrops, are crucial to the support needed for the development of Hong Kong film tourism-related tour programmes.

Viewers rather marginally agreed that they would be interested in tasting film-related food, meeting their favourite Hong Kong film stars, and visiting film locations from their favourite Hong Kong films, if they were to visit Hong Kong as a film tourism destination. This might be interpreted that the Korean audiences of Hong Kong films were not actively engaged with the questions about their support for Hong Kong film tourism product development and preferred film tourism activities, given that these questions were not personal.

Although the Hong Kong government has developed film tourism-related attractions such as the Avenue of Stars and the restoration of Bruce Lee’s old residence, these efforts have been made with little research examining the role of nostalgia in film tourists’ preferences for products and activities related to those destinations. Thus, the findings presented in this chapter can be used in the future development of film tourism products and activities, given that the memory-related experiences of film tourists play a crucial role in the creation of memorable tourism experiences, influencing their intentions to visit or revisit a location (Kim 2012a, b), which can include intimate, nostalgic, and sentimental tourist experiences at film tourism destinations that are closely tied to audiences’ motivations to become film tourists (Kim 2012a; Macionis and Sparks 2009).

While the findings of this chapter contributed to closing the identified research gaps and thus enriching the film tourism literature, there is still a need for future research on the role of nostalgia in film tourism in a wider context, for example, in relation to gender, class, and ethnicity. Furthermore, international comparative research on this subject comparing the similarities and differences of different cultures would be welcomed.