Capstone Fair from the Department of Cultural Studies: analysing social diversity through city images, and the popularity of short dramas
Final-year students from the Lingnan University Department of Cultural Studies showed their capstone project research at the Capstone Fair on 17 November. Their projects investigated a wide range of topics, including common space, campus accessibility, Hong Kong’s city image, Lingnan cats, monster building, nostalgia, short dramas, and second-hand clothing. The fair highlighted their ability to integrate academic knowledge with practical skills while demonstrating critical thinking, and concern for social issues. Let's look at their insights and findings:
Capstone project: Construction and Impact of Hong Kong’s City Image through the ‘City Walk’ Phenomenon on Xiaohongshu
Landmarks such as The Sunset Peak, Tai Kwun, and hard-to-find shops in Sham Shui Po were included in the city walk routes designed by Year 4 students Chan Kit-ping, Sun Yi-ling, and Yin Jiayi. Inspired by the community engagement goals of the i-COMMON social enterprise under the Centre for Cultural Research and Development, Lingnan University, they used current media trends as a basis for their in-depth exploration.
Their project included several very special elements, such as a personality test for city walkers and a self-designed city walk brochure. They also organised a city walk competition sponsored by a wine cellar in collaboration with the Xiaohongshu ChillPlay潮玩生活account, which capitalised on Xiaohongshu's system of "seeding, checking in, and sharing" to encourage the public to share their experiences and impressions from their urban strolls.
The students also produced a video documenting their research, which included street interviews with tourists in popular areas like Mong Kok and Yau Ma Tei. A particularly memorable encounter was with a local Hong Kong resident who said "The essence of a city walk should be aimless wandering, but although recommendations from the Xiaohongshu package check-in culture challenges that, it does makes us wonder whether checking in leads people to focus solely on taking photos, forgetting to truly experience the city." Their project earned them the 1st Runner-up Capstone Presentation.
From left: Yin Jiayi, Chan Kit-ping, and Sun Yi-ling.
From left: Yeung Wing-sze and Lo Yuen-ying.
Capstone project: The Rise of Short Dramas in China: Narratives, Feminism and Platform Economy
The Chinese short drama "May All Woman Be Free" was viewed over 100 million times in just three days, and "My Baby Girl" was viewed over a billion times within a week. These impressive statistics are merely the tip of the iceberg. Year 4 students Lo Yuen-ying and Yeung Wing-sze examined the circumstances behind this cultural trend, and shifts in women's discourse representation throughout their capstone project.
When discussing the highlights of their findings, they said "Unlike most platforms that use a 'free-first, pay-later' viewing model, the Hongguo short drama app offers free access. Content is provided by Tomato Novel and promoted through Douyin, and as they all come under ByteDance, this creates a completely closed-loop industry," successfully establishing a foothold in crucial areas of the platform economy.
They identified six major thematic tags in short dramas, including "dark lotus", "sweet but psycho", and "The Overpower Regressor", which show changes in public expectations and the perception of women. For example, while traditional literature often depicted "madwomen" negatively, contemporary short dramas redefine them as "sweet but psycho", and audiences now see dramas with these tags as compelling, and even glamorising this behaviour. Both students expressed gratitude to their guiding professor for helping them refine their topic and make their research more focused.
Details of the Capstone Fair:
https://www.ln.edu.hk/cultural/events-and-activities/capstone-fair-2025/