New Books Network Jenny Banh, "Fantasies of Hong Kong Disneyland: Attempted Indigenizations of Space, Labor, and Consumption" (Rutgers UP, 2025)
Jan 25, 2026
Jenny Banh, Professor of Asian American Studies and Anthropology at CSU Fresno and author of Fantasies of Hong Kong Disneyland, explores the clash of Disney, China, and Hong Kong. She recounts long-term fieldwork on labor and space. Discussion covers localization attempts like feng shui and menu changes, tensions in park crowding and queuing, unequal development deals, and why Ocean Park resonates more locally.
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From Restaurant Kid To Fieldwork In Hong Kong
- Jenny Banh began the project from childhood ties to labor as a Chinese restaurant kid and prior research on sweatshops in El Monte, California.
- She pivoted from studying mainland Chinese factories to Hong Kong Disneyland to avoid political risks and still study transnational labor, space, and consumption.
Deep Multi-Year Ethnography Validated
- Banh used classic anthropological fieldwork: multi-year visits, mapping, interviews, and fieldnotes spanning roughly 15 years of work on the project.
- She re-visited Hong Kong after peer review and found the original conclusions held up despite ongoing local changes.
An Unequal Deal From The Start
- Hong Kong Disneyland's founding contract was deeply unequal: Hong Kong funded most costs but kept a minority stake, fueling local anger and claims of a neo‑colonial arrangement.
- The park was proposed during deindustrialization as a supposed savior for jobs but struggled financially and politically from the start.
