Romeo and Juliet in Hong Kong
The Honors English students are adapting Romeo and Juliet for a 21st century Hong Kong setting.
Amusing ideas so far:
- Instead of the Capulets and Montagues? A 7-11 employee falls in love with a Circle K employee.
- The balcony scene will instead be a couple taking a self-photograph (kind of like this).
They will tell the story photographically. Among other objectives, I hope to use this assignment as a forum to explore the influence of culture on a text as well as to discuss the concept of Shakespeare’s “enduring greatness” if we’re able to do so much with his core conflicts. We’ll return to this assignment when we discuss archetypal characters while reading The Odyssey.
I have also challenged the students to come up with a symbol of fate besides stars. We don’t see those in Hong Kong.
