Title
Feeling alive : voices of incarcerated youth in We are alive
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Crime, Media, Culture
Publication Date
8-1-2017
Volume
13
Issue
2
First Page
153
Last Page
170
Publisher
Sage Publications Ltd.
Keywords
Documentary film, Hong Kong, Japan, juvenile delinquency, Macao, youth
Abstract
This article presents a case study of a documentary film to demonstrate the need to look beyond conventions for insight into youth incarceration. Yau Ching's (2010) We Are Alive documents a series of media production workshops conducted in juvenile correctional centres and training centres in Hong Kong, Macao and Sapporo, Japan. We Are Alive is a significant media text for analysis for two reasons. First, it is a youth-led documentary that offers a glimpse into settings that are often inaccessible to researchers, and second, it adopts a comparative perspective on three East Asian societies. The film offers rich data for sociological analysis as a point of access to understanding the lives of young people detained in correctional institutions in Asia. In analysing it, this article engages the contesting issues of social conformity, criminal justice, youth resistance and teenage masculinities and femininities through a close reading informed by a theoretical matrix comprising queer theory and cultural studies in an inter-Asian context.
DOI
10.1177/1741659017710064
Print ISSN
17416590
E-ISSN
17416604
Publisher Statement
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017.
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Tang, D. T.-S. (2017). Feeling alive: Voices of incarcerated youth in We are alive. Crime, Media, Culture, 13(2), 153-170. doi: 10.1177/1741659017710064
