LNELecture Notes in Education, Arts, Management and Social Science3083-10912705-053XBio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty. Ltd.10.18063/LNE.v4i4.1963ArticleDepoliticized Mimicry: Modern Girls, Bodily Discipline, and Colonial Consumer Culture in 1930s China’s Hong Konghttps://artdesignp.com/journal/LNE/4/4/10.18063/LNE.v4i4.1963DingYansheng2026442026-04-26Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China. This article examines the phenomenon of “modern women” in the historical period when Hong Kong was under British colonial rule (1930–1941). This study takes Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of imitation, Foucault’s technique of self, and Bourdieu’s theory of class stratification as the analytical framework, and uses archival evidence from periodicals such as The Kung Sheung Daily News to analyze the generation logic and historical implications of female imitation practices in the colonial background. The research results show that colonial commerce, Shanghai immigrant communities, and local class forces are intertwined, forming a depoliticized imitation machine. Media organizations exert micro-disciplinary control by moralizing women’s bodies. Women from different social classes have adopted various imitation strategies, namely synchronous imitation, planned adaptation, and cultural appropriation, while deviant behavior has been condemned by the public. Compared with China’s Shanghai, Mumbai, and Singapore, the modern girl culture in colonial Hong Kong shows unique commercial characteristics. This study expands the analytical boundaries of post-colonial gender studies and traces the historical continuation of how physical discipline during the colonial period evolved into the contemporary appearance-based economic hierarchy.Modern girls,Colonial Hong Kong,1930s,Mimicry,Hybridity,Depoliticization,Bodily discipline,Postcolonial theory

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