Kitchen sink dramas and the search for common culture: a comparative analysis of migrant domestic worker abuse in Hong Kong's English and Chinese-language news media

What can cultural studies contribute to our understanding of Hong Kong's print and broadcast media? We reorient the current preoccupation with politics in Hong Kong's local media to focus upon culture. Drawing from cultural studies, and specifically the search for 'common culture', we explain divergent perspectives on migrant domestic worker (MDW) abuse in Hong Kong's English and Chinese-language print and broadcast media. Whereas the English-language media relies upon international experts and NGOs to tell a story of human rights abuses against MDWs, the Chinese-language media is more likely to take us into local homes and to present the employer and community as victims of trickery from domestic workers and agencies. We use the kitchen sink drama as a metaphor to describe this reportage. What forces shape the production of these dramas? and what are the implications for the public understanding of MDW abuse and human rights?