WAIPUNK: The Miniseries
Synopsis
The WAIPUNK miniseries adopts a dual timeline narrative to reflect societal changes from past to present and to demonstrate the evolution of the New Territories village community through different eras, especially under the global trends of industrialization and modernization over the last two centuries.
Background: Early 20th Century timeline
In the early 20th Century, the then-British administered Hong Kong set the stage for a massive power struggle among the village fraternity, secret societies, capitalists, politicians and the Western great powers. Legend says that the British empire used to have a military agency that secretly developed steampunk superweapons, with British Hong Kong as their regional command in the Far East. Their operations in Hong Kong were said to have lasted from the Guangxu period (Qing Dynasty) up to WW1.
Under the aforementioned background, this timeline adopts the perspective of Charlie Chandler, a British soldier stationed in the New Territories. Charlie’s experiences in Hong Kong reflect the face of early colonial Hong Kong society, simulating the New Territories villages’ daily life in the past. Charlie hails from an Eurasian military background, but is transferred to Hong Kong when his father is suspended for investigation amid legal troubles. His father is facing retaliation for repeatedly obstructing the superweapon project to prevent catastrophic abuses of technology, leading to his family’s fall from grace.
Charlie participates in military tasks alongside his fellow soldiers and coordinates with the police, the District Office and the New Territories village gentry. On the other hand, he also investigates the superweapon project’s connections and activities in Hong Kong, searching and collecting evidence to vindicate his father.
Meanwhile the conflicts between the old and new markets in Tai Po hinder the business of Charlie's Chinese cousin, Mr. On, who trades in various locations in the New Territories. With the assistance of Charlie and some village elders, Mr. On also launches a secret investigation into the two markets in Tai Po.
The planned WAIPUNK video game(s) will also be set in British Hong Kong during the early 20th Century with a narrative around Charlie.
Background: Present day timeline
Hong Kong society has gradually grown in prosperity and stability over the recent few decades. In the present day, an archaeological team led by Professor Tsai, an overseas Chinese, attempts to replicate the long lost steampunk technologies believed to be far more advanced than their era and even today. Professor Tsai receives sponsorships for his team’s research, provided by their university (fictional) and major technology entrepreneurs around the world. His team collects the steampunk remains from the villagers in the New Territories, and employs the most cutting-edge research methods just to revive those artifacts.
Meanwhile a group of like-minded, enthusiastic, Form 3 students led by Faith Wong plans to organize a cultural week at FDYSS about the New Territories indigenous residents and their history and culture. To actualize this goal Faith must ascend to the leadership of the FDYSS History and Culture Club, inevitably having to challenge the club’s establishments and seek the support of fellow club members and a new teacher advisor. Associate Professor Wong (Faith’s father) takes Faith and her friends to visit heritage sites all over the New Territories and interview village elders. They would later go on to uncover Professor Tsai’s conspiracies by chance…
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