Shizheng Liang
This article examines how platform aesthetics shape neighborhood change through the case of wanghong (“internet-famous”) urbanism in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong. Drawing on visual analysis, social media data, surveys, and interviews, it argues that the transformation of Kennedy Town into a wanghong destination demonstrates how digital platforms and the collective practices of their users interact with and amplify preexisting gentrification processes. The article conceptualizes wanghongization as a mode of urban change driven by the production and circulation of specific aesthetics, which reconfigure urban experiences and spatial practices in ways not fully captured by existing theories. To theorize this process, the article introduces the gentrification–wanghongization cycle to describe how platform visibility and algorithmic amplification convert the preexisting aesthetics of gentrification into reproducible wanghong aesthetics, which subsequently intensify commercial restructuring and incremental landscape change. By foregrounding the aesthetic and visual politics, the article contributes to debates on platform urbanism, gentrification, and neighborhood change, offering a conceptual framework for understanding how digital representations and platform logics increasingly mediate and reshape contemporary urban transformation.