Description
Hong Kong’s ‘Umbrella Revolution’ has been widely regarded as a watershed moment in the polity’s post-1997 history. While public protest has long been a routine part of Hong Kong’s political culture, the preparedness of large numbers of citizens to participate in civil disobedience represented a new moment for Hong Kong society, reflecting both a very high level of politicisation and a deteriorating relationship with Beijing. The transformative processes underpinning the dramatic events of autumn 2014 have a wide relevance to scholarly debates on Hong Kong, China and the changing contours of world politics today.
This book provides an accessible entry point into the political and social cleavages that underpinned, and were expressed through, the Umbrella Movement. A key focus is the societal context and issues that have led to growth in a Hong Kong identity and how this became highly politically charged during the Umbrella Movement. It is widely recognised that political and ethnic identity has become a key cleavage in Hong Kong society. But there is little agreement amongst citizens about what it means to ‘be Hong Konger’ today or whether this identity is compatible or conflicting with ‘being Chinese’. The book locates these identity cleavages within their historical context and uses a range of theories to understand these processes, including theories of nationalism, social identity, ethnic conflict, nativism and cosmopolitanism. This theoretical plurality allows the reader to see the new localism in its full diversity and complexity and to reflect on the evolving nature of Hong Kong’s relationship with Mainland China.
Table of Contents
Notes on contributors
Introduction
Chapter 1 Decolonisation deferred: Hong Kong identity in historical perspective (Wing Sang Law)
Chapter 2 Changing identity politics: The democracy movement in Hong Kong (Ma Ngok)
Chapter 3 Mainland Chinese immigration in Hong Kong (香港新移民): Analysing anti-immigrant sentiment (James F. Downes)
Chapter 4 Hong Kong’s fragmented soul: Exploring brands of localism (Wai-man Lam)
Chapter 5 ‘You have to fight on your own’ Self-alienation and the new Hong Kong nationalism (Luke Cooper)
Chapter 6 The development of Hong Kong identity: From local to national identity (Stephan Ortmann)
Chapter 7 Visual and discourse resistance on the "China Factor": The cultural formation of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong (Wai-Kwok Benson Wong)
Chapter 8 From past to future: Hong Kong’s democratic movement (Benny Y. T. TAI)
