Repertoire of youth activism in 1970s Hong Kong: The 70s Biweekly and experimental cinema

Abstract

First published in 1970, The 70s Bi-weekly (hereafter, The 70s) stands out from many other independent magazines in Hong Kong around the same time by its unique ‘action-oriented-ness’. More than a printed magazine whose contents blend radical political theories, social activism, and avant-garde art, the ‘action-oriented’ feature of The 70s is seen in both of its political and cultural actions. This article places The 70s in the context of the production and screening of experimental films in Hong Kong at the time, and discusses two (experimental) films made by the magazine’s editorial board in the 1970s. They are a documentary (1971) that records the ‘Defend Diaoyu Islands’ protests on April 10th of the same year in Hong Kong and an experimental film To the Arty Youths of Hong Kong (1978), imbued with political metaphors and critical sarcasm. Extending Charles Tilly’s (2008) discussion on the repertoire of contentious politics to the cultural dimension, I argue that these films constitute one of their diverse repertoires of social activism. The transformation of the cinematic style from realism to postmodern collage also illustrates a vital shift of the media performativity in their repertoire of dissent.

Keywords:

• The 70s Bi-weekly
• Hong Kong experimental cinema
• Defend Diaoyu Islands Movement
• Mok Chiu Yu
• cultural activism
• arty youth

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Lincoln Geraghty, University of Portsmouth, UK

SUBJECTS:

• Art & Visual Culture
• Cultural Studies
• Media & Film Studies

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to Mok Chiu Yu, Ho Ah-Lam, Sing Song-yong, Ma Ran, Dogase Masato, Cheung Tit-Leung (1982–2020), Timmy Chen and Xu Xiaohong (1978-2023) who rendered me the most generous help in the writing of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Law Kar also explained why the film exhibition was ‘amateur’. The organizer wanted to attract more people to participate in the independent filming and exhibition by downplaying experimentality. ‘Amateur film’ sounds like a more approachable name. The films still had to go through a jury process before they were selected for screening, but the criteria were loose. In the mid-1970s, the Phoenix Film Club changed the exhibition’s name to ‘Experimental Shorts Exhibition’ and awarded prizes (Law Kar 2018, p. 54).

2 The attribution according to Hong Kong Film Archive’s record of the director of the film was, however, wrong. The current entry Long King Cheong 龍景昌, another former member of The 70s, was actually the person who brought the copy to the archive.

3 Interview with Mok June 25, 2020.

Additional information

Funding

Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee

Notes on contributors

Lu Pan

Lu Pan is Associate Professor in the Department of Chinese History and Culture at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Pan is author of three monographs: In-Visible Palimpsest: Memory, Space and Modernity in Berlin and Shanghai (Bern: Peter Lang, 2016), Aestheticizing Public Space: Street Visual Politics in East Asian Cities (Bristol: Intellect, 2015) and Image, Imagination and Imaginarium: Remapping World War II Monuments in Greater China (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).