Transnational Feminist Practices in Hong Kong: Mobilisation and Collective Action for Sex Workers’ Rights

Abstract

This article examines the activities, initiatives and strategies of Zi Teng, a women's nongovernment organisation (NGO) mobilising around sex workers’ rights, in Hong Kong. Although ‘transnational’ feminist practices have opened up new spaces of resistance for Zi Teng, women activists recognise the continued importance of the ‘local’ as a space that has to be negotiated and entry into which is ultimately mediated by local economic, political and social forms. At the same time, activists are wary of fostering transnational linkages and networks on equal terms, because advocacy and activism concerning migrant sex workers involves researching, theorising and writing about women who are differently positioned to themselves according to hierarchies of class, ethnicity, gender and race. My ethnography documents activists’ efforts in engaging in critical reflection of local NGO objectives and priorities in response to global processes and in imagining new activities, initiatives and strategies. In so doing, I illustrate the competing demands facing activists working at both the local and transnational levels.

Keywords:

• Globalisation
• Hong Kong
• Sex Worker Rights
• Transnational Feminism
• Women's NGOs
• Women's Movements

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Ana Dragojlovic, Michele Ford, Andrew Kipnis, Lenore Lyons, Kathryn Robinson and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticisms in the development of this article.