Digital activism and citizenship: a case study of “yellow” food influencers and political consumerism in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Political consumerism is widely assumed to have a positive relationship with civic and political engagement, and much scholarly work has argued that marketplace-based politics align neatly with contemporary norms of engaged citizenship. Current studies of Hong Kong have discussed the rise of the “yellow” (pro-democratic) economy in connection with the 2019 pro-democracy movement, arguing that political consumerism is a new form of political participation. However, few studies have examined how food influencers on social media have mediated political messages and shaped the meanings of political consumerism in an increasingly authoritarian society. Drawing on original data collected from interviews with yellow food influencers, content analysis of their Instagram posts, and a survey of educated young consumers, this study seeks to understand the interactions between food influencers and consumers in the post-movement era, as facilitated by social media platforms. This study shows that the meaning of buying from yellow food shops has changed from expressing support for pro-democratic political parties to conserving unauthorized collective memories of protest as expressions of a new Hongkonger identity. Such practices maintain democratic values in a political context where conventional forms of democratic engagement are no longer possible. (191)

KEYWORDS:

• Political consumption
• identity
• social media
• digital activism
• collective memory

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of the panelists who heard earlier versions of this paper during the IIAS conference held in Leiden. The authors also offer deep thanks to the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their very productive suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The name of the café “Not One Less Coffee,” references the protest slogan “Five demands, not one less,” which gained popularity in late June 2019 following the death of protester Marco Leung, who fell from a height at Pacific Place in Admiralty on June 15. He was sporting a now-symbolic yellow poncho, and his protest banner has been credited as forming the basis of the movement’s five demands (Creery 2020). In addition, the Chinese name of the café, “Yuan rongguang” (願榮光) is a tribute to the march, “Glory to Hong Kong,” which was hailed by protestors as an unofficial “national anthem of Hong Kong,” and is widely used by the protestors during the 2019 pro-democratic movement (Leung 2019).

2. Yellow shops and the yellow economy were part of an effort by protesters to support like-minded businesses (Pan 2020), to create job opportunities for supporters of the movement (Stand News 2019), and to reduce local dependence on businesses connected to the Chinese Communist Party (Lin 2019).

3. It was intended as a monument to “Love and Peace” inspired by the John Lennon Wall in Prague (Abb 2016).

4. Pepe the Frog has become a mascot of sorts for protesters in Hong Kong since the 2019 movement as many Hongkongers do not realize the frog is actually a symbol of America’s alt-right movement (Ko 2019).

5. Prisbell and Andersen (1980) defined attitude homophily as a similarity between interacting individuals in terms of beliefs, education, and social status.

6. The theory of para-social interaction defines the relationship between a spectator and a performer (Horton and Wohl 1956) as having the illusion of intimacy in the manner of a “real” interpersonal relationship (Dibble, Hartmann, and Rosaen 2015). Such a relationship is established by the spectator, while the other person may influence it while being unaware of it (Kelman 1958).

7. One exception is the study by Kissas (2022).

8. Civil engagement is defined as individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern (Delli 2016).

9. For further discussion of SMIs as intermediates, see Business Insider (2021).

10. The Hong Kong Police Force deployed tear gun bombs during confrontations with protesters in 2019.

11. The pronunciation of “vegetarian balls” is the same as the term “demand” in Cantonese.

12. At its heart, the term “localist” signifies a commitment to protecting the interests and identity of Hong Kong (Kaeding 2017).

13. Habitus is defined as a mode of embodied practice that aggregates multiple strands of “conscious” consumption within the consuming body (Eli et al. 2016).