Occupy Hong Kong? Gweilo Citizenship and Social Justice

Abstract

The 2017 election of Hong Kong's chief executive has been the catalyst for recent campaigns for social justice. The date marks twenty years since the handover of British colonial rule to China (through the 1984 Sino–British Joint Declaration) and democracy itself is again being questioned. Ultimately, Hong Kongers are concerned with universal suffrage and specifically that the chief executive is elected from just 1,200 members of an electoral committee in a city of more than 7 million people (Census 2011). Occupy Hong Kong took hold of several areas of the city in 2014, with campaigners employing the use of nonviolence and civil disobedience to challenge social and political injustice; their mantra was “Occupy Central with Love and Peace” (OCLP). Through a postcolonial lens, this article analyzes the political engagement of fifteen white Hong Kong city workers. The biographies of the research participants differ: Some are permanent residents¹ who are the children of pre-1997 expatriates,² and others more contemporary economic migrants. Underpinning this research is the Cantonese term gweilo, which is particularly useful in explaining “whiteness” in Hong Kong, and I use it to investigate claims about their apparent apathy. Its nuanced definitions and meanings are especially significant in the postcolonial era and contribute to broader discussions of citizenship and social justice in the city.

香港 2017 年的特首选举, 是晚近社会正义运动的催化剂。该日标示着香港 (自 1984 年中英联合声明之后) 从英国殖民回归中国后的二十年, 而民主本身再次受到质问。香港最终关心的是普选议题, 特别是在此般超过七百万人口 (2011 年普查) 的城市中, 特首仅由一千两百位选举委员会的成员选出。2014 年的香港佔中行动佔领了该城市的若干区域, 而其倡议者运用非暴力和公民不服从的手段, 挑战社会与政治不公; 他们的口号是 “和平佔中” (OCLP)。本文透过后殖民的视角, 检视十五位香港白人工作者的政治参与。本研究受访者的背景各异: 有的是 1997 年前来到香港的外籍人士的孩子、并成为永久居民, 其他则是当代的经济移民。支撑此一研究的是广东话中的 “鬼佬”, 该词语对于解释香港中的 “白人性” 特别有用, 而我运用此概念来探讨对于他们显着的冷漠之宣称。其细緻的定义与意义在后殖民的年代中特别重要, 并对广泛的公民权与城市中的社会正义之讨论做出贡献。

La elección del jefe del ejecutivo de Hong Kong en 2017 ha sido el catalizador de recientes campañas de justicia social. Esta fecha marca veinte años desde cuando el control británico fue cedido a China (por medio de la Declaración Conjunta Chino–Británica de 1984), y de nuevo la propia democracia está en entredicho. Al fin de cuentas, a los habitantes de Hong Kong les preocupa el sufragio universal y específicamente que el jefe del ejecutivo se elija dentro de un comité electoral de apenas 1.200 miembros en una ciudad de más de 7 millones de habitantes (censo de 2011). Ocupar Hong Kong tomó control de varias áreas de la ciudad en 2014, en un episodio durante el cual quienes adelantaron la campaña emplearon el uso de la no violencia y la desobediencia civil para retar la injusticia social y política; su mantra fue “Ocupar Central con Amor y Paz” (OCLP). A través de una lente poscolonial, este artículo analiza el combate político de quince trabajadores blancos de la ciudad de Hong Kong. Las biografías de los participantes en la investigación difieren entre sí: algunos son residentes permanentes,¹ hijos de expatriados pre-1997,² en tanto otros son migrantes más contemporáneos, de motivaciones económicas. Esta investigación se apuntala en el término cantonés gweilo, el cual es particularmente útil para explicar “blancura” en Hong Kong, y lo uso para investigar reclamos sobre la aparente apatía de los blancos. Sus variadas definiciones y significados son especialmente significativos en la era poscolonial y contribuyen a dar más amplitud a las discusiones sobre ciudadanía y justicia social en la ciudad.

Key Words:

• citizenship
• Hong Kong
• occupy
• postcolonial
• social justice

关键词：:

• 公民权
• 香港
• 佔领
• 后殖民
• 社会正义。

Palabras clave:

• ciudadanía
• Hong Kong
• ocupar
• poscolonial
• justicia social

Acknowledgments

Thanks go to Professor Nik Heynen and Jennifer Cassidento for their patience and guidance as an editorial team. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers who have without doubt improved the writing and argument of this article. Special mention is due to Dr. Raksha Pande and Dr. Graeme Mearns for comments on earlier drafts and to my dad for his invaluable proofreading skills. Above all, thanks to the people of Hong Kong who have participated in this research and who have inspired me in my own pursuits of social justice.

Notes

1. Granted permanent residency until the age of twenty-one, the children of expatriates must then establish their own resident status. They can do so by proving that they have lived lawfully for seven years in Hong Kong and have Hong Kong as their permanent place of residence.

2. Expatriates are defined by Fechter and Walsh (2010) as “citizens of ‘Western’ nation-states who are involved in temporary migration processes to destinations outside ‘the West’” (1197). As Knowles and Harper (2009) explained, “Expat is a widely contested term” (12). Like Knowles and Harper, however, its usage is appropriate to this work, as some participants in the study use this term to refer to themselves. Others use the term to define themselves against it. Furthermore, in an intersectional approach, Bonnett's (2004) work helps explain how white and Western are often used synonymously and these are both characteristics of the expatriate.

3. Sinophobia is a paradoxical imaginary that labels Chinese people as both weak and effeminate yet simultaneously a threatening other. Useful discussions of the term, albeit from a Mongolian perspective, are evident within the recent work of Bille (2016).

4. As Cheng (2017) reported on the Hong Kong Free Press Web site, prodemocracy campaigners are again being charged with criminal offenses for their role in the Umbrella Revolution. Despite already serving their sentences, they face fresh sentencing after the Court of Appeals decision. Clearly, due to the ongoing nature of these cases, this article cannot accurately account for them at the time of writing. Their mention here, though, goes some way to explaining the deep and pervasive sense of injustice in Hong Kong.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Joseph Richardson

MICHAEL JOSEPH RICHARDSON is a Lecturer of Human Geography in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Daysh Building, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include citizenship in the postcolonial city of Hong Kong as well as the geographies of gender and intergenerational justice.