Graffiti of the “New” Hong Kong and Their Imaginative Geographies During the Anti-Extradition Bill Protests of 2019–2020

ABSTRACT

In current conditions of late-modernity, nativism, localism, populism and racism are articulating as each other in Western European societies. In Asia’s global city, Hong Kong witnessed revivifications of nativist and localist identities that were negotiated to counteract socio-cultural and political “Mainlandization” in the former British colony. The imaginative geographies underscoring political graffiti and civil disobedience wresting the right for political self-determination from Beijing during the anti-extradition bill (anti-ELAB) protests of 2019–2020 is retrospectively discussed in relation to frequent pro-establishment assertions that Hong Kongers ought to accept Beijing’s sovereignty over the semi-autonomous region. The graffiti vignettes presented in this work express opposition towards the Mainland presence in Hong Kong, which illustrates underlying nativist sentiments.

KEYWORDS:

• Hong Kong
• China
• graffiti
• nativism
• anti-ELAB protests
• imaginative geographies

Disclosure statement

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