Reinvented acts of citizenship in Hong Kong: young people's pursuit of democracy through autonomy in everyday life

Abstract

This article examines the political imaginaries of youth activists in Hong Kong in the period between the Umbrella Movement of 2014 and the mass protests that began in 2019. Drawing on interviews with young people involved in a range of political movements, it traces the emergence of what I call reinvented acts of citizenship, which emphasise autonomous everyday life practices in the community as a form of citizenship and democratic participation. These are driven by the reflexive practices that are applied in daily life, which tend to inspire a communitarian type of citizenship. Even before the repression of the democracy movement through the 2020 passage of the National Security Bill, young people engaged in this form of citizenship had decided that the pursuit of autonomy in everyday life was a preferable and realistic alternative to struggles which sought to change the structures of representative democracy and rule in Hong Kong. The article charts the emergence of these reinvented acts of citizenship, considers their relationship to other forms of mainstream and activist citizenship in Hong Kong, and speculates on their future prospects as state repression takes hold in contemporary Hong Kong after the imposition of the National Security Law.

Keywords:

• Hong Kong
• urban citizenship
• young people
• Umbrella Movement

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the participants for their valuable insights in this study, which are derived from a portion of my doctoral thesis. The author would like to extend special thanks to Professor Kurt Iveson for his guidance and support in revising this article.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 The prolonged protest was triggered by the public discontent and opposition to the government proposal of amendment of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, which would have allowed the government to establish a mechanism for transfer of fugitives to Mainland China. This bill raised public deep concerns over the loss of autonomy of Hong Kong and it caused widespread discontent and evolved into a series of protests from 2019 to 2020.

2 Learned from the lesson of division in the pro-democratic camp in the late Umbrella Movement, slogans such as ‘no differentiation between peaceful and valiant protesters’ 和勇不分; ‘no snitching, no severing of ties’ (不篤灰、不割席) were widely adopted for keeping solidarity of the movement. The tenet of ‘be water’ emerged in the UM also as a motto of the movement to reinforce the decentralised, flexible, fluid and shapeless strategies.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lai Ling Lam

Lai Ling (Joy) Lam is an independent scholar and former social work lecturer from Hong Kong, with a background in community organising in both Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Email: [email protected]