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ABSTRACT
The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong in 2014, which was the city’s largest scale civil disobedience movement, was first initiated by two university professors and a Baptist Reverend. They advocated the use of non-violent civil disobedience to fight for universal suffrage and genuine election of the Chief Executive in Hong Kong. Though the Umbrella Movement did not end up in successfully changing the electoral system of Hong Kong, its impact on students, academics and the civil society was far beyond the few months of occupation. At the same time, activist scholars had to pay the price for their political activism outside the academia. This paper reflects on the experience of activist scholars in the Umbrella Movement, evaluates their roles in pursuing social change, the challenges they faced, and their impact on students, the academia, and the civil society.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Karen Kong (BA(Oxon), LLM(Cantab)) is a senior lecturer and Deputy Director of the Master of Laws in Human Rights Programme at the Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong. She is a qualified solicitor in Hong Kong and in England and Wales. Her research interests include socio-economic rights, public interest litigation, constitutional and administrative law, and welfare law.
Notes
1 Eliza W. Y. Lee et al, Public Policymaking in Hong Kong: Civic Engagement and State-society Relations in a Semi-democracy (Oxford: Routledge, 2013).
2 Benny Tai, ‘Civil Disobedience as Weapon of Mass Destruction’, Hong Kong Economic Journal, January 16, 2013, http://oclp.hk/index.php?route=occupy/article_detail&article_id=23 (in Chinese).
3 Ibid.
4 Jason Ng, Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong’s Occupy Movement Uncovered (Hong Kong: Blacksmith Books, 2016), 60.
5 Kin-man Chan, ‘Occupying Hong Kong: How Deliberation, Referendum and Civil Disobedience Played Out in the Umbrella Movement’, Sur Journal 21 (2015).
6 Occupy Central with Love and Peace, Letter of Intent, http://oclp.hk/index.php?route=occupy/letter_detail&letter_id=11.
7 Jazz Ma, Frank Lee, and Robert Chung, ‘Electronic Voting and Civil Referendums in Hong Kong’ (Public Opinion Programme, The University of Hong Kong), https://www.hkupop.hku.hk/english/columns/columns156.html.
8 Chan, ‘Occupying Hong Kong’.
9 Peggy Sito et al, ‘Occupy Central “unwise”, says Peter Woo of Wharf, a Likely Loser from Protest’, South China Morning Post, June 9, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1528964/occupy-central-not-worth-it-says-peter-woo-wharf-likely-loser-protest; Cannis Yau and Enoch Yiu, ‘Political Tensions Could Undermine Hong Kong as China's Top Financial Centre: Joseph Yam’, South China Morning Post, June 23, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1539240/political-tensions-could-undermine-hong-kong-top-financial-centre; Adrian Wan, ‘Beijing “will not back down” on Hong Kong’s political reform, says state newspaper’, South China Morning Post, August 26, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1580796/beijing-will-not-back-down-its-stance-over-hong-kongs-political-reform.
10 Ng, Umbrellas in Bloom, 66.
11 NPCSC, ‘Decision of the NPCSC on Issues Relating to the Selection of the Chief Executive of the HKSAR by Universal Suffrage and on the Method of Forming the Legislative Council of the HKSAR in the year 2016’, August 31, 2014, http://www.2017.gov.hk/filemanager/template/en/doc/20140831b.pdf.
12 Peter So et al, ‘Hong Kong Pan-dems, Occupy Organisers Vow “Long Fight” as Beijing Rules Out Open 2017 Election’, South China Morning Post, August 31, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1582236/china-parliament-rejects-public-nomination-2017-hong-kong-election.
13 Staff Reporters, ‘Up to 3,000 Secondary Students Join Pro-democracy Protest on Final Day of Class Boycott’, South China Morning Post, September 26, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1600735/hong-kong-secondary-school-pupils-join-student-protesters-class.
14 BBC, ‘Thousands of Hong Kong Students Start Week-long Boycott’, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29306128; Ng, Umbrellas in Bloom, 71.
15 Jeffie Lam et al, ‘Up to 3,000 Secondary Students Join Pro-democracy Protest on Final Day of Class Boycott’, South China Morning Post, September 26, 2014; Jeffie Lam and Chris Lau, ‘Over 1,500 Secondary Pupils Cut Classes for Democracy’, South China Morning Post, September 27, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1601214/over-1500-secondary-pupils-cut-classes-democracy.
16 Staff Reporters, ‘Occupy Central is on: Benny Tai Rides Wave of Student Protest to Launch Movement’, South China Morning Post, September 27, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1601625/hong-kong-students-beat-us-it-benny-tai-declares-start-occupy-central.
17 Nash Jenkins, ‘Crowds Gather to Remember Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution, One Year On’, Time, September 28, 2015, http://time.com/4051543/hong-kong-occupy-central-anniversary/.
18 Staff Reporters, ‘Talks Fail to Narrow Gap Between Student Leaders and Hong Kong Government’, South China Morning Post, October 21, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/print/news/hong-kong/article/1621694/talks-fail-narrow-gap-between-student-leaders-and-government.
19 Nick Kirkpatrick and Justin Wm. Moyer, ‘Hong Kong’s Occupy Central Protest is no more’, The Washington Post, December 16, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/16/hong-kongs-occupy-central-protest-is-no-more/?utm_term=.4ea0a4554551.
20 Julie Chu, ‘High Court judge’s Refusal to Stall Injunction Gives Green Light for Admiralty Clearance’, South China Morning Post, December 5, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1656244/high-court-set-rule-occupy-protesters-bid-stall-admiralty-clearance.
21 Michael Flood, Brian Martin, and Tanja Dreher, ‘Combining Academia and Activism: Common Obstacles and Useful Tools’, Australian Universities Review 55 (2013): 17.
22 Benny Tai, ‘Constitutional Game: An Analytical for Constitutional Law and Constitutional Politics’, Journal of Politics and Law 3 (2010): 56; Benny Tai, ‘Developing an Index of the Rule of Law: Sharing the Experience of Hong Kong’, Asian Journal of Comparative Law 2 (2007): 1; Benny Tai, ‘One Country Two Systems: The Two Perspectives’, Macau Law Journal (2003): 143.
23 Karita Kan, ‘Occupy Central and Constitutional Reform in Hong Kong’, China Perspectives 3 (2013): 73.
24 Chan, ‘Occupying Hong Kong’.
25 Ying-ho Kwong, ‘State-society Conflict Radicalization in Hong Kong: The Rise of “Anti-China” Sentiment and Radical Localism’, Asian Affairs 47 (2016): 428, 433; Joseph Yu-shek Cheng, ‘The Emergence of Radical Politics in Hong Kong: Causes and Impact’, China Review 14 (2014): 199; Che-po Chan, ‘Post Umbrella Movement: Localism and Radicalness of the Hong Kong Student Movement’, Contemporary Chinese Political Economy and Strategic Relations: An International Journal 886 (2016): 895.
26 See the HKU Rule of Law Education Project, http://www.role.hku.hk/; Benny Tai, ‘Justice Through Law: The Civil Disobedience Bomb – Interview of Benny Tai’, https://www.inmediahk.net/node/1015347 (in Chinese).
27 Benny Y. T. Tai, The Passion for Rule of Law: Values beyond Legal Text and Legal Institutions (Hong Kong Educational Publishing Co., 2012) (in Chinese), 4.
28 Tanna Chong, ‘Academic Benny Tai Proves He is not All Talk and No Action’, South China Morning Post, May 19, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1515056/academic-benny-tai-proves-he-not-all-talk-and-no-action.
29 Chan, ‘Occupying Hong Kong’.
30 Wing-Wah Law, ‘Higher Education in Post-1997 Hong Kong: Politics, Academic Freedom, and for Civic Engagement’, in The Changing Academic Profession in Hong Kong, ed. Gerard A. Postiglione and Jisun Jung (Hong Kong: Springer, 2017), 59.
31 Kin-man Chan, ‘Career Loss but Regain My True Self’, Ming Pao, September 25, 2014, https://news.mingpao.com/pns/%E9%99%B3%E5%81%A5%E6%B0%91%EF%BC%9A%E4%B8%9F%E4%BA%86%E5%A4%9A%E5%B9%B4%E4%BA%8B%E6%A5%AD%20%20%E9%87%8D%E6%8B%BE%E7%9C%9F%E6%AD%A3%E8%87%AA%E6%88%91/web_tc/article/20140925/s00001/1411579877363.
32 Staff Reporters, ‘The Deepest Pain of the Umbrella Movement is the Loss of Kin-man Chan in China’, Stand News, January 7, 2017 (in Chinese).
33 Yang Sheng, ‘“Occupy Central” Tramples the Rule of Law, Will Destroy HK Luster’, China Daily Asia, May 29, 2013, https://www.chinadailyasia.com/opinion/2013-05/29/content_15075060.html.
34 BBC, ‘Secretary for Secretary Fears that Occupy Central may lead to chaos’, June 12, 2014, https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/china/2014/06/140612_hk_security_occupy_central (in Chinese).
35 Xiaojuan Ping and Tai Wei Lim, Contextualizing Occupy Central in Contemporary Hong Kong (Imperial College Press, 2015), 76.
36 Staff reporters, ‘Benny Tai: If I Agree with Civil Disobedience, I have to Act Rather than Sit in an Air-conditioned Room and Criticize’, InMedia, August 22, 2017, http://www.inmediahk.net/node/1051573 (in Chinese).
37 Stephen John Quaye, Mahauganee Dawn Shaw, and Dominique C. Hill, ‘Blending Scholar and Activist Identities: Establishing the Need for Scholar Activism’, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 10 (2017): 381.
38 Youshun Cai, The Occupy Movement in Hong Kong: Sustaining Decentralized Protest (Routledge, 2017), 107.
39 Ibid., 104.
40 Ariel Li, ‘Occupy Central: Divided We Stand?’ Berkeley Journal of Sociology (2014), http://berkeleyjournal.org/2014/10/occupy-central-divided-we-stand/.
41 Jeffie Lam and Joyce Ng, ‘Is this Goodbye to Occupy Central? Co-founder Benny Tai Admits, “We failed”’, South China Morning Post, September 2, 2014, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1583636/occupy-centrals-strategy-has-failed-and-support-waning-benny-tai.
42 Gary Cheung and Jeffie Lam, ‘The Occupy Protests: A Month that Shook Hong Kong to Its Core’, South China Morning Post, October 27, 2014, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1625312/occupy-protests-month-shook-hong-kong-its-core.
43 This includes the storming of the legislative council on 19 November, and the blocking of the government headquarters on 30 December. See Cai, The Occupy Movement in Hong Kong, 132, 137.
44 Michelle Chen and James Pomfret, ‘Hong Kong Occupy Founders Tell Students to Retreat Amid Fears of Violence’, Reuters (2014), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-china-idUSKCN0JE0KI20141202; Benny Tai et al, ‘Occupy Central Trio's Letter to the Hong Kong People’, December 2, 2014, http://oclp.hk/index.php?route=occupy/eng_detail&eng_id=61.
45 Reporter, ‘Kin-man Chan: No More Social Movement Organizing, Will Pass on to Younger Generation’, Apple Daily, December 9, 2014, https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/realtime/article/20141209/53210091 (in Chinese).
46 Catherine Chen, ‘Benny Tai Admitted a Failure in Social Movement Organizing: He is More Suitable for Teaching’, The News Lens, December 15, 2014, https://hk.thenewslens.com/article/10335 (in Chinese).
47 Cai, The Occupy Movement in Hong Kong, 129.
48 Yuan-ying Wu, ‘The Flowers are not in Blossom when I Leave’, Citizen News, March 2, 2018, https://www.hkcnews.com/article/10456/%E9%99%B3%E5%81%A5%E6%B0%91-%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%B8-%E4%BD%94%E4%B8%AD%E4%B8%89%E5%AD%90-10456/%E6%88%91%E8%A1%8C%E8%8A%B1%E6%9C%AA%E9%96%8B%E2%80%94%E2%80%94%E9%99%B3%E5%81%A5%E6%B0%91 (in Chinese).
49 Reporter, ‘Kin-man Chan’.
50 Jeffie Lam, ‘ThunderGo: Hong Kong Law Academic Launches Scheme to Encourage Strategic Election Voting’, South China Morning Post, June 6, 2016, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1966448/thundergo-hong-kong-law-academic-launches-scheme-encourage.
51 For example: Joe Y. F. Lau, ‘Reflections on the Umbrella Movement: Implications for Civic Education and Critical Thinking’, Education Philosophy and Theory 1 (2017); Francis L. F. Lee, ‘Social Movement as Civic Education: Communication Activities and Understanding of Civil Disobedience in the Umbrella Movement’, Chinese Journal of Communication 8 (2015): 393; Tin-yuet Ting, ‘Struggling for Tomorrow: The Future Orientations of Youth Activism in a Democratic Crisis’, Contemporary Social Science 12 (2017): 242.
52 L. Jackson and T. O’Leary, ‘Education and the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement’, Educational Philosophy and Theory (2017): 2, doi:10.1080/00131857.2016.1268523, 2.
53 For example, Ng, Umbrellas in Bloom.
54 Robin D. G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams (Boston, MA: Beacon, 2002), 8.
55 Lau, ‘Reflections on the Umbrella Movement’, 1.
56 Li-si Cha, ‘Time to Look at the Positive Side of the Umbrella Movement’, EJ Insight, December 18, 2014, http://www.ejinsight.com/20141218-time-to-look-at-the-positive-side-of-the-umbrella-movement/.
57 Francis L. F. Lee, ‘Social Movement as Civic Education: Communication Activities and Understanding of Civil Disobedience in the Umbrella Movement’, Chinese Journal of Communication 8 (2015): 393, 405.
58 Time Staff, ‘Youthquake: Hong Kong's New Political Generation in a Round-table Conversation with TIME’, Time, October 7, 2016, http://time.com/4516167/hong-kong-independence-democracy-legislature-youth/.
59 James Partaken, ‘Listening to students about the Umbrella Movement of Hong Kong’, Educational Philosophy and Theory (2017): 8, doi:10.1080/00131857.2017.1318045.
60 Marco Wan, ‘The Artwork of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central Movement’, in Civil Unrest and Governance in Hong Kong, ed. Michael H. K. Ng and John D. Wong (Oxford: Routledge, 2017), 179.
61 Daniel Matthews, ‘Narrative Space and Atmosphere: A Nomosphere Inquiry into Hong Kong’s Pro-democracy “Umbrella Movement”’, Social & Legal Studies 26 (2016): 25, cited in Albert Chen, ‘Social Movement and the Law: The Case of Hong Kong’, ibid.
62 Tom Phillips, ‘Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement Spawns New Political Party’, Guardian, April 10, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/10/hong-kongs-umbrella-movement-spawns-new-political-party-demosisto.
63 Malte Philipp Kaeding, ‘The Rise of “Localism” in Hong Kong’, Journal of Democracy 28 (2017): 157.
64 Ibid.
65 Po Jen Yap and Eric Chan, ‘Legislative Oath and Judicial Intervention in Hong Kong’, Hong Kong Law Journal 47 (2017): 1.
66 Kin-man Chan, ‘The Consequence of Perceived Failure of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong’ (3rd ISA Forum of Sociology, June 26, 2016), http://futureswewant.net/kin-man-chan-hong-kong/.
67 Kwong, ‘State-society Conflict Radicalization in Hong Kong’.
68 Kong Tsung-gan, ‘Three Years on, the Umbrella Movement Fallout Determines Hong Kong Politics Today’, Hong Kong Free Press, October 2, 2017, https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/10/02/three-years-umbrella-movement-fallout-determines-hong-kong-politics-today/.
69 Mark Leong, ‘Reflections from a Revolution’, The Chronicle of Higher Education (2015), http://www.chronicle.com/interactives/umbrella_revolution.
70 Staff Reporters, ‘Post-Umbrella Group “The Wanchai Common” Promotes Community Engagement by Starting with a Dialogue’, InMedia, September 9, 2015, https://www.inmediahk.net/node/1037315.
71 Johannes M. M. Chan and Douglas Kerr, ‘Academic Freedom, Political Interference, and Public Accountability: The Hong Kong Experience’, Journal of Academic Freedom: 21.
72 Staff Reporters, ‘Leaked Emails: Benny Tai Involved in Anonymous Donations to HKU’, EJ Insight, http://www.ejinsight.com/20141029-leaked-emails-benny-tai-involved-in-donations-to-hku/.
73 Joyce Ng and Shirley Zhao, ‘Occupy Central Founder Benny Tai Banned from Supervising Researchers for Three Years Following HKU Donation Scandal’, South China Morning Post, August 26, 2015, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1852595/university-hong-kong-scholars-face-disciplinary.
74 Jeffie Lam, ‘Professor Quits Over Occupy Central’, South China Morning Post, August 7, 2013, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1294785/professor-quits-over-occupy-central.
75 Wing-Wah Law, ‘Higher Education in Post-1997 Hong Kong: Politics, Academic Freedom, and Civic Engagement’, in The Changing Academic Profession in Hong Kong, ed. Gerard A. Postiglione and Jisun Jung (Hong Kong: Springer, 2017), 61.
76 Quaye, Shaw, and Hill, ‘Blending Scholar and Activist Identities’.
77 Kevin Carrico, ‘Academic Freedom in Hong Kong Since 2015: Between Two Systems’, Hong Kong Watch, January 2018, https://www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/2018/1/22/academic-freedom-report.
78 Joyce Ng and Ada Lee, ‘Professor Johannes Chan, the “meddle” Man at Centre of HKU Row’, South China Morning Post, February 16, 2015, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1714140/professor-johannes-chan-meddle-man-centre-hku-row.
79 Joyce Ng and Tony Cheung, ‘Former University of Hong Kong Law Dean Johannes Chan Cleared of Mishandling Occupy-related Donation’, South China Morning Post, March 27, 2015, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1748042/former-university-hong-kong-law-dean-johannes-chan-cleared.
80 Johannes Chan and Douglas Kerr, ‘Academic Freedom, Political Interference, and Public Accountability: The Hong Kong Experience’ Journal of Academic Freedom 7 (2016): 1.
81 Joyce Ng, ‘Academics' Alliance Slams “incredulous” Reasons Given for Rejecting Johannes Chan Appointment as HKU Pro-vice-chancellor’, South China Morning Post, October 9, 2015, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1865362/academics-alliance-slams-incredulous-reasons; Jeffie Lam, ‘“A Deliberate Attempt to Vilify”: University of Hong Kong Scholar Yash Ghai's Full Statement in Support of Johannes Chan’, South China Morning Post, October 2, 2015, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1863508/deliberate-attempt-vilify-university-hong-kong.
82 Joyce Ng, ‘2,000 HKU Students and Staff Joined Silent March to Protest Liberal Scholar’s Rejection from Key Post’, South China Morning Post, October 6, 2015, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1864546/hku-staff-and-students-hold-silent-march-demand.
83 Shirley Zhao and Jasmine Siu, ‘Critics, Allies Line Up as Arthur Li Appointed Hong Kong University’s Governing Council Chairman’, South China Morning Post, December 31, 2015, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1896674/critics-allies-line-arthur-li-appointed-hong-kong; Shirley Zhao and Gary Cheung, ‘New Head of HKU Council, “King Arthur” Known for His Highhanded Combative Style and Controversial Remarks’, South China Morning Post, December 31, 2015, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1896817/new-head-hku-councilking-arthur-known-his-high.
84 Jeffie Lam, ‘More than 3,000 March Against Arthur Li’s Appointment as Chairman of HKU Governing Council’, South China Morning Post, January 3, 2016, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1897821/more-3000-march-against-arthur-lis-appointment.
85 Report of the Working Party on the Recommendations of the Review Panel on University Governance, June 2017.
86 Chris Lau and Joyce Ng, ‘Occupy Leaders Arrested and Charged a Day After Carrie Lam Wins Hong Kong Chief Executive Election’, South China Morning Post, March 27, 2017, http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2082375/occupy-leaders-told-they-face-prosecution-day-after-carrie.
87 Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Articles 34, 137.
88 Law, ‘Higher Education in Post-1997 Hong Kong’, 68.
89 Ibid.
90 Chris Patten, ‘The Closing of the Academic Mind’, Project Syndicate, February 22, 2016, https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/academic-freedom-under-threat-by-chris-patten-2016-02.