Anti-hierarchical activism in Hong Kong: the post-80s youth

Abstract

In 2009, a political youth movement known as the Post-80s emerged in Hong Kong to protest against the construction of a high-speed railway. While local academics and government officials framed the motivations of these youth protesters using economic rationales, I argue here that the Post-80s are better understood as conveying their dissatisfaction towards existing political structures in the city. This profile sets out Post-80s criticisms of the entrenched hierarchical dynamics in Hong Kong political culture that has shaped interactions between the government, political parties and the wider population, and discusses how the Post-80s have responded to the representational imbalances imposed by these hierarchical practices in the local political sphere by advocating for a way of doing politics where individual voices (as opposed to the collective) are emphasized, and where horizontal structures are used. I conclude by exploring the repercussions of this critique on recent political discourses and protests observed in Hong Kong.

Keywords:

• Post-80s
• youth activism
• Hong Kong politics
• hierarchies
• horizontality
• individualism

Notes

1. A total of forty-five Post-80s were involved in this research. While Post-80s informants shared common attributes in that they all have pro-democracy leanings and possess university degrees, they also come from diverse socio-economic situations; some were students and financially dependent on their parents, others were young professionals with stable careers or were intermittently employed. They also harboured different political aspirations. Some believed political reforms should be gradually introduced, whereas others demanded for immediate and radical changes to be realized.

2. Hong Kong political parties can be categorized as being pro-Democracy or pro-Beijing (a third category, known as the Localists, appeared in 2016). The Post-80s directed their critique only towards pro-Democracy parties because they have limited contact  with pro-Beijing parties.

3. OC is unrelated to Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP). OCLP was associated with the Umbrella Movement (UM) that took place from September to December 2014.