Hong Kong's vehicles of democracy: The vernacular monumentality of buses during the Umbrella Revolution

ABSTRACT

Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution saw some of the city's busiest streets transformed into temporary sites of artistic expression and freedom. This essay explores the everyday items were turned into in-situ tools of protest – in particular, the subversive use of double-decker buses. I analyze how a number of double-decker buses were transformed from a form of moving rhetoric into static, vernacular monuments representing Hong Kong's history and serving as democratic billboards. Through the display of Hong Kong's present (mainlandization), past (colonization), and future (democracy), the city's protesters were, I suggest, able to communicate their fears about the increasing effects of mainlandization in an attempt to shift Hong Kong's political possibilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Hong Kong
• historicity
• Umbrella Revolution
• social movements
• protest rhetoric

Acknowledgments

Very special thanks to Eric Aoki, Greg Dickinson, and Sonja K. Foss. Additional gratitude to Emily Amedée, Savanna Depew, Patrick Shaou-Whea Dodge, Lauren Fletcher, Ryan Greene, Stephen J. Hartnett, Kristin Herring, Laura Hoffman, Lisa B. Keränen, Kristina M. Lee, Henry D. Miller, Todd L. Sandel, and the blind peer reviewers at the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication for their advice, conversation, and/or editing suggestions.

Notes on contributor

Andrew Gilmore is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University.

Notes

1 For Bland (2017a), members of “Generation HK” have “much weaker ties to the mainland” (p. 5) than their older relatives and, moreover, are not “bound by the traditions and limitations” of British colonial rule (p. 5).

2 Hong Kong was returned to the People's Republic of China in 1997, following 150 years of British colonial rule. The Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed by the UK and the PRC, laid the foundations of Hong Kong's post-colonial existence.

3 Bus 689 available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2774671/Hong-Kong-s-leader-calls-protesters-leave-streets-pro-democracy-campaigners-continue-bring-parts-region-standstill.html#i-b9dd337eacf3c2b9

4 The re-worked bus stop signage available at: http://hongkongthrumyeyes.com/2014/10/13/bus-689-to-democracy/

5 The Lukfook Bus available at: http://hkbus.wikia.com/wiki/檔案:1117-Occupy_Mong_Kok_20140930.JPG

6 Despite the ephemeral nature of bus advertisements, research reveals that Hong Kongers do pay attention to the products that buses promote (Prendergast & Hang, 1999).

7 Bus #777, see Supplemental Material.

8 The yellow handles, available at: https://www.dimsumdaily.hk/make-seatbelts-mandatory-on-bus/