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The aim of this article is to analyse to what extent demands for democracy apropos of the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong are the result of postcolonial determinations. We suggest that this is part of social discourses founded on narratives of cultural difference, portraying a distinctive Hong Kong’s identity in contrast to Mainland China. Even though we recognise the influence of networked transnational movements in this movement, we establish that there is a postcolonial strategic essentialism guiding the demands for participatory democracy in Hong Kong. This article is organised in three sections. First, we present the Umbrella Revolution characteristics, organisation, and demands. In the second part, we introduce a theoretical analysis about the existence of a certain social imaginary emanated from the island’s post-colonial condition. In the third section, we elaborate about collective actions in the light of the New Social Movements theory. Finally, we conclude by highlighting the insistence on including a postcolonial route as to enhance the understanding of this kind of mass mobilisations, since it allows the aggregation of local features toward comprehending the formation and development of social movements in the Global South.

This article analyzes the relationship between the foundation, consolidation and reinvention of the political elite in the People's Republic of China and the search to modernization from an historical perspective. To do this, this article proposes that modernity is a political project that has been an important ideological justification. This justification allowed that Chinese Communist Party took the political power. Also, the project of modernization has favored the reinvention of the political elite. The contribution of this paper is to present this process and the particular characteristics of Chinese history. In conclusion, this paper suggests that the search to modernization has been a constitutive element with deep historical roots.

This article analyzes the Chinese space program and how the bureaucratic elite acts to convert China as a leading nation in international arena. This article assumes that, beyond the scientific advances that space exploration has in multiple fields of knowledge, the support to the space program depicts a way to project a positive image of China. This image is a China rising in the international community. The author discusses how space missions and the discourse around the space program strengthen national pride. Thus, China’s space program projects the image of a Greater China. The article concludes that the space program shows that China is modernizing rapidly and is able to be a world power.