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This study examines the recent emergence of political consumerism in Hong Kong. Given its potential implications, we document the origin and maturation of this development and theoretically explain political consumerism from three perspectives: as a response to China's economic intervention, as a form of identity politics, and as a new form of political participation. Drawing on original data collected from a representative survey of the local population, supplemented by interviews with stakeholders from the pro- democracy economic circle, we found that people who opposed China-Hong Kong economic integration and expressed a strong local (as opposed to national) identity tended to support boycotting. People who engaged in political consumerism were active in both legal and radical protests, pointing to the complementary nature of these different forms of activism. Further, by adopting a mediation analysis, we find that support towards the Anti-extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement only partially mediate the effect of the factors on political consumerism, suggesting that they are distinct development despite their shared origins. This article provides a novel perspective on the political polarisation in Hong Kong among consumer markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong, as a former colony of the United Kingdom, is characterised as a hybrid of East and West. Its colonial history is commonly seen as establishing many positive aspects of Hong Kong and shaping good qualities of its people, such as the value of rule of law, free speech, freedom of the press, and fluency in English. Yet the majority of people in both Hong Kong and China share Han Chinese ethnicity, which has been used by both the Chinese and Hong Kong governments to promote a blood-based idea of Chinese identity for decades. This paper explores "Chineseness", or Chinese identity, as promoted by the Hong Kong government. It first explores the concept of Chineseness, elaborating on a blood-based view that connects with ethnic-nationalism, in contrast with a pluralistic view of identity in the Hong Kong context. The paper then examines how Hong Kong government officials promote Chineseness through major outlets, on government websites and in speeches captured in media. As we show, the government tends to advocate a blood-based view of Chineseness akin to ethnic-nationalism. A more inclusive and pluralistic view which recognises the dynamic nature and multiple visions of Chinese identity better fits Hong Kong's multicultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses how contemporary forms of regional assimilation by centralizing states affect the political behavior of threatened social groups within peripheral polities. Recent mainlandization, "the blurring of the physical, social, cultural and psychological border between Mainland China and Hong Kong," has constrained the region's autonomy. Here, we consider the political consequences of Chinese mainlandization. How does mainlandization affect the likelihood of political participation in Hong Kong? Drawing and expanding upon theories of social identity, we argue that mainlandization increases the political involvement among those who make the choice to identify as Hong Konger because this is the group under threat by China's recent actions. Hong Kongers politically mobilize as a response to mainlandization to combat Chinese threat and to improve the status of their identity group, of which their own sense of selves is also tied to. Using an original survey experiment, we find support for our theory. Hong Kongers are influenced by mainlandization to attend contentious protests, recruit others to attend such rallies, and sign pro-democratic petitions. We conclude by noting implications for China's increasing attempt to assimilate this electoral autocracy and discuss how our research informs Hong Kong political activism in 2019 and 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the emergence of community-based housing solutions in Hong Kong, including the Community Housing Movement (CHM) which was formally launched in late 2017. This phenomenon shares some of the features of community-based housing solutions in other places, such as collaboration between government, market and civil society actors to tackle housing undersupply problems. Nevertheless, there are some locally distinctive drivers behind this phenomenon. On one hand, community housing projects have been catalysed by the plight of low-income immigrant households in the private rental market, who live in poor-quality sub-divided flats. On the other hand, these projects were initiated by a local philanthropist, before being institutionalised by community organisations and attracting financial support from the government. The review concludes by emphasising the importance of going beyond the rhetoric of community housing and focusing on the root causes of affordability problems, since lower-middle income households are unlikely to benefit from current forms of community housing solutions, yet struggle with the lack of affordable homeownership opportunities in a neoliberal housing market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Analysis demonstrates in the simplest manner that the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region could not have authorised the courts it established to enforce non-applicable laws that violate itself. This lack of judicial authority to enforce laws inconsistent with the Basic Law cannot in itself be curtailed, even by a Standing Committee Interpretation without contradiction. Nor can the courts' obligation to ascertain the consistency of primary and subsidiary legislation with the Basic Law be prohibited by such an Interpretation without reducing the Basic Law into a non-justiciable paper tiger. Judicial enforcement of the Basic Law does not imperil Chinese sovereignty; if anything, it enhances the reputation and credibility of the Basic Law, the centrepiece of "One Country, Two Systems". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a highly controversial statement, the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong claimed that it is not "a department of the Central People's Government" within the meaning of art 22 of the Basic Law and hence not subject to the constitutional restraint of non-interference with the internal affairs of Hong Kong. The statement has received support from the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, but has aroused widespread concern on the extent of the autonomy of Hong Kong under the Basic Law. This article argues that the view of the Liaison Office is untenable, and may represent a change of policy towards Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is written by a former Royal Hong Kong Police officer whose service included Special Branch engaged in counter-terrorism intelligence, and who is currently resident in Hong Kong. It offers a detailed chronological overview of the development of the 2019 protests in Hong Kong; analyses the problems with the political response on the part of the Hong Kong and Beijing governments; it also looks at the tactics employed by the protesters, and critically examines the tactical and strategic response to the protests by the Hong Kong police. It also discusses the broader social and economic causes of the protests, and how the Hong Kong government might best respond to these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been studied on political representation either in democratic countries or in competitive authoritarian regimes. However, few have attempted to compare across the two. This article fills this gap by comparing democratic and authoritarian representations within the same collective decision-making body: the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. The original data derives from 2465 parliamentary questions made by 243 legislators serving in the last four legislative sessions from 1998 through 2012. The empirical analysis shows that the type of election variable does not have an impact on the volume of parliamentary questions but that it has a strong effect on the composition of parliamentary policy issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the manipulation of legislative rules in electoral authoritarian states. Electoral liberalization in authoritarian regimes creates the capacity for opposition forces to win legislative seats, but it does not ensure voice in the policy process. While the literature on institutional authoritarianism points to co-optation, dominant parties, and redistribution as mechanisms to control policy outcomes in authoritarian legislatures, we investigate an additional possibility: that electoral authoritarian regimes (EARs) select legislative institutions that allow free debate and unconstrained voting yet decouple electoral success from policy influence. Our analysis centers on the EAR in Hong Kong and its legislature, the Legislative Council (LegCo). We find that the LegCo's rules of procedure interact with electoral institutions to create considerable roadblocks to opposition initiatives, while at the same time facilitating the enactment of regime policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2014, students and Hong Kong citizens took to the streets demanding universal suffrage. Cell phones and video cameras in hand, amateur student filmmakers were some of the first to capture the police tear-gassing young people that brought the city to its feet. Young people were positioning themselves as storytellers and knowledge producers on the streets. How has this restructured hierarchy of knowledge production often found in university education in Hong Kong? How too has being active participants and/or passive observers of the events of the Umbrella Movement translated into a pedagogy of experience in student's daily lives, and how has this knowledge returned to the classroom? Specifically, I am interested in ways that young women who are not Cantonese first-language speakers understand their role in the movement and the kinds of knowledge they produced. Through interviews with these diverse students, and visual data from the footage they shot during the protests, we gain a rare glimpse into the multicultural world gathered beneath the umbrella of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, and how a new generation of young female filmmakers are using video to share their changing perspectives on democratic reform, education, and everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong is a 79 days political protest and occupy campaigns in major areas in the city. This chronology lists the key events prior to and during the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the work of Giorgio Agamben, this article offers a philosophical interpretation of Hong Kong's recent Umbrella Movement and the city's political identity since its 1997 handover to China. With the constitutional principle of 'one country, two systems' it has held since 1997, Hong Kong has existed as an 'inalienable alien' part of China not dissimilar to that of Agamben's political ontology of the homo sacer's 'inclusive exclusion' in the polis. In addition to highlighting how Agamben's politico-ontological notions such as 'exception' and 'inclusive exclusion' can illuminate the events of the Umbrella Movement, this article focuses particularly on the figure of the student, which many have seen as the symbolic face of the protest campaign. Considering how the student may also be regarded as a figure of 'exception', this article argues that the 'exceptional' role of the student highlights the unique sociopolitical as well as pedagogical aspects of the Umbrella Movement. Finally, comparing Hong Kong's 2014 protests to Agamben's philosophical account of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, this article concludes by suggesting that the Umbrella Movement is not simply a one-off event but fundamentally a manifestation of Hong Kong's continuing political existence since 1997. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author explores his role as an anthropologist in the protests in Hong Kong, China which started with the proposal of an extradition bill by the Hong Kong government in February 2019. Topics discussed include conflict of the extradition bill with Hong Kong's own legal system when it was returned to China in 1997, possible impact of the extradition bill on anthropologists, and the active participation of anthropologists in these protests.

The article focuses on Basic Law regarding free expression right in Hong Kong, China and Government has adopted this approach because it foresees losing a constitutional challenge to legislation. Topics discussed include need to erode the perception of Hong Kong's autonomy within the one country, two systems' (OCTS) model, basic constitutional structure of Hong Kong and its relationship to the rest of China and actions by a claim that localism was per se unconstitutional.

The present paper addresses the under-explored issue of the role of politics in the construction of masculinity, focusing specifically on political Confucianism and men’s doing of gender in the context of Hong Kong’s recent turbulent history. Between 2014 and 2016 we conducted a series of paired interviews and focus groups with 10 Hong Kong men from differing social backgrounds. Through cooperative grounded inquiry, we demonstrate how political events and figures provided points of reference for these men in the construction and performance of masculinities. We emphasize the importance of Confucian hierarchical harmony to gender performance, elaborating three cultural logics—respectability, responsibility, and romance—underpinning the doing of Hong Kong masculinities. We thereby shed light on the mutual constitution of personal and political selves and how men define and redefine masculine ideals in times of political turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature has long recognised that the Beijing government has utilised different strategies to suppress the opposition in Hong Kong. However, with the rise of localism against the Chinese government, the implications of such political repression require new exploration and insight. This article adopts Hale’s analytical framework on political repression and argues that the Beijing government can comparatively tolerate an opposition fighting for democratisation, but the localists who advocate self-determination or separatism are harshly condemned and suppressed. In Beijing’s approach, this ‘red line’ was adopted to place national security, territory integration and sovereignty as the top considerations. Theoretically, this paper contributes to distinguishing between two types of opposition groups within sub-national hybrid regimes and analyzes different responses from the sovereign state. Empirically, the case of Hong Kong will help enrich the existing literature by comparing Beijing’s strategies of repression in regard to the democratic opposition and localists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper forms a rejoinder to the paper by Luo & Zhai (‘“I will never go to Hong Kong again!” How the secondary crisis communication of “Occupy Central” on Weibo shifted to a tourism boycott’). It discusses claims Luo and Zhai (2017) make about negative impacts of Occupy Central protests on tourism sector in Hong Kong and debates application of sentiment analysis to censored social media platforms. The rejoinder concludes that there is no clear evidence that there has been a negative impact of Occupy Central on Hong Kong tourism. It also urges tourism academics to be more critical regarding the sources of information for their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The global wave of popular protests since 2011 has highlighted the importance of place to contentious politics. Focusing on Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, this article analyzes how place, when dramatized by the practice of protest camping, shapes collective identity formation and contestation. By examining the Mongkok protest camp, I argue that the symbolic meanings being attributed to the place have shaped a collective identity distinctive from other local protests. This place-based collective identity was constituted by two dimensions: a tactical dimension that advocated militant actions against the police and counter-protesters; and an associational dimension that sought to identify with the grassroots in political activism. While its formation helped to galvanize protesters’ solidarity at the early stage of the movement, the two dimensions gradually generated intensive conflicts, which eventually weakened solidarity and the movement claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, few studies have focused on how the public has perceived the effectiveness of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). Furthermore, little is known about how the public has assessed the functions of the ICAC during the political-economic convergence between Hong Kong and mainland China since 1997. This study attempts to explore local politicians' perceptions towards the ICAC in post-1997 Hong Kong. The quantitative data show that the important historical juncture of mainlandization has been politicized in Hong Kong and has deeply influenced the seriousness attached by local politicians to corruption. Moreover, a mediating path of the effect of "Conflict of Interest" on the "Perceived Seriousness of Corruption" has been found, that is, mainlandization is found to have brought about increased levels of conflict of interest among government officials, which has weakened the symbolic anti-corruption function of the ICAC and, in turn, has affected the perceived seriousness attached to corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong has been described as a city that prioritises socio-economic stability at the expense of political engagement. Despite recent protests -- such as the 2003 demonstration with half a million people taking to the streets -- that seemingly dispel such statements, Hong Kong youth activists claim that the city remains apolitical. This paper seeks to make sense of this discrepancy between the protests seen on the streets of the city and the observations and statements made by these youths. In attempting to unravel this puzzle, this paper highlights the importance for anthropologists of understanding how politics is conceptualised amongst their informants, which in turn determines the peculiar manifestations of political actions in that societal context. This paper argues that in Hong Kong, there are discrepancies between youth activists and the general population in how politics is framed and situated in relation to everyday life. It is then revealed that contemporary mainstream attitudes towards politics are actually a product of the city's colonial history. Finally, this paper will explore the sentiments (of indifference, discomfort, or frustration) youth activists and nonpolitical individuals respectively harbour towards politics and political actors, and the obstacles dominant attitudes towards politics pose for youth activists and anthropologists alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is interested in the impact of Facebook as a source for political information on public opinion during political controversies. In a society where the mainstream media are under heavy influence by the dominant power and yet Internet communication is largely open and free, social media may become particularly important for the transmission of critical information and viewpoints. The social media information environment may exhibit an overall ‘anti-establishment bias.’ However, the impact of social media should vary across individuals depending on the extent and character of user selectivity. Analysis of data collected during the political reform debate in Hong Kong (N = 3,246) show that reliance on Facebook as an information source relates negatively to support for the government’s reform proposal. But the relationship is strongest for people without a strong political orientation and people who do not name any newspapers as their main information source. General theoretical implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2000s, political youths in Hong Kong have engaged in physical confrontations with the local police during protests, resulting in these youths being seen as “violent” by the mainstream media and by the SAR government. But by bringing the youth views and interpretations of protest conflicts to the forefront, this article shows that different understandings of “violence” currently exist in the city. It also argues that dominant frameworks used to make sense of these protest clashes are based on antiquated Chinese cultural categories of 暴力baoli(mindless force) and 武力wuli(authoritative force), respectively used to describe the actions of youth protesters and the police, and cannot adequately encapsulate the complex motivations and manifestations of the conflicts observed in contemporary Hong Kong. The discussion then reviews how different groups have responded to protest violence, with emphasis on the instrumental uses of violence by the SAR government and by political youths. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the current political predicament in Hong Kong. However, rather than offering a casual political commentary on the current state of identity politics of Hong Kong, it offers a critical and historical evaluation of the ideas and practices of ‘Reunion in Democracy’ in the past decades. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explains why art 158 of the Basic Law may render Hong Kong's autonomy vulnerable and explores how Hong Kong courts can capitalise on common law techniques to mitigate the problems caused by art 158, using the most recent interpretation of art 104 of the Basic Law in 2016 as an example for illustration. In arguing that Hong Kong courts are in the best position to defend Hong Kong against improper Chinese acts, the article suggests that Hong Kong courts have jurisdiction to and should determine whether a purported interpretation is in substance an amendment before deciding whether and how to enforce it, reconsider whether the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) 's power under art 158 is free standing and revisit the issue of whether NPCSC interpretations shoidd have retrospective effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protest activists employ various strategies to challenge regimes, and regimes deploy multifaceted tactics to respond to such challenges. Existing studies on regime protest responses focus on repression and concession, but little attention is devoted to toleration, which is often regarded as government inaction. Drawing on primary sources and interviews, this article analyses regime responses to Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement to expand the conceptualisation of toleration. First, it demonstrates that regimes adapt multiple strategies to protesters' reactions rather than adhering to a single response. Second, it shows that toleration, other than ignoring protests, entails proactive tactics that we summarise as attrition. While 'tolerating' street occupation, the regime sought to eliminate political opportunities by maintaining elite cohesion, increase participation costs by mobilising countermovements and bolster legitimacy by leveraging the court as a revered institution. This new conceptual distinction thus captures regime innovation in counteracting protests and broadens the typology of regime responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Hong Kong as a case study, this article examines whether female legislators are more likely to represent women's interests than their male colleagues in a semi-democratic legislature. We address this question through conducting content analyses of the questions asked by legislators at the plenary meetings during the 2008-12 and 2012-16 legislative sessions. Our results show that female legislators in Hong Kong were significantly more likely to advance women's rights. However, except in the arena of education, there was no significant gender difference regarding traditional women's concerns. This study also finds that political orientation of legislators and the path through which legislators were elected significantly affected their likelihood of representing women's interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By examining the origins of Macao's 2014 protest against the Retirement Package Bill, this paper intends to answer whether Macao is encountering a governance crisis like Hong Kong's. Through a careful comparison, it concludes that Macao and Hong Kong are unlikely to follow the same political development trajectory, as there are considerable differences in the level of social mobilization and governmental coercive capacity between the two cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]