Civil Disobedience and the Rule of Law: Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement

Abstract

thE 2014 UMBrElla MovEMENt demands the world to pay attention to a new generation of the Hong Kong people coming of age. Although the neoliberal capitalist mind-set is still dominant in the city, a new form of communal vision emphasizing egalitarianism and conviviality has usurped the emotional identification of these youths, who regard it as a more authentic cultural identity in opposition to the “national– global” one promoted in Hong Kong’s mainstream society. On the positive side, many young residents have begun to see Hong Kong less as an abstract global city in which they climb their individual social ladders and more as a community with a living history, material existence, and daily intersubjective encounters. The meaning of living “here” pertains no longer just to the city’s provision of individualistic opportunities but also to emotive embedding and social responsibilities, so richly observed in the occupation sites. At the same time, however, this discursive construction of Hong Kong as a community also risks the fetishization of the local and the past. Decolonization is a very difficult project in Hong Kong, largely because the British colonial legacy is now widely (mis)conceptualized in terms of liberalism, contrasting so vividly with the PRC’s authoritative governance. Some young people have expressed nostalgia for a British colonialism they never really experienced, thus the Dragon and Lion flag (modified from the British colonial flag) appearing in those rallies against the government or PRC tourists. In the last couple of years, there is clearly an increasing discrimination against PRC mainlanders, who are seen as jeopardizing the local people’s rights, values, and ways of life. A very vague and unstructured Hong Kong independence movement has also emerged