Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and the promotion of deviance

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs a social movement demanding universal suffrage, Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement mobilized thousands of young protesters and fomented radical views stridently subversive of mainland China’s political interference. The social movement continues to promote further forms of deviance in the form of calling for independence. As the city and former British colony lacks the sovereignty of statehood and democracy, the movement’s non-conformity to law needs to be contextualized as a form of deviance. In contributing to the deviancy of social movements, we utilize data obtained from interviews with participants of the movement alongside those who opposed the protest to understand the East Asian cultural setting of the Umbrella Movement’s promotion of deviance.