Mask as identity? The political subject in the 2019 Hong Kong’s social unrest

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the significance of the masks worn by the protestors in Hong Kong’s 2019 political movement. The mask represents a collective political identity, but the act of wearing it is also an individual decision. The Hong Kong protestors wore masks for practical reasons – to hide their identities and to protect them from tear gas – so the mask represents the actual struggles of the protestors. But it also symbolizes the protestors as dissenting but autonomous subjects. I discuss three different kinds of subject produced by the mask: the phantom subject, the judiciary subject and the bare life. Each could be seen as the opposite of the others, but they also mutually define each other. Representing an unassailable me, the mask encourages individuals to connect to those who also put on the same mask, therefore urging individuals to understand the emotions, reasons and beliefs of others. The essay also demonstrates that the more contemporary social movements have become leaderless and are engendered in a network environment, the more the protestors desire unity and identity.