Police-related statements during the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong—“laying hands down” or an attempt at discursive formation

Abstract

In September 2014, a large-scale unprecedented democratic movement, commonly called the “Umbrella Revolution/Movement”, broke out in Hong Kong. Its occupying phase lasted for 79 days. During this period, police intervened violently in numerous occasions. Being an active participant in this movement who experienced police violence, got arrested and was conditionally released afterwards, the author has selected 39 police-related statements uttered by various parties during the movement and attempts to conduct a preliminary discourse analysis analyzing their relationships (including their objects, sites of utterance, speakers’ positions in relation to listeners, sequence, mutual response, and thematic choices), thereby exhibiting Hong Kong's discursive formation that renders these statements possible. As the analysis unfolds, one will notice how the extreme imbalance of power between the establishment and the people can help produce discourses so twisted as to reach the point of defying logic and common sense. In spite of the weak voices of resistance, the utterance of which is the inevitable result of such an imbalance, pro-establishment voices are just too overwhelming, shocking and disorienting of the senses of ordinary Hong Kong citizens. By this analysis, the author is also making a desperate appeal to the intellectual community to continue their concern for Hong Kong and its people, especially on Hong Kong's progress of political reform and human rights conditions.