Reinvented acts of citizenship in Hong Kong: young people's pursuit of democracy through autonomy in everyday life

Abstract

This article examines the political imaginaries of youth activists in Hong Kong in the period between the Umbrella Movement of 2014 and the mass protests that began in 2019. Drawing on interviews with young people involved in a range of political movements, it traces the emergence of what I call reinvented acts of citizenship, which emphasise autonomous everyday life practices in the community as a form of citizenship and democratic participation. These are driven by the reflexive practices that are applied in daily life, which tend to inspire a communitarian type of citizenship. Even before the repression of the democracy movement through the 2020 passage of the National Security Bill, young people engaged in this form of citizenship had decided that the pursuit of autonomy in everyday life was a preferable and realistic alternative to struggles which sought to change the structures of representative democracy and rule in Hong Kong. The article charts the emergence of these reinvented acts of citizenship, considers their relationship to other forms of mainstream and activist citizenship in Hong Kong, and speculates on their future prospects as state repression takes hold in contemporary Hong Kong after the imposition of the National Security Law.