Transnational events and impromptu participation: Youth participation in the Olympic torch relays in Hong Kong and Macao

Abstract

It has been six years since the Beijing Olympic torch relays were held in Hong Kong and Macao, the two Special Administrative Regions of China. Extensive research which was largely connected to nationalism and globalism has described aspects of who, when, where and how the torch relays were executed, but the question of why, being the most difficult to measure in a qualitative context, is absent from analysis of torch relay legacies. It is nonetheless critical to consider in order to understand how a transnational event stimulates civic engagement and political consciousness in Asia, especially among the younger generations. Through small-scale ethnographic fieldwork, this paper seeks to examine the motivations which influenced young people to participate in the torch relays in Hong Kong and Macao and suggests that, given the temporal nature of the torch relays, what lay behind the emergence of impromptu participation/involvement was young people's desire for self-discovery, excitement, pilgrimage and gro...