Anti-Extradition Bill Movement Research Articles

Blossom everywhere: the territoriality of Hong Kong’s neighbourhood Lennon walls

ABSTRACT This empirical study investigates the neighborhood Lennon Walls of Hong Kong during the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in 2019, which served as a platform for the public to express their opinions using sticky notes. Drawing on the discourse of territoriality, we argue that the Lennon Walls campaign de-territorialized public and private properties in local neighborhoods, thereby making them a social space for communication and broadening support and participation. The Lennon Wall sub-campaign strengthened the entire social movement. The findings enrich the debate of territoriality discourse in a social movement from protesters’ perspective and detail the understanding of the de-territoriality process.

Human-automated collectives: Automating communication for social movement mobilization

Central to algorithmically mediated activism is the politics of algorithmic (in)visibility. Activists must consider how they can increase the visibility of their claims. Bringing together critical data studies and social movement studies, this study introduces the concept of human-automated collectives to capture how activists strategically make collective claims about and through algorithms and mobilize algorithmic tactics on social media. Using Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill Movement as a case study, this study explores how activists interpreted social media algorithms, mobilized others to use various tactics to amplify their voice to gain algorithmic visibility, and contested counter-movement algorithmic strategies. We primarily drew upon a qualitative analysis of two pro-movement Facebook pages that shared algorithmic tactics published between July 2019 and January 2020 ( n = 694). The study contributes to theorizing the role of activists in decoding and contesting automated media for their practical purposes in connective action.

The transformation of political culture in Hong Kong: Tracing the decline of protest space

While it is obvious that the space for protests in Hong Kong has declined significantly, it is far less apparent how the political culture has been transformed. Based on an analytical framework using the Lefebvrian concept of space, the paper draws on the July 1st protest march to trace how the political space of the population has been reduced. Relatively quickly, Hong Kong has transformed from a vibrant civil society to one marked by fear and self-censorship similar to other authoritarian regimes. Following an expansion of protest space during the 2019 anti-extradition bill movement, the Chinese government has enacted a National Security Law to eliminate most political activism. The study shows the success of the government’s repression although the long-term impact is not yet clear.

Navigating gender hate in manospheres: women’s affective dissonance and refusal on LIHKG in the 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill movement

Abstract This article examines women’s dissonance and refusal of gender hate on LIHKG, a platform converged with local and Global North manospheres that gained prominence for political communication during Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement. Despite criticism for its misogyny, LIHKG witnessed women’s participation during the movement. However, women’s agencies are underexplored by its critics and studies on the manosphere. This study argues that acknowledging dissonance within manospheres redirects focus on the targets of gender hate, specifically women, accentuating the possibilities of feminist intervention within gender hate networks. Employing a digital ethnographic approach, this study contributes by: (1) providing a relational and contextualized understanding of the convergence between manospheres beyond the notion of homogenization; (2) redressing the injustice in hate which obliterates the hated bodies; and (3) breaking the unintended repetition of such injustice in the literature on the manosphere, which has paid little attention on the repugnant women’s agencies.

Political polarization and intimate distance: Negotiating family conflicts during a high-risk protest movement

Political polarization not only threatens democracy, but also disrupts family lives, causing clashes between family members with discordant political orientations. This article examines how individuals negotiate family conflicts during political divides, by focusing on the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in Hong Kong. Based on data drawn from interviews conducted with 37 self-identified protest participants, I develop the concept of intimate distance in order to capture the way in which the participants negotiated political disagreements with their immediate family. Individuals make peace with their families during a high-risk movement, not merely by restoring closeness, but also by adjusting the intimate distance with their family members in three interconnected aspects: everyday family life, cognitive and emotional aspects. Individuals employ a repertoire of practices, together with emotion work and boundary work, to alleviate confrontations, rebuild consensus, and contain political risks. This study contributes to a more nuanced conceptualization of intimacy and family conflict resolution, and unravels the impact of family interactions on the intensification or alleviation of ideological and affective polarization in relation to the interpersonal and societal level.

Platform-based diffusion-proofing: Digitally mediated discursive practice and China’s prevention of protest spillover during Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill Movement

Based on the example of mainland China’s online diffusion-proofing practices against Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill Movement, we identify a platform-based tactic of diffusion-proofing. We argue that this tactic manifested the orchestration of top-down statist governance and bottom-up grassroots practices, as well as within-border and cross-border discursive dynamics. Facilitated by the technical affordances of social media platforms, a faction of netizens both from mainland China and Hong Kong followed the state and its agents online to co-construct discourses for preventing the potential spillover of the Movement to mainland China. We further suggest that this tactic was enabled by the hybridization of both technical logic and discursive logic. The platform affordances, especially different types of hashtags, allowed the state and its agents to practice digitally mediated discursive production, reacting to the momentum of the Movement. As a result, a discourse was constructed, which delegitimatized protest actions and ignited nationalistic sentiment for the purpose of diffusion-proofing.

#59 : Greater Hope Leads to More Babies? Examining the Relationship Between Perceived Social Hope, Fertility Intention and Reproductive Decision-Making Among Hong Kong Childless Adults

Background and Aims: Hong Kong has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world at 1.1 children per woman. Prior studies focused on personal factors such as having a stable relationship and individual maturity as the most important conditions for parenthood. However, there is limited research about the relationship between individual perception of society and reproductive decision-making. Given that Hong Kong has experienced social turmoil such as the Umbrella Movement (2014), the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement (2019) and COVID-19 (2020) in this decade, this study explores whether the sense of social hope predicts fertility intention among Hong Kong childless adults. Method: Five Hundred and Four childless Hong Kong Chinese (Mean age=31.48±5.96) were recruited through community networks and social media. Data was collected between May and June 2022. The modified and translated Social Hope Scale (5-item) specifying “Hong Kong” was adopted to assess the participants’ level of social hope, with a 5-point Likert-scale of 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). The overall internal consistency of the translated version was excellent ([Formula: see text]=.92). Self-constructed items regarding fertility intention and family formation plan were included. Results: 56.7% of the participants considered having children, yet only 28.8% of them had a concrete family formation plan. The average level of social hope was 2.24 out of 5. Regression analyses showed that social hope significantly predicted fertility intention ([Formula: see text]=.111, p<.05). As expected, there was no impact of the level of social hope on sexual desire. In a nutshell, the participants’ hopeful thinking for Hong Kong society predicts their fertility intention. Conclusion: Given the social and political uncertainties are expected to continue in Hong Kong, these findings call for an increased psychosocial and fertility education for citizens to have long-term parenting planning and policies that increase their sense of social hope thus increasing their fertility intention.

Could Fact-checks Intervene Directionally Motivated Reasoning and Mitigate Social Divisions? A Case Study in Hong Kong

Abstract This study examined the effectiveness of fact-checking in reducing misperceptions held by people of two opposing camps in the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in Hong Kong. The experimental design mirrored the political rhetoric in the city’s media and exposed participants to erroneous information in news reports that cast protesters in a negative light or accused the police unfoundedly. We found that directional motivation persistently exerted a profound influence on people’s acceptance of misinformation. Exposure to fact-checks was found to have limited effects in combating the influence of misinformation and mitigating social division. The effects were contingent on the audiences’ attitude strength and fact-checkers. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of fact-checking is subject to the political and media contexts in which misinformation and fact-checks are circulated as well as the implications of those contexts on people’s trust in fact-checks.

Home as a site of resistance/repression? The intersection of family, politics and the Hong Kong 2019 protest movement

This article illuminates the mutually constitutive nature of activism and family life in the context of a high-risk protest movement, by focusing on the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in Hong Kong. Drawing on data collected through in-depth interviews with individuals who participated in the 2019 Movement, this article captures how politics penetrated individuals’ private lives through everyday family practices, and depicts the ways in which the protest movement undermined or fostered family cohesion. The findings illustrate the heterogeneity of family political interactions during political upheaval: while families were often sites of conflict and repression, which amplified political dissonance and reinforced hegemonic power relations within the domestic sphere, they could also become spaces of activism where individuals exchange political ideas and muster resources for collective actions. This study bridges the literature of family and social movement, by demonstrating how family lives and political participation are interwoven, and simultaneously structure protest participants’ biographical and social movement trajectories.

Leaderless Movements? Rethinking Leaders, Spontaneity, and Organisation-Ness

ABSTRACT ‘Leaderless movements’ are hallmarks of contemporary contentious politics. Yet, scholars have not reached a consensus on the definition of leaderless movements – with some highlighting ‘spontaneity’ while others explore ‘organisation-ness’. This study informs the theoretical debates by conceptualising leaderless movements as a shifting interplay of leaders, spontaneity and organisation-ness, using the case study of the 2019–20 Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Bill Movement. This study found that a plurality of social movement organisations had integrated both spontaneity and organisation-ness when mobilising, spanning from organisation formalisation to managing resources and advancing actions. The empirical findings of this study point to the need for rethinking the dynamics of leaders, spontaneity, and organisation-ness in contentious politics, suggesting a new definition that guides future studies of leaderless movements worldwide.

The practice of social movement unionism: COVID-19 and the Hong Kong medical workers’ strike

In this Theory into Practice article we discuss the collective agency of Hong Kong medical workers in COVID-19 in the context of social movement unionism (SMU). In particular, the article utilises Dhatt’s framework defining factors influencing health social movements (2019). We focus on the way the pro-democracy movement underpinned and shaped the five-day strike by 7000 healthcare workers that forced the government to close the Hong Kong–China border in February 2020. We argue that the strike was made possible by the political opportunities linked to collective fear arising from the SARS epidemic in 2003 and to revitalised civil society resulting from the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in 2019. It illustrates that framing strategies and organisational capacity capitalised on the discursive power and solidarity linked to these political opportunities. However, the failure to achieve demands related to resource redistribution, occupational safety and union rights reflect professionals’ dilemma on fulfilling their duty of care and the limitations of SMU in Hong Kong.

Does Violent Protest Receive Negative Coverage?—Media Framing of Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Bill Movement and French Yellow Vest Movement

Regarding media framing of protests, current studies have primarily focused on the negative side of framing tools, that is, marginalization devices that news media employ to belittle and demonize a protest. Yet little scholarship has scrutinized the positive side of framing tools, i.e., affirmation devices that mass media adopt to convey sympathy for and approval of a protest. Through comparing U.S. media coverage of two recent large anti-government movements taking place in China and France—the movements sharing similarities in vital factors impacting media coverage—this paper illustrates a series of affirmation devices, including highlighting issues and downplaying violence, blaming violence on authorities, stressing public approval, backing protest goals, and understating a movement’s dark side. A systematic examination of affirmation devices contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of media framing and the relations between the media and social movements. This exploration also challenges the popular conception that violence by protesters typically leads to negative media coverage.

The Effects of Large-Scale Social Movements on Language Attitudes: Cantonese and Mandarin in Hong Kong

Speakers with standard accents are typically judged more favorably than non-standard speakers, but this may shift in response to perceived intergroup conflict with ethnolinguistic outgroups. Three studies were conducted to examine how large-scale social movements may impact language attitudes in Hong Kong. Attitudes toward standard-accented and non-standard-accented Cantonese and Mandarin were collected across four instances in 2013 and 2015 (pre- and post-Umbrella Movement), 2018 and 2019 (pre- and post-Anti-Extradition Bill Movement), respectively. Compared to Study 1 (2013), Hong Kong participants judged standard speakers of Cantonese (the ingroup variety), and ingroup, non-standard speakers of Mandarin (the outgroup variety) significantly more favorably in Study 2 (2015). Study 3 showed that the retrospective endorsement of the Umbrella Movement moderated preferences for standard Cantonese and Mandarin speakers. Comparison of 2018 and 2019 data partially replicated the findings in Studies 1 and 2, though the current endorsement of the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement did not moderate preferences for standard speakers.

The Intervention of the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in the Norms of Citizenship in Hong Kong

Following the post-material shift of post-industrial societies, an evolution in citizenship norms from dutiful citizenship to engaged citizenship has occurred. This paper examines how people’s attitudes towards the Anti-Extradition Bill movement are related to these two citizenship norms. Using data collected from a population survey ( N = 817), this paper shows that the people supporting the movement and radicalism perceived dutiful citizenship to be less important and engaged citizenship to be more important. The compatibility between the two sets of citizenship was found to be stronger among the people who supported the movement, despite the frequent appearance of unlawful behaviour in the movement. To explain the moderating effect, observations from focus group interviews revealed that some people had a traumatic experience in the movement. This trauma led them to doubt the legitimacy of the authority. Therefore, although they perceived dutiful citizenship to be important, they could also support various unlawful behaviours that occurred in the movement.

Transnational Activism During Movement Abeyance: Examining the International Frontline of Hong Kong’s 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Movement

Why does the Hong Kong diaspora mobilize transnationally to support the Anti-ELAB Movement back home? How do overseas mobilizations help sustain movement during its abeyance period? Building on the theoretical grounding from transnational movement and diaspora studies, I identify four dimensions of transnational ties that diasporas have with their homeland—relational, political, cultural, and identity and value—and examine their effect on diasporic activism in the host countries. Using original survey data on Hong Kong Americans and interviews with members of overseas Hongkonger groups, I demonstrate that attachment to Hong Kong culture and localist values are the strongest drivers for transnational engagement.

Hong Kong and the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Movement

The 2019 Anti-extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement is the largest series of protests in Hong Kong’s history. This Special Issue includes eight articles written by experts. It aims to examine recent developments in Hong Kong, their impacts on the society, and implications to the city’s future.

Political Polarization and Relationship Dissolution on Social Media among Hong Kong Students during the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement

Political Polarization and Relationship Dissolution on Social Media among Hong Kong Students during the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement

Who Fact-Checks and Does It Matter? Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of Audience Fact-Checking Behaviour in Hong Kong

This study investigated the ways in which people engaged in fact-checking in a highly divided context—the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement (AEBM) in Hong Kong. A telephone survey representative of the Hong Kong population was conducted in 2020 ( N = 1,004). The findings showed that males with greater news consumption and issue involvement were more likely to engage in fact-checking behavior. Nevertheless, the effects of fact-checking appeared mixed. We first found that fact-checking behavior reduced belief in disagreeable misinformation only for supporters of the AEBM. More robust evidence showed that frequent fact-checking behavior reinforced, rather than reduced, partisans’ belief in misinformation regarding the opponent group. A warning of the backfire effects of fact-checking on exacerbating opinion polarization and social division is issued.

Datafication and implicated networks of demobilization: social movement demobilization in datafied societies

ABSTRACT An increasing number of social movements have taken the form of connective action achieved through datafication structures in the absence of central coordinating social movement organizations. Social movement demobilization in digitally-mediated connective action remains a relatively understudied area. Drawing together social movement studies and communication studies, we introduce the theoretical framework of ‘implicated networks of demobilization’ (INsD) to explore the dynamics and implications of datafication for social movement demobilization. Based on examples from the Anti-Extradition Bill movement in Hong Kong and the 2020 George Floyd protests in the United States, we theorize that the connective action embedded in the datafication structure confronts three demobilizational dynamics: implicated data, materiality, and epistemic dynamics. These dynamics imply that connective action mobilization in datafied societies faces constraints pertaining to state-level network oppression, potential threats imposed by the material datafication structure, and the spread of digital knowledge of self-protection. The INsD framework contributes to understanding the interactive data-mediated dynamics between the state and activists in connective action.

Constructing patriotic networked publics: conservative YouTube influencers in Hong Kong

abstract After the anti-extradition bill movement from summer 2019 until spring 2020, an upsurge in pro-government YouTube channels dramatically transformed the Hong Kong digital sphere. Using social media data and qualitative textual analysis, this commentary article examines the formation of patriotic networked publics by analyzing their participants, environments, and discursive practices in post-crisis Hong Kong. While the digital space in Hong Kong remains largely heterogeneous, the emergence of pro-government YouTube influencers has not only reshaped but also arguably reinforced the fragmented and polarized media landscape in Hong Kong. These influencers often utilize a mixture of nationalistic, conservative, and populist orientations, allowing them to demonstrate regime allegiance, advocate law and order, and frame themselves as the voice of the people through the strategic use of journalistic language. Parallel to the content providers of the alternative media outlets of the pro-democracy camp, these newer voices identified a niche and capitalized on the opportunity for fame. Their intervention unsettles the existing dynamics of the mediated public sphere, which has long been dominated by professional journalism and liberal discourse.