Occupy Central: Towards A Geography of Presence

Abstract

Occupy Central was a 79-day experiment in urban identity. Occupy-the Umbrella Revolution of 2014-rearranged space on the streets of Hong Kong. This rearranging suggests a geography of presence. Such a geography will explain how spaces of transit become spaces of meaning, how impersonal landscapes become imbued with memory. This paper takes up the warring ideologies-the accommodating and the discontented-as well as the range of lived experiences the erupted during Occupy. It connects the events of Occupy to Hong Kong's core identity: its Chineseness, its status as a world city, and its postcolonial legacy. On the political level Occupy seemed doomed to fail. Yet on the level of signification it subverted an urban landscape through a reimagining of presence.