Speaking against Silence: Finding a Voice in Hong Kong Chinese Families through the Umbrella Movement

Abstract

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Democratising qualitative research methods: Reflections on Hong Kong, Taiwan and China

“…Our work with female Umbrella Movement activists is similarly aimed at providing a caring, supportive space for socio-political transformation through connecting feminist movements in Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan and the wider world ( Kong et al., 2018 ). The sharp exchanges noted above are perhaps evidence of our research participants’ intuitive understanding that our research encourages them to question the ‘hierarchical harmony’ ( Ho et al., 2017b ) and oppression they have experienced in their everyday lives in a Chinese society. The research platform provides a relatively safe space for learning that disrupting harmony is not a crime!…”

“…What do the five categories mean – and how are the approaches they entail practised – in the social and political contexts of Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China? In addressing that question, we reflect upon what we have learnt from both our own collaboration and that with the participants of our studies on the 2014 Umbrella Movement to explore the personal consequences of social movement participation for Hong Kong families ( Ho et al., 2017b ), Hong Kong men (Ho et al., 2018) and young female activists ( Ho et al., 2017a ) and to initiate a dialogue with the issue’s contributors. We discuss some of the opportunities and challenges of confronting the western/northern dominance of academia, from western theoretical hegemony and the valorisation of science to the constraints of knowledge production and dissemination within an authoritarian regime.…”

Brushed under the carpet: Examining the complexities of participatory research

“…Because these notions are themselves culturally informed, practising participatory research in cultures where hierarchical collectivism prevails inevitably highlights the need for cultural negotiation (Brannelly and Boulton, 2017), especially when community-based researchers have pre-established hierarchical relationships among themselves before they participate in research projects, as illustrated in the examples below. In a co-author's participatory action research project in Hong Kong with participants from Chinese ethnicities, democratic practices promoted within the inquiry group disrupted pre-existing and culturally valued familial hierarchy (see Ho, Jackson and Kong, 2018). Referring to friends and neighbours as 'sister/brother' or 'mother/father' can legitimize care obligations towards each other, particularly from junior to senior persons in the hierarchy.…”

“…However, without transforming the pre-established hierarchy, community-based researchers who are 'junior' in the hierarchy could be prohibited from speaking up in the group. These experiences question the Eurocentric understanding of 'democracy' (Ho, Jackson and Kong, 2018), and point to the need to make sense of how 'democracy' could be understood and negotiated in the everyday life practices of people, in this case a Chinese community, which may emphasize 'hierarchical harmony' over 'nonhierarchical dialogue' (Ho, Kong and Huang, 2018).…”

Talking Politics, Performing Masculinities: Stories of Hong Kong Men Before and After the Umbrella Movement

“…Our data suggest that the Hong Kong version of hegemonic masculinity, although sharing some features with that in mainland China, differs in other respects. There is a similar emphasis on wealth, economic individualism, and attachment to a patriarchal, hierarchical family order (see Ho et al, 2017), but loyalty to the party-state is not so ingrained given that Hong Kong has a long established tradition of free speech. For the men in our sample, deference to Beijing was a pragmatic move because they were well aware of the power of the PRC government, which clear in Wah's statement about knowing that the game was up after the June 4 massacre.…”