The rise and ongoing legacy of localism as collective identity in Hong Kong: Resinicisation anxieties and punishment of political dissent in the post-colonial era

Abstract

China’s new National Security Law, enacted in Hong Kong on 30 June 2020, has amplified widespread concerns among the city’s population regarding the implications of this law. These concerns have at root anxieties related to Hong Kong’s resinicisation, referring to anxieties over Hong Kong's political and economic dependence on mainland China, including loyalty and patriotism towards the motherland. This paper explores these developments in relation to the ongoing legacy of localism, argued to be instilled as a colonial project to help secure the populations’ identification with Hong Kong. Seen as ‘criminals’ from the perspective of mainland Chinese authorities, many of those involved in today's protests (many of whom include young people) see themselves as engaging in legitimate forms of civil disobedience. First explicating the context of Hong Kong's colonial history in order to help make sense of present-day turmoil, we turn to recent trends in arrests related to the protests, as well as evidence of rapidly declining trust in the Hong Kong Police Force, seen by some as increasingly beholden to the interests of mainland China. Implications for these trends going forward are considered, with a discussion of the need for greater attention to colonial histories and post-colonial ramifications.

Radicalism and Life Meaningfulness Among Hong Kong Youth

“…Wang, 2019). Herein, localism or nativism regards Mainland China as alien and Mainlandizing or imposing Mainland China's form on Hong Kong to erode its uniqueness (Adorjan et al, 2021). Similarly, employment achievement or earning power consolidates meaning in capitalism, which is antithetical to the socialist bedrock in Mainland China (Bernstein, 2012).…”

Time as Vernacular Resource: Temporality and Credibility in Social Problems Claims-Making

“…org/ wiki/ File: Tiana square. jpg coverage but its convergence alongside stories of violent protests in Hong Kong which some link back to the 'June 4 th crackdown' (see Adorjan et al, 2021). 7 Hubbert (2014: 122) details particular memes which take the icon of a lone individual facing off against a series of tanks, but that individual having 'the 99%' behind them in opposition to the tanks, which are themselves reappropriated to symbolize the U.S. government's resistance to the 'Occupy' protests on Wall Street in September 2011 (see Fig.…”

The Practice of Post-Handover Party Interactions between Hong Kong and Taiwan

“…Moreover, apart from the change of dominant actors, Hong Kong's liminality is compounded by the fact that its postcolonial fate did not end in independence like other colonies but a transfer of sovereignty and an untested project of 'One Country, Two Systems' . Such an in-between state of postcolonial Hong Kong created anxiety for political actors (Adorjan, Khiatani & Chui, 2021;Lui, 1999). Amid these uncertainties, it explains why the narrative of 'democratic reunification' (民主回歸)-accepting the handover to the prc but fighting for democracy to resist communism-became popular before and after the handover among those who felt insecure and unstable since it attempted to reconcile the change of external master and stabilise the sense of self.…”