Understanding Hong Kong nationalism: A topic network approach

Abstract

Drawing on data from Facebook, this article examines how elements of nationalism discourse were invoked by political actors to advance their agenda. In this paper, a novel mixed-method approach is introduced. The analysis begins with the quantitative phase, and topic modelling is used to identify the recurring themes in corpus. A topic network is generated based on the semantic association and centrality measures from social network analysis are used to identify the core topics in the discourse. In the qualitative phase, texts from the core topics are analysed discursively. The findings reveal that Hong Kong nationalism discourse includes three frames: the threat frame that constructs the overarching narrative of China Threat, the identity frame that engages with the debate on localism and nationalism and the action frame that discusses the actions to be taken in response to the threats.

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“…The nationalists selected in this work are groups that invoked the concepts of nationalism in their discourse. SeeHo (2022) for further discussion on the relationship between localism and nationalism.2 It is also important to point out that Keating was writing in a pre-devolution time and the devolution in 1999 has brought significant changes to the Scottish political landscape, as the new political institutions provided new points of access for organised interests and the Scottish Government has engaged extensively in paradiplomacy(Keating, 2020;Lynch, 2020;MacLeod & Halpin, 2020).3 I acknowledge the fact that political parties are not the only actors who engaged in the discussion of Hong Kong national-…”

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“…The political situation in Hong Kong, while different from Taiwan, is similar in that both face interventionist policies from an autocratic and ethnonationalist government in Beijing. For context, nationalism scholar Justin Chun‐ting Ho (2022: 2) explains that, in contrast to the PRC, “[i]n the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong developed a distinct identity that rested upon Hong Kong's comparatively liberal, albeit far from democratic, institutions and Hongkongers' exposure to liberal values.” Whereas Taiwanese have been able to fully elect their own democratic government since 1996, Hong Kong's political plight has languished in the shadow of Beijing's machinations since retrocession to the PRC in 1997.…”