Issue #3
Being Water
Streams of Hong Kong Futures
September—December 2021
In 2019 and 2020, Hongkongers witnessed—and, in many cases, participated in—one of largest and most exacting grassroots movements in the city’s history. Triggered by a proposed Extradition Bill and fuelled by a decades-long struggle for democracy and political freedom, the decentralised protest quickly seeped into the city’s everyday life. While some of the protestors confronted the police in black blocs, others participated in strikes, sit-ins, and economic boycotts. To suppress the movement, the Hong Kong police deployed an alarming use of force and violence. To put an end to the movement once and for all, in June 2020 the Chinese and Hong Kong governments abruptly implemented the National Security Law (NSL), effectively rendering any expressions of dissent seditious and illegal. Since then, prominent pro-democracy activists and politicians have either gone into exile or have been imprisoned under the NSL; books penned by activists have been removed from the shelves of public libraries; key historical events and political concepts have been censored from textbooks; and around 60 advocacy groups and independent media outlets were forced to disband. Given the chilling effect of the NSL, many Hongkongers have chosen to emigrate. Amid this ongoing crackdown, this issue of the Made in China Journal takes stock of the aftermath of the protest movement and reflects on the changes that are taking place in Hong Kong’s political and civil society in the post-NSL era.
Table of Contents
China Columns
Disarticulating Qingnian | Lili Lin and Diego GullottaUnfortunate or Convenient? Contextualising China’s Covid-19 Border Restrictions | Tabitha Speelman
The Melancholy of Kinship in Post–One-Child China | Yawen Li
From the ‘Chinese National Character’ Debates of Yesterday to the Anti-China Foreign Policy of Today | Promise Li
The Trouble with Wang Yangming | George L. Israel
Focus
Restructuring the Political Society during Autocratisation: The Case of Hong Kong | Ka-Ming Chan‘Strike Down Hard Resistance and Regulate Soft Resistance’ | Johnson Ching-Yin Yeung
The Annihilation of Hong Kong’s Civil Society | Au Loong-Yu
A New Chapter for Hong Kong’s Labour Movement? | Kevin Lin
A Feminist Snap: Has Feminism in Hong Kong Been Defeated? | Petula Sik Ying Ho and Minnie Ming Li
Peddling the Revolution? | Ming-sho Ho and Wei An Chen
Phantom Sounds, Haunting Images | Judith Pernin
Mapping the Affective Neighbourhood in Post-Protest Hong Kong | Ka-ming Wu
Hong Kong’s Socioeconomic Divide on the Rise | Maurizio Marinelli
Why Is Reconciliation Impossible? | Shih-Diing Liu and Wei Shi
Words Against the Wind: A Conversation with Liu Wai Tong | Zeng Jinyan and Liu Wai Tong
Ideas Are Bullet-Proof: A Conversation with Ching Kwan Lee | Shui-yin Sharon Yam and Ching Kwan Lee