Explaining Localism in Post-handover Hong Kong: An Eventful Approach

The pro-democracy movement in post-handover Hong Kong had long been an intense struggle between the hybrid regime and prodemocracy civil society. Since the early 2010s, a new political force, broadly known as the localists, has entered the political domain through a series of protest events and elections. However, just as they gained a foothold in politics, the hybrid regime swiftly moved in to clamp down on the nascent movement to keep them out of the political system. What explains the ebbs and flows of Hong Kong’s localist movement? This essay posits that localism is not an inevitable product of the macro-structural socio-political process, but an amalgam of ideas and action logics assembled sequentially through events and discursive constructions. We argue that localism first emerged through the interplay between antimainlandisation protests and both online and intellectual discourse, and officially ascended to the political stage after the Umbrella Movement. Despite their meteoric rise, localists’ militant actions have allowed the hybrid regime to marginalise the nascent force through legal and non-legal repression, which has in turn created a “divided structure of contestation” among the opposition

Le « localisme » à Hong Kong depuis la rétrocession

Le mouvement pan-démocrate hongkongais après la rétrocession a pendant longtemps pris la forme d’une lutte intense entre le régime hybride hongkongais et la société civile pro-démocratie. Depuis le début des années 2010, une nouvelle force politique, généralement désignée sous le terme de « localiste », a fait son apparition dans le champ politique à travers une série de mouvements de protestation et d’élections. Toutefois, alors que ce mouvement émergent venait de se faire une place dans la vie politique, le régime s’est empressé de se retourner contre lui pour l’écarter du système politique. Comment expliquer les fluctuations du mouvement localiste hongkongais ? Cet article pose l’hypothèse que le localisme ne résulte pas de manière inéluctable du processus socio-politique macro-structurel mais plutôt d’une combinaison d’idées et de logiques d’action reliées de manière séquentielle les unes aux autres au fil des évènements et des constructions discursives. Nous avançons l’idée que le localisme est d’abord né de l’interaction entre les contestations anti « continentalisation » (mainlandisation) et les discours diffusés à la fois sur Internet et dans les sphères intellectuelles, et qu’il est officiellement apparu sur la scène politique après le Mouvement des parapluies. Malgré leur ascension fulgurante, les actions militantes localistes ont fourni l’occasion au régime hybride de marginaliser cette force émergente à travers une répression judiciaire et extrajudiciaire, ce qui a en retour produit une « structure de contestation divisée » (divided structure of contestation) au sein de l’opposition.The pro-democracy movement in post-handover Hong Kong had long been an intense struggle between the hybrid regime and prodemocracy civil society. Since the early 2010s, a new political force, broadly known as the localists, has entered the political domain through a series of protest events and elections. However, just as they gained a foothold in politics, the hybrid regime swiftly moved in to clamp down on the nascent movement to keep them out of the political system. What explains the ebbs and flows of Hong Kong’s localist movement? This essay posits that localism is not an inevitable product of the macro-structural socio-political process, but an amalgam of ideas and action logics assembled sequentially through events and discursive constructions. We argue that localism first emerged through the interplay between anti-mainlandisation protests and both online and intellectual discourse, and officially ascended to the political stage after the Umbrella Movement. Despite their meteoric rise, localists’ militant actions have allowed the hybrid regime to marginalise the nascent force through legal and non-legal repression, which has in turn created a “divided structure of contestation” among the opposition

Scholarism and Hong Kong Federation of Students: Comparative Analysis of Their Developments after the Umbrella Movement

This article aims to examine the features of, and difficulties in, the development of Scholarism and Hong Kong Federation of Students after the Umbrella Movement (2014). This article first introduces the emergence of both organizations, aiming to provide the necessary background to their features, notably student activism, politicization, and issue-based reasons in launching campaigns. This is followed by an analysis of the difficulties faced by both organizations with reference to leadership, orientation, organizational capacity and networking, as reflected in the disappointment and disillusionment of a significant number of participants during the movement. The article then moves on to investigate the possible methods adopted by both organizations to consolidate their strengths in light of the above weaknesses, focusing on the buttressing of accountability and reform. In conclusion, the reorganization of student power is of key concern during the process in face of the increasing political intervention of the Beijing authorities and political decay of the Hong Kong government