Reorienting Hong Kong's Resistance: Leftism, Decoloniality, and Internationalism

by Wen Liu (Editor), JN Chien (Editor), Christina Chung (Editor), Ellie Tse (Editor)

Overview

This book brings together writing from activists and scholars that examine leftist and decolonial forms of resistance that have emerged from Hong Kong’s contemporary era of protests. Practices such as labor unionism, police abolition, land justice struggles, and other radical expressions of self-governance may not explicitly operate under the banners of leftism and decoloniality. Nevertheless, examining them within these frameworks uncovers historical, transnational, and prefigurative sightlines that can help to contextualize and interpret their impact for Hong Kong’s political future. This collection offers insights not only into Hong Kong's local struggles, but their interconnectedness with global movements as the city remains on the frontlines of international politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789811646591
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	01/27/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Wen Liu is assistant research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, in Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. from Critical Social Psychology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Broadly interested in issues of race, sexuality, and affect, she has published in journals such as American Quarterly, Feminism&Psychology, Journal of Asian American Studies, and Subjectivity.

JN Chien is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California researching US-Hong Kong integration in the Cold War transpacific through economic history, labor, migration, and detention in the shadow of multiple imperialisms. His writing has been published in Hong Kong Studies, The Nation, Jacobin, and Lausan.

Christina Chung is a Ph.D. candidate researching the intersections of decolonial feminism and Hong Kong contemporary art at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her writing has been published by Asia Art Archive, College Arts Association Reviews, and in the anthology: Creating Across Cultures: Women in the Arts from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (East Slope Publishing, 2017).

Ellie Tse is a Ph.D. student in Cultural and Comparative Studies at the Department of Asian Languages&Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research addresses the aftermath of inter-imperial encounters via visual, spatial and architectural practices across the Sinophone Pacific with a focus on Hong Kong.

Table of Contents

Part I. Hong Kong Internationalism.- Part II. Strategies Toward and Against the State.- Part III. Hongkongers.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A rare and revealing anthology of leftist, decolonial and internationalist ideas rooted in the Hong Kong experience. These thought-provoking, praxis-based critical voices intimate political possibilities that are particularly necessary in these very dark times.” (Ching Kwan Lee, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles)

“This groundbreaking book gives shape to a new form of politics that the authors call the ‘decolonial left.’ The decolonial left defines itself against the New Cold War rivalries, legacies of British colonialism, Chinese authoritarianism, and all forms of class, race, and gender oppression, to articulate a politics of protesting and living in the space of global abolitionism and internationalism from below. Hong Kong therefore becomes a paradigmatic space for theorizing a universal politics of the decolonial left while showcasing how it is done in practice. I recommend this book to anyone interested in radical politics and social movements beyond the binarisms that have hindered decolonization everywhere.” (Shu-mei Shih, Edward W. Said Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Los Angeles)

“Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement is abhorred and adored in unexpected ways: While Western leftists denounce it as a CIA-instigated revolt against a supposedly Communist fatherland, libertarians idolize it as the defense of a free-market paragon. This volume dispels such mythologizing by offering a fresh look through progressive internationalism. As the city’s struggle has entered a new phase under draconian repression, commentaries and critiques from leftist perspectives provide the needed intellectual resources for future engagement.” (Ho Ming-sho, Professor of Sociology, National Taiwan University)

“It is always difficult to explain what progressive politics are in Hong Kong. This collection of essays makes an innovative breakthrough in bringing together engaging analyses of the city from broadly defined ‘leftist’, de-colonial and internationalist perspectives. Their viewpoints are provocative, sincere and make not only a timely contribution to Hong Kong Studies but also thoughtful challenges to all those who are concerned about Hong Kong.” (Dr. Law Wing Sang, Independent Researcher in Exile)

“Considering the fact that many Hongkongers indulge in the fantasy of an ‘endgame,’ it is timely now to regain the courage and critical vision for democratic struggle. As the city turns a new page in its resistance to authoritarianism, reinterpreting local experiences from diverse leftist perspectives is a new mission for Hong Kong’s progressive movement—proof that it’s too early to say game over. This book will definitely inspire a generation of new radical intellectuals.” (Ip Iam-chong, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies of Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

“Grounded in the exigent particulars of Hong Kong’s history at the convergence of empires yet fiercely committed to the possibility of other futures, this collection makes vital contributions to leftist traditions of anticolonial and decolonial thought. The essays here think with people’s everyday practices under conditions of political, economic, and viral duress in rigorously hopeful ways. Modeling the trans-scalar, cross-border work required for this moment, Reorienting Hong Kong’s Resistance is welcome fuel for the struggle.” (Nadine Attewell, Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies & Global Asia, Simon Fraser University)