Protests in Hong Kong during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Since two million Hong Kong people took to the streets in the largest protest in the city's history to demonstrate against the proposed extradition of criminal suspects to Mainland China in the summer of 2019, Hong Kong continues to be gripped by an ongoing political crisis. Protesters' initial opposition to the extradition bill quickly turned into a broader cry for democracy and a wider set of political demands, including universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into alleged police violence. On the surface, the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have interrupted the protest movement and its control. In practice, the pandemic has reinforced the transformation of everyday space into protest space in Hong Kong. Unlike the 2014 Umbrella Movement with its 'occupy' logic, the recent protests have been based on highly mobile tactics of civil disobedience and self-mobilization and characterized as 'leaderless' (Lee et al., 2019). Mass rallies, wildcat actions or violent demonstrations on the streets would begin in one direction or with one targeted building and then shift across the city to create new protest sites. Black-clad protesters were joined by local residents, ordinary shoppers and white-collar office workers in central business districts, crowded housing estates and singing flash mobs in shopping malls, chanting pro-democracy and anti-police violence slogans and singing the unofficial protest anthem 'Glory to Hong Kong'. Some wore gas masks for protection against police pepper spray and tear gas; others wore face masks in defiance of a face covering ban introduced by the government in October 2019 through invoking powers granted under a colonial-era emergency regulations ordinance. Just as the innocuous yellow umbrella (yellow being synonymous with pro-democracy) served as a visual and expressive medium to communicate a political voice during the Umbrella Movement, the mask has now become an important symbol of resistance in the aesthetics of protest. One of the most distinctive aspects of the protest movement is its diversity and expertise in visual imagery (Ismangil, 2020). The widespread use of social media and image hosting sites, combined with Hong Kong's population density, allows for a rapid spread and high visibility of protest images. Some of these are curated by particular organisations while others are

Corona crimes: How pandemic narratives change criminal landscapes

“…53 Pandemic conspiracy theories have also gone global resulting in violence and vandalism. 54 The pandemic has also been used globally by governments to contain protest and control the population, for example in Hong Kong ( Ismangil and Lee, 2020 ) and the Philippines ( Joaquin and Biana, 2020 ).…”

Hong Kong, the Virus and Illiberalism: Between Flattening the Curve and an Authoritarian Slide?

“…However, the introduction of measures to counteract the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which suppressed the possibility of protesting on the streets [ 87 ], resulted in the citizens taking different, less direct forms of action, such as posting on social media, creating “Lennon Walls” with pro-democratic notes in various locations throughout the city, setting up small gatherings, flash mobs and sit-ins in public spaces, and even simply eating in restaurants sympathetic to the cause [ 43 ]. These actions, while of major impact on the citizens’ collective memory [ 43 , p. 19], had nowhere near the force of the physical protests, which led to a set of changes to the functioning of the SAR being introduced without fear of major civil disobedience.…”

Radical Placemaking: Utilizing Low-Tech AR/VR to engage in Communal Placemaking during a Pandemic

“…Reasons for the high mortality rate include overrepresentation in high-risk or essential employment, inability to self-isolate or physically distance, living in crowded places, immuno-compromised and at the mercy of inequitable health care systems [39][40][41]. In response to these stark and intensified injustices, several social movements and protests such as Black Lives Matter have taken to the streets to demand democratic governance, equitable services, public good and justice [42,43].…”