(Post)Colonial governance in Hong Kong and Macau: a tale of two cities and regimes

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-427
Author(s):  
Allen Chun
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Colonial Governance

scholarly journals Today in Guangzhou, Tomorrow in Hong Kong? A Comparative Study of the Language Situation in Two Cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-232
Author(s):  
Barry Sautman ◽  
Xinyi Xie
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
General Public ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Sociocultural Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
And Migration

Many in Hong Kong voice concerns about the fate of Cantonese, including nativists (“localists”) and the general public. Guangzhou is seen as a harbinger of diminishing Cantonese in Hong Kong. News and commentaries paint a gloomy picture of Cantonese in Guangzhou. Yet rarely do we read about surveys on the range of Cantonese use and identity in Guangzhou. Neither do we see analyses on how the social context differences between Hong Kong and Guangzhou may have contributed to the two cities’ unique language situations. Our study delineates the Guangzhou and Hong Kong language situations, comparing mother tongues, ordinary languages, and language attitudes. Cantonese is unrivalled in Hong Kong and remains vital in Guangzhou. We put the two cities’ different use frequency and proficiency of Cantonese and Putonghua (“Mandarin”) in the sociocultural context of motivation and migration. We conclude that some claims of diminishing Cantonese are unsupported. We also address how likely it is that Cantonese will diminish or even be replaced in Hong Kong.

Cultural Activism during the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hio Tong Wong ◽  
Shih-Diing Liu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Cultural Activism ◽  
Protest Movement ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Aesthetic Forms

Situated in Hong Kong’s post-colonial context of political crisis, this article attempts to investigate the unfolding of cultural activism during the Umbrella Movement occurred in 2014. This 79-day occupy protest, triggered by the government’s restriction on universal suffrage, has released protesters’ creative potentials in performing their struggles through a variety of aesthetic forms and practices. Questioning the traditional way of conceiving protest movement in terms of violent confrontations with government or instrumentalism, this article addresses the performative role of cultural activism which has been largely ignored in the study of Hong Kong protest movement. Rather, we argue that the creative practices enacted during the Umbrella Movement constitute in themselves the message that contains its own politics and grammars. These practices have constructed the meaning of the movement through naming, and have created the collective joy and identity among participants in the formation of movement solidarity. This article suggests that cultural activism is the spirit and soul of the Umbrella Movement, which has opened up a temporary yet crucial political space for democratic struggle.

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