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This essay argues that the queer figure of the child that crops up curiously in (post–)Umbrella Movement Hong Kong is a defining political signifier for characterizing the city's youthful protesters and imagining alternative futures for Hong Kong. In many mainland Chinese media outlets, the youthfulness of the Hong Kong demonstrators is often emphasized to critique their fixation on the Western ideology of democracy. For the young resisters and their sympathizers, childishness connotes a different script of identity: it entails a narrative of temporal suspension in the face of assimilation into a Chinese homogeneity. By, for example, comparing the political star Joshua Wong to Peter Pan, who refuses to grow up, or by assigning uniform-wearing grade-school students the role of "the keepers of the Umbrella Movement," prodemocratic cultural narratives keep alive the possibility of a political alterity that resists the neoliberal, temporal mandates of Hong Kong's government and mainland China. Theorizing that possibility in the context of temporal, queer, children's, and postcolonial studies, this essay contends that the future of resistance in Hong Kong will follow a lateral horizon, a sideways course that will put minor dissenters into new and nonheteropatriarchal relations with the existing order of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact of the political conflict occurring in Hong Kong, China on its film industry and the significant role of digital media in the development in the country's entertainment and political expression. It offers a brief history of the relation of Hong Kong to China, the division among Hong Kong's filmmakers and other celebrities in the industry over the 2019 protests that occurred in the country, and the accessibility of online video platform YouTube in the country.

Murray MacLehose, the 25th Governor of Hong Kong, was the longest-serving Governor in the history of Hong Kong. MacLehose proposed and implemented a series of policies that brought significant reforms to Hong Kong. These reforms included housing, transportation, anti-corruption, welfare, and education. The reforms did not only improve people's living standards, but also created for Hong Kong people a sense of belonging to the colony. While the mainstream of Hong Kong society claimed MacLehose was a respected governor, was MacLehose's ten-year-governorship in actual fact praiseworthy? This article will revisit MacLehose's governorship and show that MacLehose was not as perfect as the locals think – he was even reluctant to implement some reforms, particularly political reforms, anti-corruption and social security. However, this was because he was trying to balance local and British interests within the colony. He indeed worked hard to perform his duty and defended well Hong Kong's interests during his governorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes the current protests in Hong Kong from the perspective of the friends/enemies dialectic. It depicts the opposed political positions involved in the protests, considers the relations of these positions to ethnic and linguistic identities in Hong Kong, and analyzes the protests through a case study of the politics and identities of a woman who immigrated to Hong Kong from Mainland China thirty years ago. The essay concludes by considering both the necessity and limitations of analyzing political actions through the lens of friends and enemies. It also introduces the other essays in this Currents collection of articles about protests in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the uneasy position of Mainlanders within and in relation to the Anti-Extradition Movement amid rising anti-Mainland sentiment in Hong Kong. It shows how the continued reliance on the Chinese language, contact, and media for information, communication, and socialization have contained them within the Chinese "national space," influencing their perceptions of the Movement and curtailing the discursive space for articulating political views. Meanwhile, language barriers prevent non-Cantonese-speaking Mainlanders from integrating with the local society and participating in the Movement, in which Cantonese is dominant. The nativist sentiment among protestors also makes those who supported or joined the Movement feel marginalized and invisible. It remains a huge challenge for Mainlanders to break down or bridge over such divisions guarded by both the Great Firewall and nativist sentiments in both Mainland China and Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the social imaginary of "one country, two systems" is built on the traditional Chinese conception of a parent–child relation. However, the parent–child metaphor is no longer shared by the new generation in Hong Kong. The change of the sociopolitical environment in Hong Kong in the Post-Umbrella Movement demands a new social imaginary for understanding "one country, two systems." This paper argues that the metaphor of reconciliation proposed by the churches and supported by the Hong Kong government fails to respond to the experience of the Hong Kongese, recommending instead a metaphor of center-edge in dialogue with insights from liberation theologies. In terms of geography, politics, and culture, living on the edge helps the Hong Kongese to articulate their experience in a situation of decreasing protection of human rights in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the September 2014 'Umbrella Revolution' in Hong Kong, China faced one of the biggest political challenges since the Tiananmen Square events. Beijing's proposed electoral reform was perceived as a direct attack to democracy, and the ensuing protest triggered concerns amid local and international investors; the financial sector took the hardest hit, with stocks of companies exposed to the Hong Kong market facing significant losses. Volatility continued to increase to a seven-month high over worries that the student blockade in Hong Kong's streets could drag on for longer than expected. The econometric-based analysis in this paper looks at the implications of the protest and its spillover effect on the Hang Seng Index with a focus on sectoral performance. The ultimate objective is to gain a better understanding of the impact of the protests on different stocks and sectors with the goal of identifying market vulnerability and potential volatility patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the public sector, central training institutes once played an irreplaceable role in formulating training policies and providing training programs to government employees. The introduction of new public management (NPM) has stimulated a reform agenda in human resources (HR) management, resulting in a shift from centralized training to decentralized or outsourced training; to be precise, making civil service training more demand-driven and lessening the role of central training institutes. Local-level governments and agencies have acquired more autonomy in deciding whether to provide training in-house, or to purchase relevant services from private providers. In addition, dramatic institutional, economic, and operational changes in the public sector in the twenty-first century have brought about competition among governments worldwide in terms of innovative and creative ideas, prompting them to equip their employees with the relevant skills for the governments to remain competitive. This study explores how civil service training in Hong Kong has been decentralized and customized from the viewpoint of civil servants being trainees, and assesses the role of the Civil Service Training and Development Institute as a centralized training institute for Hong Kong civil servants within the modern, decentralized, and consumerized HR management regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores constitutional background of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and its relationship with the People's Republic of China (PRC). Topics discussed include ways in which the HKSAR has purported to transfer jurisdiction over this part of Hong Kong territory to Mainland China; constitutional relationship between the HKSAR and the PRC.

Twenty years after 1997, political parties in Hong Kong are still underdeveloped. The hybrid regime has posed major constraints, as there are no governing parties, and democratic development is slow. The parties have also found it difficult to respond to value changes toward radicalization, a new political identity, and postmaterialism, with support shifting to new movement groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The freedom of press is one aspect that leaders from the West often criticise about China. As former British colony, Hong Kong has been able to preserve its special status with constitutional rights and liberties that also include the freedom of press. However, in recent years, sentiments of increased influence from Beijing have led to fears that it would curb the freedoms enjoyed by residents of the Special Administrative Region. However, instead of clear unambiguous interferences, Beijing has opted for an indirect approach that is predominantly characterised by the salience of economic considerations in reporting news binding the media outlets closer to the position of Beijing. This article shows that the South China Morning Post has undergone an editorial shift that moves it closer to the position of the Chinese government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents statements, orders and instructions on or Related to Hong Kong Issued by the People's Republic of China (PRC) Central Authorities. It mentions information on Original Chinese text of the PRC State Council Prime Minister Li Keqiang's "2014 Government Report," excerpted portion relevant to Hong Kong and Macao. It presents plans of Hong Kong, and Macao enterprises to go global by capitalizing on their respective strengths and multiple forms of partnership with each other.

The article focuses on challenges surrounding obscenity and free speech in Hong Kong, China. Topics discussed include laws governing obscenity in Hong Kong; U.S. Supreme Court's approach to obscenity; and Ming Pao Newspapers Ltd. v. Obscene Articles Tribunal court case addressing the same. It also mentions about Hong Kong government's approach towards the same.

This study examined the development of alternative media in Hong Kong from 2012 to 2016. This time period saw a proliferation of media outlets that represented alternative voices. Adopting the theoretical framework of media ecology, I analyzed the political economy of the alternative media niche. The emergence of the alternative media niche was facilitated by digital technologies, but technological development was not the sole driving force. The centralization of media ownership collided the ability of mainstream media outlets to represent a wide spectrum of opinions. Meanwhile, the legitimacy of institutional politics was challenged by street politics, and hence the loosening of institutional control over ideology opened up a new space for political discussion and civic engagement. Alternative media used digital technologies to respond to this decreased supply and increased demand for media production that amplified fringe voices within the Hong Kong civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the ways in which multimodal artefacts on social media can infuse a simple object with political meaning. Using a cognitive linguistic framework, I examine the sudden conceptual enrichment of the umbrella, an object that became the defining symbol of the 2014 Hong Kong suffrage protests. The paper contends that the enrichment of the umbrella, which allowed it to represent the political values of the protesters, was enabled by the conceptual integration of cultural frames and viewpoints in artistic illustrations, which retained the shield-like functionality of the umbrella while simultaneously enhancing its symbolic meaning. First I explore the material affordances of the umbrella and the rudimentary schemas that restrict how the umbrella can be depicted. Second, I analyze two popular artefacts disseminated online. One is a cartoon that draws from the iconic “Tank Man” photo from Tiananmen Square. The other artistically alters the Hong Kong flag to look like a configuration of umbrellas. Building on the basic schemas of the umbrella, both multimodal artefacts insert new viewpoints that prompt the re-construal of the original frame. Third, I posit that the new frames and schemas of the artefacts informed how protesters and the Hong Kong government understood the movement as it unfolded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asia-Pacific constitutes the fastest growing region in mobile and social media penetration. Yet, the political implications of the technologies are not fully understood. Using probability samples of university students in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, this study examines the roles of mobile and social media news in offline and online political participation. Consistent with the O-S-R-O-R model (Orientations-Stimulus-Reasoning-Orientations-Response), which derives from communication and cognitive mediation models explaining the relationship between media use and political participation, all three samples demonstrated indirect relationships between mobile/social media use and political participation through interpersonal political discussion and political efficacy. The study contributes to theory building by demonstrating the external validity of the O-S-R-O-R model across different political systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers play in relation to the governance of creativity as well as emerging modes of dissent in Hong Kong. Drawing from post-digital game studies and radical contextualism, the article considers play in three everyday settings, each of which articulates different relations between the material affordances of software, embodied capabilities and the rationalities of institutional macropolitics. In doing so, I aim to explore play as dissent in a context where play is instrumentalised for the biopolitics of the “creative” economy, yet where it is neither connected to “free” expression and performance nor guaranteed of liberal protections. I argue that creativity in Hong Kong is not constitutive—be it of economic assets or a “free” society—but constituted. That is to say, creativity is normalised, trained, excluded, repressed and potentially criminalised. This requires rethinking prevailing universalisms regarding politics as play and creative public performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the constitutional relation between Mainland China and the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong from a comparative legal cultural point of view. The recent controversy surrounding the Hong Kong Legislative Council members’ oath taking serves as a starting point for the analysis in this article. The discussion focuses on the Hong Kong Basic Law, which is conceived as an interface of the underlying meta-doctrine of 'One Country,Two Systems'. The main argument is that the relation between Mainland China and Hong Kong is best understood as an uneven constitutional equilibrium. The underlying assumption is that the Hong Kong Basic Law is a constitutional interface where the contrasting legal cultural forces meet-that is, it is the place where the civil law type socialist legal system confronts the common law tradition. The article concludes by underlining the importance of path dependence in an attempt to understand and analyse the complicated constitutional balance that exists between the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to some scholars, one of the features of good governance is that laws are well respected, which means that government should exercise its administrative power based on existing laws, on the one hand and all people should respect the relevant laws, on the other hand. This should also be the spirit of the rule of law. Against this background, it is true that judicial review is a good process to ensure that government decisions or actions comply with the relevant laws. In Hong Kong, there is an increasing tendency towards judicial review cases. It has been estimated that there are over 100 cases per year. Would this increase in cases serve as an unnecessary burden on the courts? Certainly, it is also legitimate to ask the intention of a possible judicial reviewçthat is, whether these judicial review cases are based on political motivation to hinder the proper governmental actions or to delay the bills relating to people's livelihoods? This article tries to address these issues and to propose that, on the one hand, the government should be more prudent in its decision-making process and on the other hand, that there should be a mechanism to prevent judicial review from being abused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]