In the 1960’s students in Hong Kong were concerned about local Chinese being given a fair shake by an aloof colonial administration. This generation are now the ‘Uncles of Victoria Park’ that go there to shout down the new generation of young malcontents who want to be recognized as Hongkongers first and foremost. [How times change?]
In the paper highlighted this week Fen Lim from the City University of Hong Kong and Sizian Lim, an independent researcher, trace the arc of this transformation from what they describe as the ‘Emergent’ phase of student consciousness in the 1960’s to today’s phase of the ‘Novice Politicians’.
They note the role demographics has played in this process. In 1961 over half of Hong Kong’s population had been born in China. The number today is less but growing again, and that in itself is a factor changing (not in a good way) attitudes among Hong Kong’s s youth to China.
This is a useful primer for those removed from Hong Kong that think anti-mainland agitation can be explained imagining a beastly China choking plucky Hong Kong of democratic freedom’s fresh air. [More, if you really must, on the latest prats to stir this tired trope at Prats ‘R’ Us]
More cynically perhaps it reminds me students, all over the world, tend to always be ranting about something.
You can access the paper in full via this link Uncles to the Net Generation.
Happy Sunday.