Counter-hegemonic Resistance in China's Hong Kong ― Visualizing Protest in the City

This book and associated collection of visual data and sociological observations examine how the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) has been visually re-imagined, transformed, and utilized by its subalterns in the post-Handover period to reproduce their aspirations and demands for greater democracy and social justice while simultaneously contesting the hegemonic pressure exerted by China under the “One Country, Two Systems” ideology. It provides a rich visual description and narrative of how Hong Kong’s many repressed social and political actors have struggled to make their voices heard under its competitive authoritarian political system. The book addresses the growing scholarly interest in the visual analysis of global protests and social movements as salient sources of sociological data and on the creation of meaning. By innovatively tackling the visual culture and visuality of subaltern resistance in Hong Kong it contributes to our understanding of contentious SAR-China politics and the New Social Movement, and will be of great interest to Hong Kong, resistance, social movement, and visual studies scholars.

Dan is a PhD student at City University of Hong Kong in the Department of Applied Social Sciences. His thesis focuses on Hong Kong-China relations under the 'One Country, Two Systems' policy and the consequences of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic moral panics over sovereignty, patriotism, and national identity in post-Handover Hong Kong. He has lived and worked in Asia and in the United States working in the Information Communication and Technology (ICT), information security, and national security fields for nearly three decades. His graduate work involved the convergence of visual and verbal communications and undergraduate emphasis was in U.S. diplomatic history in East Asia and Japanese history. He has presented papers on China and Hong Kong topics and U.S.-Sino relations at conferences in Asia, Europe, South America, and North America. Dan's publications in 2013 and 2014 cover issues such as anti-communist sentiment in Hong Kong; the use of the People's Liberation Army as a Chinese soft power resource; subaltern political iconography resisting hegemony in competitive authoritarian political systems; online visual resistance; and, the visualization of counter-hegemonic moral panics. His published scholarly work presents a visual investigation of increasing tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China over cultural, social, and political integration.