Anthony
Burtman
Doctor
S. Brown
English
306
4
November 2016
A Struggle in Integration, Defense of the “Hongkonger” Identity
Despite almost 20 years of integration, Hong
Kong has faced extensive tensions with Mainland China in the fight to define
and defend the identity of the “Hongkonger.” In the midst of recent
demonstrations, Hong Kong has been emerging more and more as a sovereign entity
demanding the respect towards the language, culture, politics, and resources of
its territory. Since 1997, the Chinese government has been a growing influence
in more than just politics. Reunion under Mainland China’s sovereignty has
caused pressure in all sectors of Hong Kong’s society and a rise in protests
over political sovereignty, linguistic rights, and resource allocation. The
relationship between Hong Kong and Mainland China thus grow more complex as the
movement of protests progresses.
Before the motives and stems of the protests
can be understood, it is first necessary to examine the origins of Hong Kong
and how it transitioned from an undeveloped territory on the southern coast of
China to becoming one of the world’s most developed economic centers in Asia.
In many ways, “Hong Kong has been China’s most critical link to the rest of the
world since the Silk Road and the Mongols” (Carroll 3). Hong Kong’s
transformation was warranted in great part due to the transition from being an
undeveloped Chinese island, to developing under British rule as a colony.
Situated in the Guangdong province of China, Hong Kong was practically
unsettle-able before Britain’s occupation. It was described as an unlikely site
for any settlement and was criticized as a barren island (Cameron 27-28).
By the late 1700s, trade between Britain and
China was mostly leaning towards China’s advantage as Britain was struggling to
provide silver in exchange for Chinese silks and teas. However, opium was
abundant in Britain. It was imported from British India and commonly used for
pain alleviation. Thus, to balance out the favor of trade, Britain exporting
opium into China and thus began the lucrative drug trade. By the end of the 18th
century, opium was banned by the ruling Qing state but nonetheless the drug
continued to enter China as a contraband trade. The effects on Chinese society
were destructive illustrated by the fact that “nine persons out of 10 were
opium addicts” in the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong (Cameron). Efforts to
end the opium trade caused political tensions between the two factions and the
First Opium War broke out in 1839. China lost to great force of warships and
was forced to comply with demands in negations. The British claimed sovereignty
over the Hong Kong island in 1841, seeing it as a potential investment for
reopening trade in the region. “…Hong Kong was an anomaly of a colony in that
its purpose was not to be colonized so much as to be used for diplomatic,
military, and commercial purposes” (Cameron 41). In 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing
was signed, ending the First Opium War. The ratification of the treaty the next
year opened many Chinese ports open to foreign trade and residence and ceded
the island of Hong Kong to Britain (Cameron 30). Although Hong Kong is
technically only a small island of about 11 miles across, referring to “Hong
Kong” today includes the surrounding islands and New Territories. Those
territories were acquired after 1860 with the end of the Second Opium War.
While China remained isolated to its own laws, Hong Kong was exposed to British
sovereignty. British law became the norm of the colony. British colonists in
the region were charged under British law for offenses in China. Historian
Cameron argues that at this point, China began to disregard the colony which
would launch it into its development as an individual entity. (32) During the
time of colonization under Britain, Hong Kong went under a massive transition
as the British invested in the infrastructure of Hong Kong and its economic
development.
After over a century of British rule, the
Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed in December of 1984 and instituted
that Hong Kong and its surrounding territories would be returned to Mainland
China by 1997 (Li). The agreement had anticipated the drastic changed that
would come with the integration of Hong Kong back with the Mainland. To address
this, The Sino-British joint Declaration planned in advanced and warranted a
50-year adjustment period for Hongkongers. Thus, Hong Kong would remain a
sovereign Special Administrative Region (SAR) until 2047 (Li 43). This
arrangement is what is known as the “One country two system” policy under
Chinese president Deng XiaoPing. Li argues that Hong Kong was a unique colony
of Britain’s that, upon decolonizing, had built up a strong, educated working
class and economy whose figures excelled those of any other decolonizing
colony.
Protest culture had a unique development in
Hong Kong that began prior to the reunion with the Mainland. During the
sovereign isolation of Hong Kong from China, in addition to cultivating a
booming economy, the colony began developing a unique identity. After the 1989
Democratic protests in Tiananmen in Beijing, China, other regions had similar
movements pushing towards democracy as well. Many were not broadly studied due
to the small natures of the protests. Mary Erbaugh’s and Richard Kraus’ The Pro-Democracy Protest in China: Reports
from the Provinces reports the pro-democratic protest on goings in the
province of Fujian, a neighboring province of Guangdong and argue that like
Guangdong, economic developments were so independent in these southern regions
that dependence on the capital of Beijing was not as strong as provinces nearer
the political base. This goes to support that Guangdong and surrounding areas
were truly forming individuality and uniqueness even back to the 1989
Democratic Movement. Information was in fact not scarce throughout the
provinces of the Tiananmen Movement and thus led for the southern provinces to
take control themselves with a sense of independent motives with individual
protests. However, the fact that pro-democratic movements were largely unheard
of and unsuccessful was that Colonial Hong Kong’s protest culture was mostly
inactive due to a strong Confucianistic culture (Lam). According to Li, the
influences of Confucianism led to the Chinese people of the Guangdong region to
become “submissive to authority” and “politically apathetic” (24). However, by
the time of the “post-hand-over-period,” was faced with signs of alienation and
incongruence between political culture and institutions (Lam). Thus, Hong Kong
protests over integration are strongly fueled by the handover of colony back to
the Mainland and have given rise to demonstrations protesting these issues.
Since the integration of Hong Kong back to
Mainland China in 1997, there have been many protests in the form of small,
physical demonstrations in public spaces within Hong Kong. These demonstrations
can be separated into three main categories: linguistics, resource allocation,
and political. Although the motives and themes for these protests differ, they
all share similarities outlined by Perry’s theory of protest rhetoric in China.
The term “Confucian moralism,” in the context of protest described by Perry, is
best illustrated by protestors in China sacrificing “their very lives for their
beliefs” (316). Such demonstration was seen in the Tiananmen protests for
democracy of 1989 where ‘by fasting, [protestors] hoped to contrast the moral
righteousness of their behavior with that of the corrupt and despotic
government against which they protested’ (316). It is by this structure, in
which workers and students came together that future protests have been modeled
after. “In their style of remonstrance (presenting petitions and banners and
demanding dialogue with the authorities), their search of political patrons...
and above all their stress on moralism... the students evinced a brand of
political behavior and belief replete with the stigmata of the imperial past
(324). In other words, there could not have been any other way for the rhetoric
of this protest to form. It was inevitable due to the historical context and
influence that these three objects were necessary to implement their demonstrations.
This outlines the future methods of protest demonstrations following the 1989
events. For example, directly after in 1990, protest over direct elections for
the presidency of the Republic of China “borrowed directly form the repertoire
of the Tiananmen Uprising: students occupied the central political square in
Taipei where they undertook a hunger strike, donned headbands…” (324). This was
a demonstration that these methods were to mimicked and utilized in
demonstrations to come. According to Perry, the modern protest rhetoric of
China is characterized by dramatic expression inspired by 40 years of socialism
(326). The 1989 demonstration was characterized as “a morality play done in
Beijing opera style” per David Strand (317). As such, the nature of protests
following this model are spectacular in appearance: physical presence, signs,
slogans, and symbols. This is useful in explaining why demonstrations
protecting the Cantonese Language in Hong Kong and Guangzhou have mostly been
in-person, physical demonstrations with people gathering in the manner of a
spectacle to direct a message.
Although the individual themes of the
demonstrations vary, they all lead a common mode of rhetoric the use of
physical occupations to petition and demonstrate. In his 2000 edition of Polite Politics, Kwok-leung Ho asserts
that political participation in the form of protest in Hong Kong have been
organized by three major activities: group meetings, mass meetings, and
petitions and demonstrations since before the decolonization period. These
methods are used most primarily in the following protest examples and will
encompass most of the styles of remonstrance in the modern-day defense of the
Hongkonger identity.
As tensions between the People’s Republic of
China and the Special Administrative Region grew with increased exposure to one
another, linguistic tensions and criticisms developed rapidly after the
establishment of Mandarin as the primary lingua franca of China. Mainland
China, otherwise known as the People’s Republic of China declared Putonghua,
the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, the national language. This affected school,
media, and government settings to operate under the common language (Gao). The
events of the protests on linguistic rights have been demonstrated in various
mediums including backlash to a viral video spreading across the internet. The
video captured a native Hongkonger in the MTR train car telling the daughter of
a Mainland mother not to eat on the train. Eating on the MTR train system is prohibited
(“MTR By-Laws”). The language this man used however, was Cantonese. This was
the motivation for professor, talk show host, and academic Kong Qingdong to
responded to the video on national Chinese television. His response was that
when there is a difference in dialect between two people, both should speak
Mandarin; those who refuse are bastards (“Mandarin Chinese Called Cantonese
Bastards And Dogs”). This was faced with widespread criticism over the internet
and was followed by protesters occupying the streets of Hong Kong.
Peking University’s Professor Kong Qingdong’s
assault on Hongkongers calling them “bastards and dogs” resulted in his own
public ridicule. Protesters occupied the front of China’s Central Government
Liaison Office in Hong Kong’s Western district holding signs and posters. One
of the first series of images had the face of Professor Qingdong photoshopped
onto the body and figure of a bulldog with the word “Bastard” above the
lazy-eyes, droopy cheeked face. Directly next to the printed poster, a
protester held an iPhone horizontally with a black background and white Chinese
text translated to “If Hongkongese are dogs, then respectful Professor Kong
should be euthanized!” (Garrett). The image poses two major purposes. The first
is to pose a counterattack against the negative comments of the Professor.
Despite the demonstrations being peaceful occupations of public spaces, the
crude and animalistic portrayal and death wish of the Professor acts as the
aggression in this type of protest. The inherent violence of the image is
stemmed from the dehumanization of the figure and speaks to the pathos of the
protesters. It brings out the anger and rage of Hongkongers who were reached by
the comments and exerts that by placing the Professor in their shoes. Other
demonstrators did this as well by displaying toy dogs and rolled up banners
used to beat this caricature of Professor Qingdong, literally exerting rage on
the professor through this indirect representation.
Although the image is negative in its
aggressive nature, it inconspicuously calls for unity by relating
Mandarin-speaking Mainlanders to Cantonese-speaking Hongkongers. What the image
used by demonstrators does is it confronts Professor Qingdong out on his own
hypocrisy. Professor Qingdong instantly separated himself from people of Hong
Kong by degrading their status based on their use of Cantonese. He placed
Hongkongers as inferior to him and Mandarin speakers creating an uneven plane
between the two groups. By portraying Professor Qingdong as a dog and a bastard
in the image, it essentially pulls him back to the level of the Hongkongers. As
the statements suggests, if Professor Qingdong accuses Hongkongers of being
dogs, then he has inadvertently called himself one as well. The image expresses
the rage of the Hongkongers as a primary goal, but secondarily and more
importantly expresses the underlying message that Mainlanders and Hongkongers
are united as one Chinese people. If one group are dogs and bastards, the other
is as well.
Earlier in 2016, it had become apparent that
in the upcoming release of Pokémon Sun
& Moon, Nintendo was dropping the production of the Cantonese versions
of the game. In the past, Nintendo had used Cantonese transliterations for the
character names, however, with the upcoming release, it was stated that this
would not be the case. The game would now be standardized with Mandarin
pronunciations which alters names of characters like Pikachu drastically. The
former Cantonese style was pronounced Béikāchīu (比卡超)
while the Mandarin sounding as Píkǎqiū (皮卡丘),
the difference mainly lying in the ending vowel; the Cantonese sounds a “u”
sound while the Mandarin sounds a “yo” sound ("List of Chinese Pokémon
Names”). Nintendo’s action caused a demonstration of dozens of protesters
appearing in front of the Japanese Consulate in Hong Kong presenting 6,000
signatures against the name changing move (Rath).
In the case of the Pokémon demonstrators, the
protest acts as an important emphasis that Cantonese is in fact a cultural
artifact of Hong Kong. This protest, like the demonstrations against Professor
Qingdong, expressed outrage and aggression against cultural threats that put
down the use of Cantonese, but none-the-less remained peaceful in its
execution. The rhetoric of this protest demonstration was primarily seen in the
physical occupation of public space targeting the Japanese Consulate. This
immediately visible act shows that there is indeed a cause worth arguing in
something so easily overlooked by many people as blatant fanaticism. The
delivery of the 6,000 signatures emphasized this and as part of the rhetoric,
was used to amplify the discontent that Cantonese Speakers faced when
recognizing the lack of cultural sensitivity in Nintendo’s action.
Alongside cultural oppression, Hong Kong had
faced a longstanding issue of resource allocation problems since the
integration with Mainland China had occurred. Already, Hong Kong is one of the
most dense city districts in the world with little land to create new buildings
and a large population of over 7 million (Collins). Thus, immigration and large
scale tourism have posed issues to allocating resources including food, water,
shelter, and most importantly space. Since the beginning of the millennium,
tourism in Hong Kong has soared tremendously. In 2011, the number of Chinese
tourists “was the equivalent of four times the entire population of Hong Kong”
(Garrett). Although this gave stimulation to the tourism industry which
includes revenue made from souvenirs, amusement venue ticket sales, and
economic flow, this posed other issues which included pushing the limits of
Hong Kong’s infrastructural resources. This gave rise to demonstrations against
Mainland drivers and Mainland mothers coming to Hong Kong to give birth to gain
their future children the right to reside in the Special Administrative Region
(Garrett). These protests were quite similar to the protests over linguistic
rights including physical presence in public spaces and the utilization of
signs and posters to portray the rhetoric. Both demonstrations arose
simultaneously as one grouped movement in Victoria Park in February of 2012.
In the
case of the anti-Mainland driver demonstrations, Hongkongers held signs
depicting a car with the Chinese flag attached encircled in a crossed
prohibited sign seen on most no smoking posters. The text on the sign contained
both Chinese and English, the latter written as “Mainland cars coming. Life at
risk!” and “Stop cross-border driving into HK” (Garrett). The first statement mentioning
life at risk was deliberate based on an event that occurred October 2011 in a
Chinese city involving a toddler who was run over by a Chinese driver “who
simply paused, and then continued to drive over her a second time before
leaving the scene (Garrett). This poster’s most important artifact is the ethos
that is speaks to. According to the intent of the message, the posters portray
that allowing “Mainland cars” into the SAR would be an irresponsible and an
unethical decision as it could potentially bring dangerous and careless
drivers. The dangerous attitude towards Mainland drivers is emphasized by the
encroaching tone of the phrase “Mainland cars coming.” The phrase evokes panic
by mimicking a sense of invasion likely to be used in a setting of war such as
“missiles coming” or “soldiers coming.” The evoked emotions are not completely
logical since it would be a fallacy in argument to assume that all Mainland
drivers are dangerous, however, this phrase is deliberate and it plays on the
pathos, especially fear, of citizens concerned over the safety of children and
Hongkongers who are passionate against Mainlanders due to rising tensions
between the two systems.
The second of the few variations of the
anti-Mainland driver posters shows an image of a crowded Hong Kong street with
a wide mass of pedestrians encroaching the boarder of the traffic filled road.
Above the image, two arrows face each other in opposite directions towards the
middle. In between them a stop sign with a car drawn in the middle. On the left
side the sign reads “More cars?” the right, “More space?” (both sides in
English below the arrow and in Chinese above it) (Garrett). This poster speaks
to the limitations of Hong Kong’s resources in space that more cars would mean
a greater need for pedestrian space. This is portrayed as an unachievable feat
with the display of the image in the center. The street in the photo is so
packed that it is seemingly possible for a pedestrian to be hit from a vehicle
in the right-most or left-most lane. As such, this particular poster utilizes
logos as the primary driver of its message appealing to the idea that it would
be illogical to allow more cars into the SAR due to the state of
infrastructural restrains in the current time. Doing so would only exacerbate
the current infrastructural issues that haven’t yet been solved with the
densely populated city.
A third variation of the anti-Mainland car
protest acts a bit as an outlier to the rhetoric theory of Perry. A third
display featured an object in place of posters. Hongkongers gathered around an
effigy of a mainland car, destroying it by kicking and smashing at it until the
object was in pieces in the center of the public square outside the Hong Kong
SAR Government and Legislative Council Plaza (Garrett). This demonstration
again plays on the ethos and pathos of the citizens and not very much on logos.
The demonstration is rage driven showing full-fledged physical aggression
against a representation of a Mainland driver and ultimate destruction of the object.
The ethos lies in the motive for the display which, again, includes notions of
unethicality of allowing Mainland cars into the SAR which may potentially bring
harmful and careless drivers alongside. The pathos stems in the enormous stream
of angry emotions promoted by building such an object as an effigy. Although
the consequences of exerting aggregations against an effigy do not carry the
same end result if the object were real, the emotional result behind the
physical actions are legitimate. This breaks Perry’s theory of how protests
following the 1989 democratic protests operated in that this particular display
of events did not include an aspect of moralism. The building of an effigy is
largely immoral as it fuels anger and tensions and further aggravates the
dissidents who place emotion at the very top of the motivational list. This
event, however, is effective in that it shows a degree of severity in the issue
to the point that people are truly concerned and that the allocation of
resources such as pedestrian walk ways and roads is truly under threat with
growing integration.
Occurring during the same time as the
Anti-Mainland drivers protests, women including mothers and those expecting
occupied hospital grounds in protest of the lack of resources for Hongkongers
in local hospitals. According to NTDTV, 4 out of 10 births were from Mainland
Chinese Mothers around 2011. This led to a decrease in allocation of hospital
beds and a decrease in the healthcare quality. A video shows protesters holding
signs in the area, gathered with children and family members. The video also
included interviews from mothers who stated that they experienced birth without
the aid of medical professionals due to a lack of resources (NTDTV). The
rhetoric of this protest is strong in all three: pathos, logos, and ethos.
Protestors asserted the logic that Hong Kong is becoming limited in its
recourses to provide for native Hongkongers with such a great influx of foreign
mothers giving birth in local hospitals. The dense nature of the SAR and lack
of new space for new infrastructure places limits on the access to healthcare
simply by physical space. In addition to that, the large number of tourists and
visitors birthing for the motive of gaining special privileges in the SAR is
unethical and immoral. The appearance of pregnant women at the demonstration
emphasized the unethicality of this uneven resource issue. Women brought their
children to the protest in order to emphasize the pathos aspect of the message
that this issue not only effects the women, but the children and consequently
the entire family. As moralistic culture holders, Hongkongers hold family
values high and the appearance of families in the demonstrations shows that the
rhetoric truly appeals to the pathos of the communities of Hong Kong.
Works Cited
Carroll, John.
A Concise History of Hong Kong.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2007.
Garrett, Daniel. “Visualizing Protest Culture
in China’s Hong Kong: Recent Tensions Over
Integration.” Visual Communication,
vol. 12, no. 1, 2012, pp. 55-70.
Gao, Xuesong. “Cantonese is not a dialect:
Chinese Netizens’ Defense of Cantonese as a
Regional Lingua Franca.” Journal of
Multilingual and Multicultural Development, vol. 33, no. 5, 2012, pp. 449-464.
Ho, Kwok-leung. Polite Politics: A
Sociological Analysis of an Urban Protest in Hong Kong.
Aldershot, Hants, England: Burlington, Vt., 2000. Print.
Lam. Jermain T.M. “The Changing Political
Culture of the Voters.” The Political
Dynamics of
Hong
Kong Under Chinese Sovereignty. Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2000, pp. 178-206.
languagelover7的頻道. “Mainland girl eating caused controversy
within Hong Kong MTR.”
Youtube Inc. 19 Jan. 2012.
Li, Pang-kwong. “Historical Setting: The State
and the Society.” Hong Kong From Britain to
China: Political cleavages, electoral
dynamics and institutional changes. Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2000, pp. 20-36.
"List of Chinese Pokémon Names." -
Bulbapedia, the Community-driven Pokémon
Encyclopedia. Mediawiki, 21 Sept.
2016. Web.
“Mandarin Chinese Called Cantonese Bastards
And Dogs.” Youtube. Youtube Inc.
“MTR By-Laws.” MTR. 2016.
NTDTV. “Hong Kong Mothers Protest Reduced
Medical Care.” Youtube. 25 Oct. 2011.
Perry, Elizabeth J. Challenging the Mandate of
Heaven: Social Protest and State Power in
China. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2002. Print.
Rath, Robert. "The Politics behind Hong
Kong's Pikachu Protests." ZAM. ZAM, n.d. Web. 28 Oct.
2016.
Thynne, Ian. “’One Country’ or ‘Two Systems’?
Integration and Autonomy in Perspective.”
intuitional
Change and Political Transition in Hong Kong. Edited by Ian Scott. St. Martin’s Press, Inc. 1998, pp. 234-245.
Unger, Jonathan, and Geremie Barmé. “The 1989
Democracy Movement in Fujian and its
Aftermath.” The Pro-democracy Protests in China: Reports from the
Provinces. Armonk,
NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1991, pp. 150-165
Questions:
1. Because I expanded my essay to incorporate a range of protest movements, I didn't see the benefit of having a separate rhetorical context since, from my understanding, rhetorical context outlines the background of the movement including what caused it, who was involved, where and how it was conducted. Then the analysis looks at it's effectiveness. As such, I have an ABABAB sort of pattern with each of my examples. Is this distracting? Is it necessary to transition better?
2. My original topic revolved around protests over Cantonese language being pushed out in Hong Kong. Since then, I have expanded to include other aspects of the Hongkonger identity. As I wrote, I mentioned politics in the thesis and historical context, but realized that more of the essay is still focused on language. What do you feel is lacking the the context of politics? I noticed that political historical context over democratic protests was mainly used to outline protest structure afterwards.
3. Notice the imbalance of movements that I have in the essay. Most of it involves language because I switched relatively late in the process. Is this disproportion causing issues in the effectiveness of the essay? Should I somehow even it out with more research from other aspects of the Hongkonger identity? Or was the essay meant to be about language in the first place? I also have research from linguistic studies that speak to the language attitudes in Hong Kong in recent years stating that most people identify with Cantonese as a core part of their selves. This was not quite part of a movement, and I was not sure how to incorporate it until possibly after the analysis of the language movements, or all the movements altogether. Would this be better fit in the rhetorical context?
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