Digital Asia and Activism

Hong Kongers, Politics, and Chinanet: The role of the internet in identity creation

In the documentary, Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower, viewers see the way in which media, the Internet, protest, and civil disobedience play a role in Hong Kong and the city’s politics. Despite being only 14 years old, Joshua begins his career in activism by mounting an effort against Beijing’s implementation of the National Education program in Hong Kong, a curriculum that would introduce nationalism and communist ideals in an otherwise non-communist and democratic society. A result of the 1997 Handover, Hong Kong is an entity all of its own, surviving under the One Nation, Two Systems relationship with the rest of China. However, the founder of the activist group, Scholarism, Joshua Wong uses social media platforms like Facebook to his advantage by spreading his message against the “brainwashing” of National Education and mobilizing other youth like him, a skill that ultimately leads and plays a significant role in Occupy Central and the Umbrella Movement. Throughout the documentary, we see images and video of protests, makeshift encampments, teens and adults marching and chanting against Communist China, images I feel we don’t see very often or are rarely exposed to. Before watching the documentary, I had heard of the Umbrella Movement, but never knew what it was. Joshua changed that. Even more, it made me care about it.

Using the documentary as a springboard, I feel that it ties in  a lot of important issues, among these the use of social media, the difference between the Internet and Chinanet, effective and ineffective forms of protest, and identity and validation. While watching the documentary, a term that stuck out to me the most was “Hong Kongers,” a term used by Joshua and other speakers when referring to the people of Hong Kong. Through the use of this term, they wish to differentiate between themselves and the Chinese, as well as solidify their different cultures. Part of the reason why these cultures are so different can be attributed to the exposure to the internet and outside media, or in China, the lack of such exposure. As Michael Anti fleshes out in his TED talk, “Behind the Great Firewall of China,” we see how China has manipulated access to online sources to only Chinese sources that filter through terms and people to only show the most preferable of information, replacing sites like Google with Baidu, YouTube with Tudou, and Facebook with RenRen. As we read in Luzhou Nina Li’s “Rethinking the Chinese Internet,” Chinese culture is also influenced by pirated content and “video spoofing.” It seems to me that this content, combined with the censorship imposed by the government, makes for an online culture unique to China. On the opposite spectrum, Hong Kong does not have these limitations, explaining how Joshua used Facebook to plan and coordinate rallies and protests. If anything, China and Hong Kong are perfect examples to see how the internet plays such a large role in the creation of an identity. As China attempts to tighten its grip on Hong Kong and change factors like their leadership and education, how much sooner until their internet freedom is attacked?  And if this does happen, how will this shape the Hong Kong experience and identity?

Krystal Gallegos
 

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