After a Rainy Day in Hong Kong: Media, Memory and Social Movements, a Look at Hong Kong's 2014 Umbrella Movement
Open Access
- Author:
- Chernin, Kelly Alissa
- Graduate Program:
- Media Studies
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 16, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Matthew Jordan, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Matthew Jordan, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Michelle Rodino-Colocino, Committee Member
C. Michael Elavsky, Committee Member
Stephen H. Browne, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Umbrella Movement
Hong Kong
Memory
social movements
technology - Abstract:
- The period following an occupied social movement is often overlooked, yet it is an important moment in time as political and economic systems are potentially vulnerable. In 2014, after Hong Kong’s Chief Executive declared that the citizens of Hong Kong would be unable to democratically elect their leader in the upcoming 2017 election, a 79-day occupation of major city centers ensued. The memory of the three-month occupation, also known as the Umbrella Movement was instrumental in shaping a political identity for Hong Kong’s residents. Understanding social movements as a process and not a singular event, an analytic mode that problematizes linear temporal constructions, can help us move beyond the deterministic and celebratory views often associated with technology’s role in social movement activism. Memory studies can help us explore social movements in a more nuanced way. Developing an awareness of how technology continues to serve as a location of memory after an occupation is just as relevant as exploring digital media’s role prior to and during occupation. This case study of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement will examine the way in which we frame “what happened” and how this can influence “what comes next,” thus exploring how these narratives shape the continuous struggle for democratic freedoms. By exploring the use of symbols and their continued role after occupation; the function movement memory has in constructing various identities: political, national, and generational; how these locations of memory help and hinder the course of reflection and whether or not such reflection even occurs; and the way memory artifacts are stored to be reinterpreted in the future, will help to make sense of the continuous struggle for political freedom experienced in Hong Kong and throughout the world.