Youth Civic Engagement in the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement

Abstract

This presentation discusses the political identities which young people in Hong Kong have built for themselves in recent years in Hong Kong and the role that their activism has played in their civic education. Traditionally, education in Hong Kong has been conceived as “de-politicized,” and its population as apolitical and materialistic. However, the youth-led Umbrella Movement of 2014-2015, based in ‘Occupy Central’, following the National Education controversy of 2012, has put pay to that. Why has this happened? Research reveals that these movements reflect young people’s desires to engage democratically in political processes outside the control of educators and other adults. Moreover, the movement has also given young people from ethnic minority communities an opportunity to identify themselves as local. This has provided invaluable political education to them and mainstream young people alike. On the other hand, government responses to these events, combined with intergenerational struggles, have led to a kind of tragic political education for many. They have come to see the Umbrella Movement as a lesson in powerlessness and hopelessness over time. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/events/2016/umbrella-movement.html ; https://ed-gesf.com/2016/05/06/seminar-youth-civic-engagement-in-the-hong-kong-umbrella-movement-dr-liz-jackson/