The formation of political understandings : how mainland Chinese students perceive the umbrella movement

Abstract

How do non-participants form their understandings on protests? Past research on social movements have mostly ignored the attitudes of non-participants despite discussions on relative deprivation, mobilization frames, disadvantaged group identities, psychological needs for epistemic certainty, and political apathy. Further, past research on political socialization did not discuss citizen attitudes on specific protests despite looking at the effect by different agents such family, peer group, mainstream values, mass media, and educational institutions on political attitudes. This thesis fills the gap by examining how mainland Chinese undergraduates studying in Hong Kong understand the Umbrella Movement as well as the formation process of these understandings. In-depth interviews with 43 students reveal that the students’ understandings consist of three broad themes: understandings about local Hong Kong society, understandings about protests, and understandings about political concepts. Drawing on theories from the sociology of understanding, I argue that the students’ understandings are nuanced and consist of three modes: discursive, emotive, and kinesthetic. These modes of understandings correspond to abstract political knowledge, feelings about protests, and bodily experiences during the protest. Further, understandings about the Umbrella Movement are formed through three processes of validation: corroboration with daily experiences as sojourning students in an unfamiliar society, resonance with past knowledge of outcomes of previous social movements in China, and recognition (or lack thereof) of democratic ideals by cultural authorities including university professors and public intellectuals. Accordingly, students who have different daily experiences while interacting with local Hong Kong people, have different knowledge about Hong Kong’s history of protests, or have different levels of exposure to political activities and materials, tend to have different understandings of the Umbrella Movement. This case illustrates the micro-level mechanisms of how general political understandings of an authoritarian society still function on its members even when they transit to a society with different political cultures.