Cardboard salons, choreographies and lunch boxes : Sunday gatherings of FDW in Hong Kong as everyday resistance

Abstract

The following dissertation is an analysis of the spacial, temporal, material and subjective layers of the Sunday Gatherings in Central, where every Sunday, thousands of foreign domestic workers (FDW) meet to spend their weekly day off eating, dancing, chatting, sleeping, performing, taking part in trades union and political rallies. The dissertation will argue that although unintentional and unrecognized, Sunday Gatherings at Central by FDW are a form of everyday resistance against their working conditions and the wider discrimination they face. To this end, this dissertation will look first at the definitions of resistance movements, discussing issues such as intentionality and effectiveness. It will then look in turn at how the relationships between foreign domestic workers and the spacial, temporal and material conceptions of the Sunday Gatherings are shaped by their subjectivities, whilst simultaneously renegotiating their own resistive identities and consciousness in exchange. The different spatial layers of Central and the way in which FDW domesticate the semi-public space of Central Hong Kong will be explored. The chapter on time interrogates the meanings of Sundays as transgression of the everyday, as well as analysing the repetition of the gatherings, which although fragmented have continuously happened on a weekly basis for over forty years. Then, the relationships between FDW and the materials of their gatherings, which enable them to create resistive underground economies, will be examined. The last chapter considers the subjective nature of the Sunday activities such as dancing or telling jokes as acts of community building, identity negotiation and resistance.