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1 – 10 of 59This paper provides an analytical account detailing the historical linkages between Chinese on both sides of the Sino-Hong Kong border from 1841 onwards and examining important…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper provides an analytical account detailing the historical linkages between Chinese on both sides of the Sino-Hong Kong border from 1841 onwards and examining important incidents of collective actions in the colony and Canton.
Design/methodology/approach
Using annual reports published by the colonial administration in Hong Kong, especially those focusing on years that witnessed major incidents of anti-colonial agitations, this paper analyzes how British policymakers were confronted by collective actions mounted by Chinese in Canton and Hong Kong. Building on the works of prominent historians and utilizing the theoretical frameworks of analysts such as Charles Tilly (1978), the author examines if a Cantonese regional solidarity served as the foundation for popular movements, which in turn consolidated a rising Chinese nationalism when Canton and Hong Kong were the focal points of mass actions against imperialism.
Findings
Hong Kong Chinese workers were vanguards of the modern Chinese revolutions that transformed not just their homeland, but their lives, allegiances, and aspirations as Chinese in a domain under foreign jurisdiction on Chinese soil, as their actions were emulated by their compatriots outside of South China, thus starting a chain reaction that culminated in the establishment of the Nanjing regime.
Originality/value
This paper reveals that popular movements of Hong Kong Chinese possessed national and international importance, especially when they were supported by their Cantonese compatriots and the two leading Chinese political parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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While Hong Kong has exercised laissez-faire policy with regard to popular cultural industries, such broadcasting freedom may not fully accepted in countries where state control of…
Abstract
Purpose
While Hong Kong has exercised laissez-faire policy with regard to popular cultural industries, such broadcasting freedom may not fully accepted in countries where state control of the media is tight. This paper aims to have a review and brief discussion on music development and the phenomenon of popular music censorship under Chinese societies including China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Design/methodology/approach
After a brief discussion on the popular music scene in Hong Kong, China and Singapore, this paper reviews on the possible reasons for popular music censorship issue in the Chinese societies.
Findings
It is found that Canto-pop can be freely broadcast in Hong Kong; however, such freedom is not accepted in China and Singapore due to censorship. While China is sensitive to pro-democratic content in popular music, Singapore's language policies hinder the development of Canto-pop since the 70s.
Originality/value
After reviewing the reasons for music censorship, in particular Cantonese popular music in the Chinese societies, the paper gives a prediction on the future development of Canto-pop.
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Chi Kit Chan and Anna Wai Yee Yuen
This study scrutinizes the convergence between commercial advertising and the political vision of social movement in media advertisements. This study deliberates how commercial…
Abstract
Purpose
This study scrutinizes the convergence between commercial advertising and the political vision of social movement in media advertisements. This study deliberates how commercial advertisement could be compatible with movement discourses and social resistance. Such hybridization between commercial narration and movement discourses is different from political advertising sponsored by political and civic organizations. This study uses an advertising campaign in Hong Kong which expressed outcry against police search on an outspoken media as a case study to conceptualize advertising activism with the thematic analysis of the movement discourses shown in printed advertisements. This study aims to engage with scholarly dialogue surrounding social movement studies and discuss how movement discourses could hybridize with commercial advertisement.
Design/methodology/approach
This study examines the discourses and textual features of an advertising campaign initiated by the public instead of political elites and social movement organizations in Hong Kong, in which various individual citizens, anonymous participants, business enterprises and civic organizations expressed their anger over a police search against an outspoken media (Apple Daily) by Hong Kong police. This bottom-up advertising campaign shows how the narration of commercial advertising could be hybridized with the activism for social resistance, which is conceptualized as advertising activism in this paper.
Findings
Based on the textual features and discourses embedded in the advertisements, this study investigates the printed advertisements mushroomed in Apple Daily since the police search in August 2020 by the thematic analysis under the concept of advertising activism: frame construction, identities mobilization and decentered solidarity. Advertising activism differs from commercial and political advertising from two ways. Firstly, its advertisements are cosponsored by numerous nonpolitically well-known individuals or organizations. Secondly, advertising activism feature with hybridization between commercial narration and political or movement discourses. Discourses of advertising activism aim to mobilize the commercial identity of consumers for noncommercial means by their consumption behaviors.
Originality/value
The findings illustrate a hybridization of commercial narration and movement discourses stemming from social movement and identity politics, which is coined by our conceptualization of advertising activism. While commercial and political advertising focus on business promotion and political messages, respectively, advertising activism demonstrates multiple layers of cultural meanings on the consumption behaviors which hybridize with political and movement discourses. The authors hope this study could unleash further intellectual dialogue on the social role of advertising in social movement and how movement discourses “spillover” from social events to the commercial advertisement.
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Hong Kong’s musical scene is rapidly changing along with the evolving media landscape. The purpose of this paper is to examine the new way of Cantopop production and dissemination…
Abstract
Purpose
Hong Kong’s musical scene is rapidly changing along with the evolving media landscape. The purpose of this paper is to examine the new way of Cantopop production and dissemination in the new media ecosystem. Furthermore, this study calls for a reconceptualization of the process of Cantopop listening and sharing as a form of public pedagogy within the online public space.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the investigation into two of the leading local indie bands Kolor and Supper Moment, this study explores the implications that social media and participatory culture have for these indie bands. In this study, the music content and promotion strategy of the two bands, as well as the role of their online audiences are studied.
Findings
Social media leads to more democratic cultural production and distribution. The strong online audience engagement serves as the foundation for the popularity of the two Cantopop indie bands. In their music practice, the lyrics appear to be in alignment with the goals and interests of the listeners, which gives rise to greater participation by its audiences through social media. Under the context of interactive internet culture, listening and sharing Cantopop can be seen as an educational force, thus reinforcing the values and attitudes.
Originality/value
While many important works have examined various aspects of Cantopop, little attention has been paid to the indie bands. This paper attempts to reveal the recent development of local indie bands as a site under the interactive internet culture. It also gives insights to the significant role of Cantopop played in public pedagogy.
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Satish Kolluri and Joseph Tse-Hei Lee
Taking an inter-Asian perspective on the perception of China’s rise and power shifts in Asia, this reflection draws on the examples of Hong Kong’s years-long pro-democracy…
Abstract
Purpose
Taking an inter-Asian perspective on the perception of China’s rise and power shifts in Asia, this reflection draws on the examples of Hong Kong’s years-long pro-democracy movement, Taiwan’s democratization and India’s anti-China sentiments to discuss the growth of domestic and international discontents against China’s projection of sharp power, even military power, along its peripheries. The severity of these crises suggests that an assertive China has trapped itself in a perpetual cycle of intensifying authoritarian rule at home and seeking expansionary outreach abroad. China’s diplomatic and military adventurism is likely to antagonize potential allies, jeopardizing the hope for inter-Asian solidarity and cooperation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors consult relevant secondary literature to contextualize the perception of China’s rise to domination from an inter-Asian perspective.
Findings
Following the end of the Cold War in 1990 and the demise of the Soviet Union as a Eurasian empire, some cultural theorists proposed a postcolonial, inter-Asian perspective to de-globalize the Euro-American-dominated humanities and social sciences, recognizing that many areas once deemed by the West as marginal and peripheral had contributed to the transformation of the modern world. The nineteenth-century Western imperialists and early twentieth-century Japanese militarists once deployed the geopolitical concept of “Asia” to advance their respective discourses of modernity and progress. Thus, the very notion of Asian solidarity or Pan-Asianism is deeply problematic because it reminds us of the entwined histories of colonial oppression and resistance against imperialistic intrusions.
Research limitations/implications
The conventional “inter-Asian” perspective that emphasizes relational connectedness across and within nations does not seem applicable to explaining the troublesome relationship between American universalism and China-centric authoritarianism.
Practical implications
In today’s multipolar world, the USA and China are embroiled in a competitive relationship regarding the shape the global order should take. The recent US-China trade war is only the opening shot in the wider bilateral conflict. Behind this contest for global leadership in economic influence and technology is a serious battle of ideas.
Social implications
China is still coming to terms with many unexpected consequences of globalization. Steady recovery gave China a temporary reprieve but the overall economy has weakened due to many years of trade disputes with the USA and the COVID-19 pandemic. China has yet to find a way to coexist with a fast-developing India, address the genuine grievances and demands for democratic change in Hong Kong and accommodate a stronger pro-independence force in Taiwan. To revive the vision of inter-Asian solidarity, China should build trust at home and abroad and reimagine institutional mechanisms for conflict resolution. Otherwise, it would trap itself in endless cycles of tensions and conflicts that benefit no one.
Originality/value
The rapid rise of China to power in the Eurasian continent and Asian waters has not only distorted the inter-Asian vision of seeking unity among postcolonial states but also accelerated competitions for territorial resources and regional dominance. By reflecting on the latest interventions of China in geopolitical affairs, this paper shows that despite the rhetorical appeal of horizontality, the engagement of many emerging Asian powers has diverged from the ideal of inter-Asian cooperation. The task for scholars is to gain a more accurate understanding of the fluid situations on the ground.
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“Asian” is an aggregating descriptive term commonly used in Australian media, politics and everyday speech to describe people of diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
“Asian” is an aggregating descriptive term commonly used in Australian media, politics and everyday speech to describe people of diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this paper is to question the extent to which “Asian” Australian residents living in Perth, Western Australia demonstrate spatial or organisational panethnic association.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyses quantitative population data from the 2011 Census using GIS to visualise the spatial residential distribution of individuals born in Asian countries and individuals with Chinese ancestry within the Perth metropolitan area. The paper further uses qualitative data drawn from fieldwork conducted in Perth to consider evidence of organisational panethnic association.
Findings
For first generation migrants there is currently little spatial or organisation evidence of “Asian” panethnic association in Perth. Migrants from different ethno-national backgrounds exhibit very different residential patterns. Incipient ethnoburbs are developing that appear to be based on ethnicity rather than panethnicity. Migrant organisation in Perth is likewise arranged primarily on the basis of ethnicity although some panethnic work is observed.
Research limitations/implications
Findings indicate trends towards ethnic residential segregation. Further longitudinal research could expand upon these findings. Qualitative research could determine causes of segregation and implications of (pan)ethnic identities, and explore how individuals from Asian countries respond to the dominant linguistic aggregation of “Asians”.
Originality/value
This paper offers an original analysis of a common frame of reference that has received little critical attention in the Australian context. It applies the framework of Asian panethnicity developed in the USA and finds it wanting, highlighting an inconsistency between the racialised language used in Australia to describe migrants from Asia and the ways these migrants associate.
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Teacher education for social justice aims to enable teachers to work toward equity and justice in society and humanizing the educational experience of their students…
Abstract
Teacher education for social justice aims to enable teachers to work toward equity and justice in society and humanizing the educational experience of their students. Conceptualizing teaching as a political and ethical endeavor, social justice teacher education must engage seriously with the local and lived experiences of both teacher educators and student teachers. How then does teacher education for social justice move across communities and identities, and through cultural, social, geographic and temporal spaces? This chapter presents an autobiographical narrative inquiry into social justice teacher education across sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts, across time, and within different educational communities. Bakhtin's dialogic theory (1981) helps to trace the narrative threads wherein “each word tastes of the context and contexts in which it has lived its socially charged life” (p. 293). The study examines my ideological becoming (Bakhtin, 1981) as a critical teacher educator in the context of a youth mentoring service-learning course for undergraduate teacher candidates. I examine the complexities and tensions in exploring experiences and co-constructing understandings of oppression, privilege and social justice with my student teachers on the youth mentoring course in dialogic struggles with my experiences of justice and education in the USA and Hong Kong as an English-speaking Chinese American. Providing an in-depth examination of the convergence of identity, social relations, place, and time in my knowledge formation, I critically reflect upon the notion of social justice to suggest that social justice teacher education is multi-voiced and lived both locally and globally.
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Michiel Verver, David Passenier and Carel Roessingh
Literature on immigrant and ethnic minority entrepreneurship almost exclusively focusses on the west, while neglecting other world regions. This neglect is problematic not only…
Abstract
Purpose
Literature on immigrant and ethnic minority entrepreneurship almost exclusively focusses on the west, while neglecting other world regions. This neglect is problematic not only because international migration is on the rise outside the west, but also because it reveals an implicit ethnocentrism and creates particular presumptions about the nature of ethnic minority entrepreneurship that may not be as universally valid as is often presumed. The purpose of this paper is to examine ethnic minority entrepreneurship in non-western contexts to critically assess two of these presumptions, namely that it occurs in the economic margins and within clear ethnic community boundaries.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on academic literature (including the authors’ own) to develop two case descriptions of ethnic minority entrepreneurship outside the west: the Mennonites in Belize and the Chinese in Cambodia. For each case, the authors describe the historic entrepreneurial trajectory, i.e. the historical emergence of entrepreneurship in light of relevant community and society contexts.
Findings
The two cases reveal that, in contrast to characterisations of ethnic minority entrepreneurship in the west, the Mennonites in Belize and the Chinese in Cambodia have come to comprise the economic upper class, and their business activities are not confined to ethnic community boundaries.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to elaborate the importance of studying ethnic minority entrepreneurship outside the west, both as an aim in itself and as a catalyst to work towards a more neutral framework.
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This article investigates social history in Hong Kong and compares their community transformation with two Tin Hau temples in Hong Kong, namely the Sai Kung Tin Hau and Hip Tin…
Abstract
Purpose
This article investigates social history in Hong Kong and compares their community transformation with two Tin Hau temples in Hong Kong, namely the Sai Kung Tin Hau and Hip Tin Temple and Shaukiwan Tin Hau Old Temple.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is conducts a historical comparison to evaluate the vitality of traditional regions in Hong Kong with particular attention to the extent and intensity of its religious practice.
Findings
The paper fills a gap in the literature by comprehensively investigating Chinese temple related societies and communities. Most previous studies of Chinese temples and their rituals have treated them in isolation from their political contexts, emphasizing topics such as iconography over details of temple communities and their relationships with other elements of the social structure.
Originality/value
The research works from the point of view how the religious situation reflects important social characteristics and transformation of Shaukiwan and Sai Kung which were contemporary urban communities.
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