Last week, I participated in an exciting cross-disciplinary seminar on the Hong Kong protest at the University of Copenhagen. The blend of historians, film-, media- and literary scholars made for some interesting and fruitful out-of-the-box discussions about parallel and collaborative media spheres, eclecticism versus canonic imagery, and about silence as a polyphonic form of dissent.

“The current political situation in Hong Kong has left many unknowns for the future of Hong Kong. The introduction of the national security legislation June 30th 2020, became the final death blow to the protest movement that had been sweeping through Hong Kong since the summer of 2019. Visible public unrest have had to take on new forms as traditional routes for protesting are cut off. Hong Kong is changing, leaving the futures of many people in a new and uncertain situation.

The situation in Hong Kong is affecting the entire world as Hong Kong’s newfound position as an exponent of the authoritarianism of the Chinese state requires reaction from the international community. Hong Kong society is no longer the same and the questions of the direction Hong Kong is taking lingers in the horizon. Where is Hong Kong heading? And how have the developments these past years affected the direction Hong Kong is taking

This seminar explores different aspects of contemporary Hong Kong society through the lens of cultural production, image politics, protest aesthetics, documentary filmmaking and social and political perspectives.”

Programme

Download all abstract here.

Monday May 23

10.00 – 10.10: Welcome remarks

10.10 – 11.30   Keynote (Chair: Jun Liu): Francis Lee, Chinese University of Hong Kong – Title: “The Role of Digital Media in Large-Scale Protests in Hong Kong” (NB in room 23.0.49!):

11.30 – 12.30: Lunch break

12.30 – 14.00: Panel 1 (Chair: Mai Corlin) (NB in room 27.0.09!):

1. Kristof van den Troost, Chinese University of Hong Kong – Title: “The Censorship of Politics in Hong Kong Cinema: Past, Present, and Future”
2. Chun Chun Ting, Nanyang Technological University – Title: “Cinema of Death: Youth and Necropolitics in Hong Kong”
3. Judith Pernin, independent scholar – Title: “Filming the Individual and the Collective:
   The 2019 Pro-democracy Movement in Hong Kong Independent Documentaries”

14.00 – 14.30: BREAK

14.30 – 16.00 Panel 2 (Chair: Elena Meyer-Clement):

1. Myunghee Lee, University of Copenhagen – Title: “Tactical Choices of Moderate Violence and the Escalation of Nonviolent Movements in Hong Kong”
2. Dusica Ristivojevic, University of Helsinki – Title: “Global circuits: Hong Kong, Protests, and Anglophone Mediascape in 2019”
3. Mai Corlin, University of Copenhagen – Title: “Front Liners and the Images of Protest in the 2019 Hong Kong Protest Movement”

Tuesday May 24th

10.00 – 11.30: Keynote (Chair: Ravinder Kaur): Jeffrey Wasserstrom, University of California, Irvine – Title: “Hong Kong’s Struggle in Historical and Comparative Perspective” (NB in room 23.0.49!)

11.30 – 12.30: Lunch break

12.30 – 14.00: Panel 3 (Chair: Astrid Møller-Olsen)(NB in room 27.0.09!): 

1. Michael Tsang, University of London – Title: “Hong Kong in the World; the World in Hong Kong; Reading Dung Kai-cheung’s Hong Kong Type Allegorically”
2. Winnie Yee, University of Hong Kong – Title: “Objects and Matter as Affect: Revisiting the Storied Matter of Hong Kong’s 2019 Social Protests”
3. Astrid Møller-Olsen, Lund University and Stavanger University – Title: “Haunted Habitat: Invisible Protesters in Dorothy Tse’s Fictional Hong Kong”

14.00-14.30: BREAK

14.30 – 16.00: Closed Roundtable (Chair:  Prof. Emeritus Jørgen Delman) (Note: By invitation only)

Speakers  

• Francis L. F. Lee, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Jeffrey Wasserstrom, University of California, Irvine
• Kristof van den Troost, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Chun Chun Ting, Nanyang Technological University
• Judith Pernin, Independent scholar
• Myunghee Lee, University of Copenhagen
• Dusica Ristivojevic, University of Helsinki
• Michael Tsang, University of London
• Winnie Yee, University of Hong Kong
• Astrid Møller-Olsen, Lund University and Stavanger University
• Mai Corlin, University of Copenhagen

The organizing committee:
Mai Corlin, China Studies, University of Copenhagen
Bo Ærenlund Sørensen, China Studies, University of Copenhagen

Organized by: ThinkChina, Asian Dynamics Initiative, and the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen.