The rise and ongoing legacy of localism as collective identity in Hong Kong: Resinicisation anxieties and punishment of political dissent in the post-colonial era
| Author | Michael Adorjan,Paul Vinod Khiatani,Wing Hong Chui |
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14624745211040308 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue: Legacies of Empire |
The rise and ongoing legacy
of localism as collective
identity in Hong Kong:
Resinicisation anxieties
and punishment of
political dissent in the
post-colonial era
Michael Adorjan
University of Calgary, and Fellow, Centre for Criminology,
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Paul Vinod Khiatani
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Wing Hong Chui
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Abstract
China’s new National Security Law, enacted in Hong Kongon 30 June 2020, has amplified
widespread concerns among the city’s population regarding the implications of this law.
These concerns have at root anxieties related to Hong Kong’s resinicisation, referring to
anxieties over Hong Kong’s political and economic dependence on mainland China,
including loyalty and patriotism towards the motherland. This paper explores these
developments in relation to the ongoing legacy of localism, argued to be instilled as a
colonial project to help secure the populations’identification with Hong Kong. Seen
as ‘criminals’from the perspective of mainland Chinese authorities, many of those
involved in today’s protests (many of whom include young people) see themselves as
engaging in legitimate forms of civil disobedience. First explicating the context of
Corresponding author:
Michael Adorjan, University of Calgary, and Fellow, Centre for Criminology, University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong.
Email: madorjan@ucalgary.ca
Special Issue: Legacies of Empire
Punishment & Society
2021, Vol. 23(5) 650–674
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14624745211040308
journals.sagepub.com/home/pun
Hong Kong’s colonial history in order to help make sense of present-day turmoil, we
turn to recent trends in arrests related to the protests, as well as evidence of rapidly
declining trust in the Hong Kong Police Force, seen by some as increasingly beholden
to the interests of mainland China. Implications for these trends goin g forward are con-
sidered, with a discussion of the need for greater attention to colonial histories and
post-colonial ramifications.
Keywords
collective identity, resinicisation anxieties, punishment, political dissent, post-colonial,
Hong Kong
Introduction
Up to the turn of the 21st century, Hong Kong ranked as ‘one of the world’s safest cities’
(Broadhurst, Lee and Chan, 2017: 45). Overall crime rates, which were highest during the
1980s, have steadily declined into the post-colonial period (after 1997; further details on
the colonial context is below; see Broadhurst et al., 2010; Broadhurst, Lee and Chan,
2017). Dovetailing with these trends in overall crime are public opinion polls indicating
a high degree of confidence in the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF). Nevertheless, unrest
and anxiety has emerged in Hong Kong, centring on what some dub the ‘resinicisation’or
(more locally) ‘mainlandisation’of Hong Kong, referring to the ‘policy of making Hong
Kong politically more dependent on Beijing, economically more reliant on the
Mainland’s support, socially more patriotic towards the motherland, and legally more
reliant on the interpretation of [1997’s] Basic Law by [China’s] National People’s
Congress’(Lo, 2007: 186). A prominent example is the recent implementation of The
Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region (hereafter National Security Law), enacted in
Hong Kong on 30 June 2020, which has exacerbated widespread concerns regarding
its implications. The law, and developments leading up to it –especially the recent
social unrest involving violence subsequent to the law’s passing –, have at root anxieties
related to Hong Kong’s‘resinicisation’; anxieties undergirded in recent years by ‘local-
ism’, referring to a felt sense of belonging and place-based-identification with Hong
Kong and qualities indigenous to the city seen to be worth safeguarding. Localist iden-
tification, moreover, is emboldened by contrasting Hong Kong identity in relation to
mainland China (Hargreaves, 2015; Lee et al., 2019). These anxieties are also salient
given the concept of ‘One Country, Two Systems’and the promise of a high degree of
autonomy following the handover of Hong Kong from British to Chinese sovereignty
on 1 July 1997. According to the Sino-British Joint Declaration and Basic Law, Hong
Kong then became a Special Administrative Region of China, with the promise that
basic policies will remain unchanged for 50 years under a model of ‘One Country,
Two Systems’.‘One Country’refers to mainland China’s sovereignty and role in govern-
ing national security and foreign affairs, while the ‘Two Systems’refer to the preservation
Adorjan et al. 651
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