The Umbrella Movement: A Decade Retrospective

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Event Date

Location
Zoom

[Pacific Time] September 26, 2024 6pm

[Hong Kong Time] September 27, 2024 9am

 

Co-sponsors: UC Davis East Asian Studies, UCLA Asian Pacific Center, UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, UCI Center for Asian Studies, UCSD International Institute, UCSD 21st Century China Center, Pomona College Asian Studies

This event is organized and hosted by Global Hong Kong Studies at University of California.

About the Event

The Umbrella Movement in 2014 was a historic event in Hong Kong’s political development. To mark its tenth anniversary, three speakers with firsthand experience in this iconic movement will reflect on its history, meanings and implications. Kacey Wong is a prolific political artist whose work has chronicled many mass movements in Hong Kong. Alex Chow, now a PhD student at UC Berkeley, was one of the student leaders at the center of the mobilization. Annie Jieping Zhang, the renowned journalist and founder of the independent media outlet Initium, has written many investigative reports and co-authored a book on the movement.

Umbrella, Bricks, and Cocktail - Exile, Resilience, and Hope

Kacey Wong will be focusing on reconnection and how to maintain resilience in international resistance movement amongst the Hongkonger diaspora community.

Hong Kong Social Movement as Decolonial Critique, 2014 - 2019

Alex Chow will discuss how the social movements in Hong Kong from 2014 to 2019 marked a decolonial critique of both British and Chinese colonial governance. The following questions will be addressed: 1. What forms of decolonial praxis, including collective leadership, institutional building, and the right to self-determination, are emerging? 2. What types of global political-economic reforms could enable the restoration of freedoms in Hong Kong? 3. What geopolitical clashes and scenarios is the Hong Kong diaspora anticipating?

Changes in the Hong Kong Media Landscape, 2014-2024

Annie Zhang will discuss the changes in the Hong Kong media landscape over the past 10 years.

 

About the Speakers

Kacey Wong

Kacey Wong

Kacey Wong’s political art projects investigate the relationship between men and their social and political environment. Kacey received B. Arch from Cornell University, USA, Master of Arts in Sculpture from Chelsea of UK and Doctor of Fine Arts degree from RMIT of Australia. He participated in the 2019 Anti-extradition Bill Movement and the 2014 Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong through live-art performance, videos, photography, installation, sculpture, and social interventions.

Kacey’s floating house, “Paddling Home”, sailed the Victoria Harbour and was part of the M+ Museum permanent collection, among other artworks collected by museums and private collectors. He was awarded the Best Artist Award in 2010, Rising Artist Award and Outstanding Arts Education Award in 2003 by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

Kacey left Hong Kong in 2021 in search for freedom of artistic expression and now living as an exile in Taiwan.

Alex Chow

Alex Chow

Alex Yong Kang Chow is pursuing a PhD in Geography at UC Berkeley, studying decolonial praxis in Hong Kong, focusing on capitalism, nationalism, and colonialism. He graduated with a BA from the University of Hong Kong and an MSc from the London School of Economics. Alex was the former Secretary-General of the Hong Kong Federation of Students during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. He co-founded Flow magazine and is a board member of the Hong Kong Democracy Council, a non-profit advocating for Hong Kongers’ human rights, freedoms, and democracy.

Annie Jieping Zhang

Annie Jieping Zhang

Annie Jieping Zhang, Nieman Fellow 2024 at Harvard University. Media Entrepreneur, Award-winning Journalist, and Columnist.