BOOK REVIEWS

GOLD, Thomas, and Sebastian VEG (eds.). 2020. Sunflowers and Umbrellas: Social Movements, Expressive Practices, and Political Culture in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Sunflowers and Umbrellas: Social Movements, Expressive Practices, and Political Culture in Taiwan and Hong Kong is a fascinating collection of essays edited by Thomas Gold and Sebastian Veg that provides a fresh view on the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan and the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. The significance and unexpectedness of the movements in spring and autumn 2014 renewed broader scholarly interest in Hong Kong’s political developments and in comparative studies of Taiwan and Hong Kong. The genesis of the book reflects the dramatic changes in both places and the subsequent sharp diversion in the political agency of their populations. Several of the authors make crucial references to what at the time of writing were still ongoing protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020. The decentralised and fluid protest forms of the “Anti-extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement” offers an important contrast to the Umbrella Movement through their impact on leadership and strategy (p. 36-7) and a further politicisation of cultural expressions such as music (p. 169). At the time of publication, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was returned to office in a landslide victory, which was interpreted as a rejection of Chinese influence, while in Hong Kong the National Security Law marked the beginning of a comprehensive crackdown on political freedoms and civil liberties.

The book acknowledges the China factor, i.e. the influence of the People’s Republic of China on the socioeconomic, political, and cultural aspects of Hong Kong and Taiwanese societies (Wu 2019). Yet, it “proposes a more granular approach that pays close attention to the dynamics and textures of the movement” (p. 9). In their inspiring introduction, Gold and Veg offer a critical assessment of studies on both movements and highlight their aim to go beyond the rationalist and cost-benefit calculations that dominate social movement theory. Instead of looking at opportunity structures, they focus on participative performances and “expressive and symbolic dimensions” (ibid.). Hence, a significant part of the book examines (transient) artistic articulations together with the spatiality of the protests and their impact on identities and political culture. The subsequent eight chapters are written by a great selection of scholars, ranging from leading area studies researchers to junior academics and emerging talents. Contributors embrace methodological eclecticism, including participant observations, structured interviews, archival research, and the analysis of sensory artistic expressions.

Edmund Cheng’s chapter on the nature of leadership in “a polycentric protest structure” examines the impact of “organizational and spatial dimensions” on strategies and decision-making processes of “media-designated,” “place-based” leaders during the Umbrella Movement (p. 22). He argues that movement leaders were constrained not only “by the shadow of Beijing authorities” (p. 38) but also by different interpretations of past protest experiences as well as “spatial conflicts and place-based identities” (p. 37). Ming-sho Ho, Chun-hao Huang, and Liang-ying Lin turn towards movement followers and offer a compelling examination of their mental universe, focusing on how they “articulate their own moral visions, and share their authentic personal feelings” (p. 45). Their analysis of a Sunflower Movement digital archive addresses various shortcomings of opinion surveys on the movement. They find that grassroots writings embrace a “democratic nationalism” (p. 56) that differs significantly from the framing by the movement’s leadership, which highlighted economic arguments at the expense of Taiwanese identity.

Wai-man Lam’s study traces the evolution of political activism and the rise of yong mo (勇武) – valiant activism without baseline – and the lasting influence on Hong Kong’s political culture and identity. Ian Rowen outlines the impact of the dramatic increase in Chinese tourism to Taiwan and particularly Hong Kong. He argues that while this tourism triggered a new political movement, localism, in Hong Kong, the Sunflower Movement spared Taiwan from more confrontational domestic developments on the matter. Brian Hioe offers a comprehensive account of the visuality and aurality of the Sunflower Movement. He argues that the visual imagery was a “crucial vehicle for discourse among social movement activists” (p. 124) and enabled transformations that suspended practices of the everyday. Hioe then traces incorporations of the movements’ visuality and aurality into electoral politics. Sebastian Veg’s chapter is a fascinating analysis of the evolution of musical expressions in Hong Kong’s protests and its power “in mobilizing emotional publics,” thus complementing the “rationalist view of claims and opportunities” (p. 149). Veg illustrates how protest music increasingly expresses a participatory and civic musical identity of the community and how the Anti-extradition Movement continued this development. Judith Pernin’s excellent comparison of protest documentaries in Taiwan and Hong Kong convincingly argues that the Umbrella Movement represented a radical new form of activism in Hong Kong, which explains the significantly larger amount of works by local directors on the subject. The Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, on the other hand, is part of a longer history of democracy activism. Unfortunately, the chapter misses a discussion of the award-winning “The Edge of Night” (Jietou 街頭) by Chiang Wei-hua (2018), which offers a rare connection between different movements.

The last two chapters of the book examine the impact of the movements on political culture and elections. Lev Nachman outlines how activists were motivated by personal conflict or dissatisfaction with existing parties rather than ideological differences when creating new post-Sunflower Movement parties. Ngok Ma examines the political awakening of young professionals after the Umbrella Movement and the subsequent politicisation of professional organisations, which indicates the emergence of a new political culture and cross-societal and sectorial solidarity.

The book offers empirically extremely rich materials, and the thick descriptions of the movement spaces and developments on the ground allow the reader to feel connected to participants and leaders in the movements. Indeed, the recognition that emotions are at the forefront or provide crucial context links the different examinations. The authors observe how emotions are expressed in artwork (p. 57-9) and argue that an “aggravated feeling of alienation” (p. 75), a “sense of loss” (p. 126), and the wish to “instill hope” (p. 236) motivate new forms of activism and participation. This not only confirms the findings of Ho’s (2019) seminal work on both movements, but also highlights the importance of affects for the understanding of contemporary politics in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In times when Hong Kong’s domestic and Taiwan geopolitical situations appear to elicit despair rather than hope, this is an important contribution of this excellent publication.

Malte Philipp Kaeding is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in international politics at the University of Surrey. University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, United Kingdom (m.kaeding@surrey.ac.uk).

References

HO, Ming-sho. 2019. Challenging Beijing's Mandate of Heaven: Taiwan's Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

WU, Jieh-min. 2019. “Taiwan's Sunflower Occupy Movement as a Transformative Resistance to the ‘China Factor.’” In Ching Kwan LEE, and Ming SING (eds.), Take Back our Future: An Eventful Sociology of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.