Know Your Radicals

In Hong Kong politics, the term “radical” has long referred to those who engage in more forceful, confrontational behavior, as opposed to its traditional definition as those who espouse beliefs and ideas which stress fundamental changes in society. In the past decade, Hong Kong radicalism has been vaguely defined by “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung’s signature style of hurling insults and shouting slogans at government officials. In 2008, Leung’s then chief ally Raymond Wong Yuk-man further consolidated that hallmark imagery of radicalism, when he threw a banana at then-Chief Executive Donald Tsang. The duo championed for better rights for the grassroots, but the main thing that stuck was their unrelenting and defiant attitude against the status quo.

When Beijing enters the equation, the meaning of “radical” becomes more tricky. Early “radical” social movements, including the 1967 riots and the widespread student movements in the 1970s, were understood in terms of the different groups’ relation to China. Early organizations such as the United Democrats of Hong Kong, which later became the Democratic Party, and The Frontier, headed by Emily Lau Wai-hing, were categorized as “radical” due to their demands for a democratic government in Hong Kong. Later, the League of Social Democrats and the Civic Party became known as the “radical pan-democrats,” thanks to their tendency to protest and the grassroots beliefs which lent them the popular ear.

The 2007 Queen’s Pier protests, in which activists went on hunger strikes to protest against the pier’s demolition, introduced a new faction of the city’s “radicals,” which developed further during the anti-High Speed Rail Link movement in 2009, and 2012’s Anti-National Education movement. This new use of the term refers to groups of younger activists whose focus is also on social concerns such as heritage conservation, community ties and development. They may not be the radicals the rest of the world knows— but they’re ours.