What is ‘soft resistance’? In Hong Kong, it depends on whom you ask and what side of the political divide they sit on
- Term first appeared locally in April 2021 in a speech by Luo Huining, then director of Beijing’s liaison office, to mark Hong Kong’s first National Security Education Day
- Phrase has come into vogue in city’s pro-establishment camp in recent months as its use also grew among government officials
Inside Hunter Bookstore, a small double-storey shop in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po district, copies of George Orwell’s 1984 are arranged neatly near books recently pulled out from the city’s public libraries, including Louisa Lim’s People’s Republic of Amnesia on the Tiananmen crackdown.
The storefront is largely bare save for the entrance, on which is affixed the Chinese characters “freedom” and a single page of the now-defunct tabloid newspaper Apple Daily, along with a quote – “Living in truth” – from the late Czech president and dissident playwright Vaclav Havel.
The shop’s wares have invited intense scrutiny on its owner, former opposition district councillor Leticia Wong Man-huen.
Pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao ran a commentary last year accusing her bookstore of promoting “black violence”, “anti-China chaos” and “soft resistance”.
The last phrase has come into vogue in the “blue” pro-establishment camp in recent months as its use also grew among government officials.
Like some others, Wong said she had frequent visits from government departments for “routine inspections” or in response to complaints around “sensitive dates”. She soon became used to their calls, she said.
“I truly believe that I am not violating any laws,” Wong said.
“For me, ‘soft resistance’ actually means nothing, it is just a term that the government likes to use to label us as some form of ‘rebelling parties’. It’s something they have created themselves.”