LECTURE 3: Culture

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LECTURE (3) Culture Identity

• History of Political Culture Identity
• (Lecture by Agnes Ku)

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Todays Focuses

• Political Culture before the 1980s
• Political apathy (??)?
• Nationalism before the 1980s
• Weak nationalism?
• Changing Political Culture in the transitional
  Period (1984-1997)
• Political Culture Identity after 1997

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I. Political Culture before the 1980s

• Different Interpretations
• Political Apathy (Lau Siu-kai ???, 1982)
• Political Activism (??) depoliticization????
  (Lam Wai-man, 2004)

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1. Political Apathy (Lau Siu-kai, 1982)

• Question why political stability despite rapid
  economic development by the 70s?
• Cultural orientations of the people
• Short-term horizon
• Social stability
• Materialism
• Context escaping from China in the 1950s
• looking for stability work in HK

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Lau

• Culture Utilitarian Familism (??????)
• -an adaptation of traditional familism to the
  Hong Kong setting
• (traditional familism took the family as an
  integral part of society placed high value on
  symbolic i.e. non-material rewards from society)

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Lau

• UF a normative behavioural tendency of an
  individual to place his familial interests above
  the interests of society or any of its component
  individuals and groups, and to structure his
  relationships with other individuals and groups
  in such a fashion that the furtherance of his
  familial interests is the primary consideration.
  Moreover, among the familial interests
  materialistic interests take priority over all
  other interests. (p.201)

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Lau

• Political Apathy
• (a)  Aloofness towards society
• -not committed to HK but treating it in an
  instrumental way as a place wherein one can
  exploit the opportunities to maximize interests
  for oneself ones family
• (b) Avoidance of involvement with outsiders
  (people outside the familial groups)
• (c) Low social participation

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Lau

• Indicators of political apathy (examples)
• low voting rate in the Urban Council
• low participation rate in political social
  organizations
• ? ? ? POLITICAL STABILITY
• (i.e. few infrequent protests)

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Social Context Chinese Culture

• Utilitarian
• Familism

Political Stability
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2. Activism Depoliticization in 1950s-70s (Lam
Wai-man, 2004)

• Activism
• -examples
• Tramway workers labor dispute (1952)
• campaign to change the marriage laws
• campaign against telephone rate increases
• campaign for Chinese as an Official Language
• Diaoyutai Islands movement
• the Godber issue (????)
• campaign to reopen the Precious Blood Golden
  Jubilee Secondary School (????)

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• Depoliticization
• -a strategy of depoliticization by the government
  ( some political groups) that discouraged
  political activism in society
• -How? e.g. by labeling activists as
  trouble-makers by stressing the values of
  stability prosperity etc.

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• As a result of depoliticization
• ? ? ?
• a political activism that was limited in scale,
  intensity articulation in society (but still
  activism)
•  

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Depoliticized Culture
Activism
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• Ideological Elements in Activism
• Social equality
• Rights fairness
• Liberalism (e.g. the right to demonstrate)
• Nationalism (factional nationalism e.g.
  left-wing/ pro-PRC vs. right-wing/ pro- KMT)
  (cultural nationalism)
• others

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II. Nationalism before the 80s

• Colonial Government
• De-nationalization
• Society
• -Nationalist Struggle ? Local Concern
• -Cultural nationalism

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1. What is a nation?

• Nation (nationhood)
• - a cultural association a community of people
  sharing the same culture, ethnicity, language,
  territory or religion.

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Nation

• Chineseness
• Chinese people do not consist of a single race,
  but different ethnic (??) groups e.g. Han, Miao,
  Yao, Bai, Dan etc.
• Chineseness is a larger ethnic/ cultural
  national -- identity which subsumes different
  ethnicities under it.
• Chineseness is a cultural construction of
  unity.
• (Ethnic of a group of people recognized
  based on certain distinctive characteristics e.g.
  religion, language, ancestry, culture, or
  national origin)

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Nation

• Symbols of Chineseness in Popular Songs
• Skin color
• Hair color
• Dragon
• The Great Wall
• The Yellow River etc. etc.
• Are these meanings abstract or concrete,
  historical or ahistorical (devoid of history),
  homogeneous or diversified?

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Different/ Competing Discourses on Nationalism
by different actors
Government
Political group
Political group
Political group
people
people
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2. Colonial Governments Policy
Denationalization

• Politically, HK people were British subjects
  under the British crown.
• Culturally, HK people were allowed to learn
  Chinese Chinese history.
• Ideologically, the government stressed law
  order, stability prosperity rather than
  nationalism.

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3. Struggles in Society

• i. Early Colonial Days  
• Workers strikes ?? political forces in China
• anti-capitalism
• nationalism vs. imperialism
• Strikes in 1920s, 30s, 50s (e.g. the General
  Strike-Boycott ????? an offshoot of the
  anti-imperialist movement of May 1925 in China)

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(ii) 1950s 60s Under the Cold War, HK as an
ideological battleground
Pro-CCP (left-wing)

• Pro-KMT
• (right-wing)

Vs.
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• Competing Discourses on Nationalism   
• Leftist Groups (e.g. ???)
• New China Anti-Imperialism Communism
• HK British Imperialism Capitalism

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• Cultural Nationalists/ Liberals
• Nation Chinese Culture /May 4th Movement
• Communism Enemy to the Nation
• (e.g. ??????)
• Unlike the leftists, the cultural-nationalist
  discourse did not develop into a strong
  ideology of anti-colonialism.

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After the mid-60s riots -the government was
able to repress and marginalize the leftist
forces, as a result of their involvement in the
riots, in the name of stability.
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• The leftist groups
• turned to low public profile
• inclined to a pro-Beijing stance ??????????
• reduced anti-colonial criticism
• (statist nationalism)

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• By the late 1960s, ideological struggles over
  nationalism subsided, giving way to local
  concerns
• a local identity nurtured by the government
• local social issues raised by student social
  movement actors (local-born)

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• iii. From Nationalism to Local Reformism -
  Student Social Movements in 1970s
• Social Reformism (??????)
• pushing for local reforms in the government
  (critical of colonialism but not overthrowing it)
• e.g. social issues housing labor etc
  (critical of capitalism but not overthrowing it)
• e.g. Campaign for Chinese as an Official Language
  ???? (cultural nationalism)

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• (iv) Others
• e.g. Diaoyutai Islands movement in the 1970s
  ???????
• - nationalism vs. imperialism

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III. Changing Political Culture in the
Transition (1984-97)

• Early 1980s rise of the 1997 issue
• ? anxiety over political future concern over
  identity question HK or Chinese?
• ? emigration flows
• 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration one
  country two systems
• 1985 Political Reform Representative Government
  ???? (indirect elections in Legco)
• Struggle for Rights Democracy

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Ideological Conflicts over Political Reform

• Democracy VS. Authoritarianism
• Equality Privilege
• Openness Closedness
• Public Accountability No public accountability
• Pro-Democracy Camp VS. Conservative Alliance
  conservative alliance business elites,
  pro-Beijing groups, Beijing

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1989 Tiananmen Square Incident

• More than 1 million people took to the street to
  support the Chinese students
• Increasing political consciousness in society
• Ideological conflicts intensified between the
  pro-democracy groups Beijing

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IV. After 1997

• Ideological conflicts between democrats
  conservatives remain democracy social justice
• Ideological conflicts between HK (democrats)
  Beijing remain democracy rule of law
• Increasing economic social convergence between
  HK China national integration
• Increasing political convergence between HK
  China? (eg ????) local autonomy

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• Increasing tensions between the SAR government
  the people
• Governments legitimacy challenged undemocratic
  
• Political leadership under Tung Chee Hwa
  governing capacity shown to be weak (e.g. bird
  flu crisis, SARS crisis)
• The government being authoritarian in its policy
  (e.g. controversy over Article 23 of the Basic
  Law)

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• Controversy over the legislation of Article 23 of
  the Basic Law national security ???
• Ideological discourses by the people
• liberty vs. state control
• democratic process vs. state power

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• Current Issues
• (a) Democracy Legitimacy
• - Governments legitimacy under challenge
  (democracy, accountability, governing capacity
  etc.)
• - The government ( the conservatives) is still
  hampering democratic development in the name of
  stability.

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• (b) Nationalism/ Patriotism
• Conflicts over patriotism
• love the political party?
• love the constitution?
• love the culture?
• love the people?
• concern about Chinas economy?
• concern about Chinas democratic future?
• After all, who dont love China?

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• (c) Social inequalities
• Under capitalism, the economic gap between the
  rich the poor increases. (HK one of the
  biggest in the world.)
• The rich people not only get greater wealth but
  also more political power.
• recent protests against government-business
  alliance (legacy of the social movements vs.
  social inequalities in the 1970s)

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• (d) Identity Positioning A new identity
  negotiated on 3 levels under 3 forces
• local local dynamics
• national nationalization
• global globalization (global city, Asias
  world city, world-class)

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• Western influence

global
Chinese culture
Local (Hong Kong)
national
Localization
Multiple Interaction
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• DISCUSSION
• Any tensions among local, national, global
  interests?
• English, Cantonese, or Mandarin?
• Chinese values, local values, or international
  standard?
• Global interests or local needs?

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The End