Memories of Tiananmen: Politics and Processes of Collective Remembering in Hong Kong, 1989-2019 analyzes how collective memory regarding the 1989 Beijing student movement and the Tiananmen crackdown was produced, contested, sustained, and transformed in Hong Kong between 1989 and 2019. Drawing on data gathered through multiple sources such as news reports, digital media content, on-site vigil surveys, population surveys, and in-depth interviews with activists, rally participants, and other stakeholders, it identifies six key processes in the dynamics of social remembering: memory formation, memory mobilization, memory institutionalization, intergenerational transfer, memory repair, and memory balkanization. The book demonstrates how a socially dominant collective memory, even one the state finds politically irritable, can be generated and maintained through constant negotiation and efforts by a wide range of actors. While Memories of Tiananmen mainly focuses on the interplay between political changes and the Tiananmen commemoration in the historical period within which the society enjoyed a significant degree of civil liberties, it also discusses how the trajectory of the collective memory may take a drastic turn as Hong Kong’s autonomy is abridged. The book promises to be a key reference for anyone interested in collective memory studies, social movement research, political communication, and China and Hong Kong studies.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- 1. Introduction
- Defining Collective Memory
- Processes of Collective Memory
- Remarks on Collective Memory and Social Movement
- Chapter Outline and Methodological Notes
- Bibliography
- 2. Memory Formation and the Valorization of Commemoration
- The Elements of Memory Formation
- The 1989 Student Movement in Beijing and Emotional Imprinting
- The Survival and Valorization of Memory, 1991-1997
- Defending Collective Memory
- The Second Valorization of Collective Remembering, 2009-2014
- The Accumulation of Moral Weight
- Bibliography
- 3. Memory Mobilization
- The Annual Memory Mobilization Cycle
- The Basic Pattern of Memory Mobilization
- The temporalities of memory mobilization
- Engaging the established institutions
- Memory contestation as memory mobilization
- Column pages and personalized mobilization and memories
- Creating the atmosphere of remembering
- Examining the Impact of Memory Mobilization
- Recalling Tiananmen by oneself and others
- Predicting recall of Tiananmen
- The Power of Memory Mobilization
- Bibliography
- 4. Intergenerational Memory Transmission
- The Process of Intergenerational Memory Transmission
- Discovering the Tiananmen Incident
- Essentializing the Tiananmen Incident
- Defending the June 4 commemoration
- Generational Differences
- Evaluating generational differences in the society
- Generational differences within institutions
- Searching for Sustainability
- Bibliography
- 5. The Struggle for Memory Institutionalization
- Teaching Tiananmen in Secondary Schools
- The Tiananmen Incident in Chinese history
- The politics of Liberal Studies
- Extracurricular activities and the school environment
- Sites of Memory: Monuments and Museum
- From the Pillar of Shame to the Statue of the Goddess of Democracy
- The June 4th Museum
- A brief note on June 4 in the News Expo
- Institutionalization as a Dynamic Struggle
- Bibliography
- 6. The Challenge of Localism and Memory Repair
- A Brief History of Hong Kong Identity and Localism
- The Emergence of the Localist Challenge to Commemoration, 2013-2014
- The localists’ arguments
- Limits and responses
- Tiananmen as an Analogy in the Umbrella Movement
- The Prelude: Tiananmen as context and movement symbol
- Tiananmen as analogy in times of uncertainty
- Contesting the June 4 Analogy
- Transcending the June 4 Analogy
- The Intensification of Contestation, 2015-2017
- The radicalization of criticism
- Searching for new common ground
- Rearticulating the Rationale for Commemoration
- Bibliography
- 7. Changing Attitudes toward Tiananmen?
- Citizens’ Political Attitudes, 2014 vs. 2018
- Changing Profiles of the Candlelight Vigil Participants
- The Perspectives of the Localist Youth
- The Perspectives of the Young Vigil Participants
- Concluding Remarks
- Bibliography
- 8. Digital Media and Memory Balkanization
- Digital Media in Mobilization for Commemoration
- Building the Memory Archive
- Social Media and Memory Balkanization
- Changing Strategy of the Pro-government Media and its Impact
- The Empire Struck Back
- Bibliography
- 9. Conclusion
- On the Persistence of Collective Memory
- On Generation
- On Time, Emotion, and Memory
- Collective Remembering in the Changing Public Arena
- Collective Remembering for China and the World
- Bibliography
- Epilogue
- From the Anti-ELAB Movement to National Security Law
- Revisiting the Processual Model of Collective Memory
- New Trajectories for Collective Remembering of June 4?
- Appendix
- List of interviewees and their names (real or pseudonym)
- References
- Index
- List of Figures and Tables
- Figures
- Figure 2.1 The public contestation model for memory formation
- Figure 2.2 Net support for rehabilitating June 4, 1997-2018
- Figure 2.3 Hong Kong people’s “net trust” toward the Chinese government, 1997-2018
- Figure 3.1 June 4 candlelight vigil in Victoria Park
- Figure 3.2 The 2016 Victoria Park vigil
- Figure 3.3 Amount of coverage, number of vigil participants, and amount of funds raised by year
- Figure 3.4 Average number of articles mentioning June 4 published per day from April 1 to June 13
- Figure 3.5 Percentages of respondents recalling Tiananmen at different time points
- Figure 5.1 Hong Kong University students holding a ritual in front of the Pillar of Shame in 2018
- Figure 5.2 The Statue of Goddess of Democracy during the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in 2019
- Figure 5.3 Showing of a documentary inside the June 4th Museum
- Figure 7.1 Political efficacy among Hong Kong citizens
- Tables
- Table 1.1 Number of participants in the June 4 candlelight vigils, 1990-2019
- Table 3.1 Programs of the June 4 vigils in 1995, 2004, and 2014
- Table 3.2 Time of participation decision of the June 4 vigil participants, 2004 to 2014
- Table 3.3 Hong Kong people’s recall of significant historical events (year 2014)
- Table 3.4 Hong Kong people’s attitudes and perceptions regarding Tiananmen (year 2014)
- Table 3.5 Predictors of recalling Tiananmen in different time periods
- Table 3.6 Predictors of recalling Tiananmen in different time periods and for different age cohorts
- Table 4.1 Vigil participants’ perceptions of the impact of June 4 on themselves (year 2010)
- Table 4.2 Vigil participants’ emotional responses to the Tiananmen Incident (year 2013 and 2014)
- Table 4.3 Recall of significant historical events by different age groups (year 2014)
- Table 4.4 Concern about and attitude toward Tiananmen by different age groups (year 2014)
- Table 6.1 Number of newspaper articles mentioning both June 4 and “local,” 2010-2017
- Table 7.1 Changing levels of recall and attitudes toward June 4, 2014 vs. 2018
- Table 7.2 Changing identity and trust toward the government, 2014 vs. 2018
- Table 7.3 Differences between participants and non-participants in the Umbrella Movement
- Table 7.4 Over time changes in vigil participants’ background, attitudes and beliefs
- Table 7.5 Between-age-group differences in vigils in various years
- Table 8.1 Vigil participants’ digital media use and online political communication activities
- Table 8.2 Predictors of online political communication and participation leadership
- Table 8.3 Month and year of uploading of June-4-related YouTube videos
- Table 8.4 Contents of and symbols in videos
- Table 8.5 Predicting views and engagement obtained by the YouTube videos
- Table 8.6 Information about the posts from six Facebook pages included in the analysis
- Table 8.7 Prevalence of themes in the Facebook posts
- Table 8.8 Opinion polarization on the Tiananmen Incident, 2014 vs. 2018
- Table A1 Vigil participant-interviewees
- Table A2 Movement activists, journalists, and school teachers
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