Resistance From a Distance: Global Hong Kong Diaspora
Event description
The 2019 Hong Kong protests and the 2020 National Security Law (NSL) have raised concerns over Hong Kong’s future prospects and triggered significant outward migration waves. In this paper, I identify some key drivers and considerations for Hong Kongers who moved to countries like Taiwan and Australia (other than the United Kingdom or Canada). The findings suggest that Hong Kong migrants experience a gap from what they imagine at the time of moving, either politically, socially, or culturally. The future projection of the socio-political community in the destination countries and the gap between pre- and post-migration experience constitute the “unsettling” characteristic of the recent Hong Kong exodus after 2019. Situating Hong Kong diaspora in destination countries’ geopolitical tensions with China, this paper also proposes a comparative agenda for studying the motivations, collaborations, resistance, and integration of Hong Kong migrants in different countries.
About the Speaker
Yao-Tai Li is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at University of New South Wales, Australia. His research interests include migration, identity politics, and social movements. His work has been published in several scholarly journals including British Journal of Sociology, The China Quarterly, International Affairs, Urban Studies, New Media and Society, International Migration Review, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Social Movement Studies, among others. He is currently writing a book on Hong Kong’s Lennon Walls.