Understanding the Construction of Emotions in Time and Space: The Dynamics of Political Activism in Hong Kong, 2003-2014 A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2019 Yun Tong Tang School of Social Sciences Contents Abstract 6 Declaration 7 Copyright Statement 8 Acknowledgements 9 Acronyms and Abbreviations 10 Introduction 11 Chapter 1: Emotions and the Study of Political Activism in Hong Kong 19 I. Emotions and Social Movements: Two Repressed Areas of Study 19 II. Evolution of the Field and the Place of Emotions 21 (i) A Stable Society without Activism 22 (ii) Activism as Part of Normal Politics 26 (iii) What’s Missing: Emotions and A Multi-level and Multi-timescale Analysis 31 III. Studying Emotions: Six Problems to be Tackled 35 Chapter 2: Understanding Emotions in Social Movements: A Strategic 41 Temporal-Spatial Approach I. Two Missteps of Social Movement Theories 41 (i) Emotions without Socio-Cultural Processes 41 (ii) Socio-Cultural Processes without Emotions 43 II. Disentangling Emotions and their Socio-cultural Processes and Impacts 45 (i) Two Approaches to Emotions 45 (ii) The Emotional Management Theory 47 (iii) The Application of the Constructivist Lens 49 (iv) Three Central Problems of the Emotional Management Theory 53 (v) Three Deficient Correctives 56 III. A Strategic Temporal-Spatial Approach to Emotions 60 (i) Defining Arena in Spatial Terms 61 (ii) Defining Arena in Temporal Terms 65 (iii) Players: Acting along Time and Space 69 IV. Players and Arenas in Hong Kong 72 V. Recapitulation: The Dynamic Construction of Emotions in Time and Space 74 Chapter 3: Methods for Studying Emotions and Time-space 76 I. Case Studies of Political Activism of Hong Kong 76 (i) “Social Movements” and Case Study 76 (ii) The Selected Period and Cases 78 (iii) Sources of Textual Data 83 II. The Study of Emotions and Time-space through Discourses and Interviews 86 (i) Discourses, Emotions, and Time-space 87 (ii) The Theoretical Underpinnings of Critical Discourse Analysis 89 (iii) The Application of CDA in Deciphering Emotional Experiences, Feeling 91 2 Rules and Time-space (iv) Understanding Self-reported Emotional Experiences through Interviews 96 III. Ethical Issues 99 IV. Conclusion 101 Chapter 4: Contesting the Global Capitalist Time and Space: The Cases of 102 Two Piers and a Railway I. Regional Mediation of Global Capitalism I: The Campaign to Preserve the Star 103 Ferry Pier and the Queen’s Pier (i) Local Activism under an East Asian Temporal-Spatial Order 103 (ii) Global City: The Making of a Capitalist Space 107 (iii) Initial Emotional Resistance to Reclaim Space and Time 109 (iv) The Government’s Emotional Strategy 112 (v) Blunders, Agency, and Direct Action 114 (vi) Remaking the Spatial Order 116 (vii) Remaking the Temporal Order 120 (viii) Implications of the Campaign 122 II. Regional Mediation of Global Capitalism II: The Anti-XRL Campaign 124 (i) A New Temporal and Spatial Order in China and the Express Rail Link 124 (ii) Local Emotional Strategies in Promoting the XRL 128 (iii) Emotional Resistance to Reclaim Space and Time 131 (iv) Contingency, Moral Shock, and Mass Anger 134 (v) Redefining Time, Political Identity, and Emotions for Activism 136 (vi) Redefining Space and Emotions for Activism 139 (vii) Conflicts over Time-space and Emotions within Civil Society 142 (viii) Implications of the Campaign 145 III. Conclusion 147 Chapter 5: Challenging the Post-colonial Temporal Order: The Protest 149 against National Education I. The Post-colonial Temporal Order and its Implications for Emotions 150 (i) Winning Hearts and Minds in Post-handover Hong Kong 150 (ii) Ethnic Patriotism: Blood is Thicker than Water 153 (iii) Interest-based Patriotism 155 II. The National Temporal Order and its Conflicts with the Global Temporality 158 (i) Two Discourses of Modernization 158 (ii) Contention over Time and Emotions in the Local Society 163 III. The Anti-MNE Campaign: Contesting the National Temporality and Feeling 169 Rule (i) Blunders, Moral Shock, and Negative Emotions 169 (ii) Emotional Mobilization I: The Moral Force of Biological Time 173 (iii) Emotional Mobilization II: Tactical Innovation through Space and 176 Symbolism IV. After Victory 179 (i) Conflicts over Temporal-spatial Orientations within Civil Society 179 (ii) A Shifting Dominance of Emotions in the Political Sphere 181 3 V. Conclusion 183 Chapter 6: Challenging the Post-colonial Spatial Order: The Umbrella 186 Movement I. The Prequel of the Umbrella Movement 187 (i) The 2012 Political Reform and the 5-district de facto Referendum 187 (ii) The 2017 Political Reform and Occupy Central: An Emotional and 192 Temporal-Spatial Consequence of Stagnant Democratization II. A Post-colonial Spatial Order and its Implications on Local Activism 196 (i) A New National Spatial Order Constructed in the late 2000s 197 (ii) Intensified Conflict over the National Spatial Order since 2010 199 (iii) Regional Mediation of the National-Global Conflict 204 III. The Umbrella Movement: An Embattled Campaign with Countless Conflicts 209 over Time, Space, and Emotions (i) From OCLP to the Umbrella Movement: The Mutual Production of Space 209 and Emotions (ii) Conflicts over Temporal-spatial Orientations in Civil Society 214 a. How Emotions Mattered 214 b. How Time Mattered 218 c. How Space Mattered 222 IV. Conclusion 229 Chapter 7: Conclusion: Putting Social Movements and Emotions in Time 232 and Space I. The Making of Emotions and Social Movements in Time and Space 232 II. Political Activism in Hong Kong, 2003-2014 240 III. The Present State of Political Activism in Hong Kong 247 Appendix: Profile of the Interviewees 249 References 251 List of Tables: Table 3.1 An overview of the four case studies 83 Table 4.1 Performance of the Hong Kong Economy from 1997 to 2004 105 Table 4.2 Different sets of feeling rules and their temporal-spatial underpinnings 124 in the campaign protecting the Star Ferry Pier and the Queen’s Pier Table 4.3 Different sets of feeling rules and their temporal-spatial underpinnings 147 in the Anti-XRL campaign Table 5.1 Different sets of feeling rules and their temporal-spatial underpinnings 185 in the Anti-MNE campaign Table 6.1 Different sets of feeling rules and their temporal-spatial underpinnings 208 before the Umbrella Movement Table 6.2 Different sets of feeling rules and their temporal-spatial underpinnings 228 at the early stage of the Umbrella Movement 4 Table 6.3 Different sets of feeling rules and their temporal-spatial underpinnings 229 at the mid- and final stage of the Umbrella Movement Table 7.1 A comparison of the four case studies 243 Word Count: 87,935 5 Abstract Recent studies of social movements in Hong Kong have shown increasing interest in emotions. However, they have yet to move beyond a movement-centric or an organization- based analysis, a problem persistent in the extant literature of Hong Kong political studies where a temporal lens to trace the evolvement of social movements over time and a spatial sensitivity to put local grievances and struggles in political spaces at different scalar levels are lacking. This thesis investigates the processual factors shaping socio-political conflicts in Hong Kong by examining the construction of emotions in time and space. It studies four major campaigns taking place between 2003 and 2014 with an original data set comprising textual data and interview data. A novel theoretical framework—the strategic temporal- spatial approach—is developed to assemble three core elements of mobilization: the social construction of emotions, the geography of political actions at multiple scales, and the interplay of social processes at different timescales. As the analysis unfolds, emotions have been constructed and moulded by the intersections, and sometimes conflicts, among socio-economic, political, cultural, and biographical processes in which multiple political players are involved. Located in political spaces at the local, national, regional, and global levels, these players react and respond to one another, both strategically and emotionally. Thus, the emotions of local players in Hong Kong are often manoeuvred by the Beijing national government who has endeavoured to curb popular mobilizations, influenced by the political economy in the Greater China region and East Asia, and shaped by global events such as the Colour Revolution and the Arab Spring. Emotions fashioned in these processes have played both a direct facilitative role in spurring the rise of political conflicts and an assisting role in discursive claim-makings and spatial actions. From 2003 to 2012, an expanded scope of emotions in expressing grievances towards the state was forged to boost activism. Since 2012, the emotional space has shrunk due to a predomination of anger and frustration. While some of these findings are specific to contemporary Hong Kong, a number of lessons are useful to the study of social movements more generally. The first is that we need an interactive and dynamic view to understand emotions in political contention. The second is that this interactive perspective has to appreciate multiple temporal processes and spaces at different scales so that the time and space of political actions at both macro- and micro-levels could be better delineated. 6 Declaration No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 7 Copyright Statement The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time.