Department of Comparative Literature

Music in the Umbrella Movement:
From Expressive Form to New Political Culture

Music typically plays an important role in social movements, in particular in shaping a movement culture and collective memory. Protests end but protest songs endure, and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement was no exception. The Umbrella Movement had a strongly expressive dimension, and music played an important role in the outpour of creativity that far surpassed the movement’s strictly political demands. In addition to the “theme songs” of the movement (“Raise the Umbrella” and “Do you hear the people sing”), many indie performers joined the occupation, and lyrics spilled over onto posters and into slogans. But music was also useful in framing the political claims of the movement, by referencing the musical culture of previous protest movements, like the June Fourth Vigil and the July First march. Finally, there was a clear circulation of musical elements from the Sunflower to the Umbrella movements.

In many ways, music sums up some of the tensions or contradictions of the Umbrella Movement: between cosmopolitan and local culture, consumerist and anti-capitalist practices, traditional protest and the new generation. This paper will try to argue that the music of the Umbrella Movement expresses a change in political culture, in particular a turn away from pan-Chinese themes and the commercial Cantopop that first expressed Hong Kong identity in the 1970s, and towards a local, though cosmopolitan, culture that is in the process of emerging. The current controversy around the National Anthem law has recently suggested the resistance in Hong Kong to musical expression of national identity.

Speaker: Pro. Sebastian Veg
Moderator: Dr. Winnie Yee

Speaker Bio:
Sebastian Veg is a Professor (directeur d’études) of intellectual history and literature of 20th century China at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), Paris and an Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong. He was director of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) in Hong Kong from 2011 to 2015.

Date: 5 October 2018 (Friday)
Time: 16:00 – 18:00
Venue: Room 436, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Enquiries: lylouis@hku.hk

All are welcome!