Normalizing Resistance: Yellow Economic Circle in Hong Kong

At the time of our visit, Hong Kong has experienced over seven months of continuous protests. The city has been divided into two camps: "yellow ribbon" signifying those that support the protest and "blue ribbon" representing those that are against the protest.

November 2019 is widely regarded as the peak of the protest. With protesters initiating a week-long strike, vandalizing infrastructure and transportation, and clashing with police at two universities, the city came to a halt. Many questioned whether this scaling up of violence has caused the protest to lose its support base.

In the same month, the pro-democracy (pro-protest) camp captured a landslide victory in the District Council election, sending a strong message that the majority of the city's population remains supportive of the protest. The election victory and the large number of arrested protesters led many yellow ribbons into considering a readjustment of protest strategy. The resistance must grow in scale in a legal, peaceful way if we want to sustain the momentum. The idea of "yellow economic circle" (YEC) stemmed as a result -- yellow ribbons will only support businesses owned by yellow ribbons and boycott those owned by blue ribbons, and to establish businesses dedicated to hiring arrested protesters.

Our research aims to explore the development of the YEC in Hong Kong, impacts towards the overall resistance, and respective views by peaceful and radical protesters, politicians, and ordinary citizens.

The following findings highlight three main aspects we took away from our observations. We found that yellow businesses have two main ways of showing their support of the protestors: through Lennon Walls and use of pro-democracy political symbols and expressions. There also is a correlation in age and type of restaurant that we identified. Similarly, our findings suggest there to be multiple shades of “yellow” and “blue” that businesses may apply to. 

The Lennon Walls are places where we found the most pro-democracy expressions. These walls are riddled with post-it notes that contain messages of hope, support, and resistance. These phrases include, but are not limited to “Five Demands, Not One Less”, “Join the Labor Unions”, “Stay United”, and “Stop accusing radical protestors”. The Five Demands, Not One Less refer to the five demands protestors have made which is a significant unifying statement that unite protestors:

1.    Full withdrawal of the extradition bill

2.    An independent commission of inquiry into alleged police brutality

3.    Retracting the classification of protestors as “rioters”

4.    Amnesty for arrested protesters

5.    Dual universal suffrage for Legislative Councillors and Chief Executive Office

Furthermore, there exists a plethora of apps, Facebook groups, Instagram accounts, and other digital platforms that are constantly updated and lists all yellow businesses and has been instrumental in continuous civilian participation; to highlight this, there exists the Eastern District Yellow-Economic-Circle where one may receive stamps for purchasing food from yellow restaurants to receive an award. These techniques have been very influential to the growth and success of the YEZ.

For those who are anti-protestors, they see the Lennon Walls as places to also add their own political beliefs but through means of damaging or removing large pieces of the Lennon Wall all together. Some would add their own post-it targeting protestors such as “you fucking rioters” or addressing protestors as “cockroaches”. Though this is form of opposition is rare.

The level of political expression is important to note. There are overt and subtle ways businesses advertise themselves as “yellow”. Some are more overt and will include the Lennon Walls outside their kiosk or have various protest art work displayed throughout the restaurant or menu. In one instance, Tomato C Hing (a noodle restaurant) displayed posters of pro-protestor artwork, have a menu with Pepe the Frog and Lihkg Pig (both common symbols used among protestors) and on our receipt for our meal, it included a charge of $0 that were phrases mocking the police. At the bottom of said receipt, there was the phrase “Fight for Freedom”, another phrase that comes from “Fight For Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong”. Likewise, there was a dessert restaurant we visited that only had a few post cards in a small corner. The reasoning for this may be related to their target audiences.

A major factor in distinguishing “blue” or “yellow” are the ages of Hong Kongers. This difference also lends itself explanation through the identity of Hong Kongers. Hong Kong’s colonial occupation created three dimensions of identity where one may see themselves as Chinese, Hong Konger, or mixed identity. According to a graphic from the Economist, around 70% of young adults(18-29) identity more with their Hong Konger identity and around 1% think themselves as Chinese. For the older generation, around 50% see themselves as mixed identity and 20% see themselves as Chinese and around 22% identity as Hong Konger. This evidence suggests a particular conclusion with our research. With the pro-democracy being predominately founding on resisting the Chinese government encroachment on their rights and life, we can assume the younger people identity more with Hong Kong. With opposition to the protests and their actions as a way of ruining relations between Mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as doing what they consider “criminal” actions, we can see the older generation siding more with the Chinese government.

With this in mind, the types of restaurants we frequented were a combination of sit down, standing, or kiosk based food services. They served non-local food, such as hot dogs, Taiwanese-based food, or experimented with traditional recipes. Some were located in Food Malls, giant centers of small restaurants throughout multiple floors. On the other hand, more traditional restaurants are visited by those in the older generation. Dim Sum is a common eatery tradition in Hong Kong that caters to the older generation. They take place in traditional sit-and-eat style and give a slower, calmer atmosphere. As such, because of these target audiences, restaurants had to adjust by overtly, subtly, or not showing content about the protests. Then we see the results of what may typically be considered a “blue” or “yellow” restaurant. Simply, we may summarize it as untraditional and non-local foods compared to more traditional and Cantonese style restaurants, though this conclusion is not definite. There are many factors to how one many identify with the protestors but these are to be taken as trends, not as the definite. 

We collaborated with the Sociology department and other international students in hosting a student panel on global social movements. We shared our findings on Hong Kong's resistance with a diverse group of audience. The panel was then followed by a discussion on the role of identity politics and the importance of global solidarity. The audience applauded our efforts in bringing in international voices and some Chinese students thanked us for showing a different side of the story other than what they have heard from Chinese media.

Our next step is to organize a dialogue with Chinese students. Tensions have arisen between some Chinese students and other students around the Hong Kong protest. Earlier on, we designed a google form to collect students’ anonymous opinions on how the dialogue should be structured and what content should be covered. We received over 20 responses in which many wished to have a panel discussion to present opinions from different sides and a detailed timeline of the protest (especially when and why the protest turned violent), the split between peaceful and radical protesters, the role of the media, and the involvement by foreign countries. We will work on the dialogue content based on these opinions and our research results.