Perspectives on Politics

The outburst of the antiextradition bill protests in Hong Kong has brought international attention towards this small yet significant international trade center, yet it is impossible for non-locals to see the full picture, to understand the protesters and how their beliefs are shaped merely through the numerous headlines and sound bites provided by the media. One of the biggest misconceptions to people outside Hong Kong is that the protests are led and participated by only teenagers, that this is a fight of the youth, but this is far from the truth. Certainly, almost all teenagers of Hong Kong either support the protests or are already protesting, but so are a few different generations. As the protests bring out different interesting social phenomena worthy as case study material, this article will explore how the different growing environments of the five currently existing generations of Hongkongers shape the strongly contrasting materialistic and post-materialistic values that predominate their standpoint in this historical social movement. Those who live in Hong Kong presently can be roughly separated into five generations, the first being the oldest generation who flew from mainland China and sought refuge in Hong Kong. This generation is mostly 70 to 90 years old right now and are mostly abstaining from either side of the protests as they lack the energy and motivation to take part. What characterises this generation is their pragmatism in daily life and a general apathy to politics, as they had lived most of their lives in constant fear, without guarantee of basic survival needs. Even after they arrived in Hong Kong, they lived in poverty and to them politics is a field of elitism, unrelated to them unless it occasionally affects their daily life, and the progressive values that found the protests are unknown to them previously, thus insignificant and unimportant. Furthermore, even if they are somehow capable of understanding and demonstrating support towards these values, they would have passed away by the time any actual

the government as losers who do not work hard enough. This can be seen by how they address protesters with the condescending term ‘useless teenagers’.

change could have possibly be achieved given the background of the protests. Hence this generation can be viewed as the first and most basic materialistic generation of Hong Kong citizens that lacks motivation to support the protests. However, do keep in mind that when compared to the second generation, they actually have a higher tendency to agree with the protesters, with the example of an old lady nicknamed “Grandma Wong” who is very famous amongst protestors. This is because they are more open to change and new ideas than the second generation, a characteristic developed from the hardships of their early lives, and also because they have nothing to lose from participating.

The next generation are the children of the first generation, and are mostly referred as ‘boomers’. Similar to the first generation, boomers also belong to the ‘materialistic side’, as they are born during the time period when Hong Kong was not as economically developed as today, where stability and

materialistic fulfilment were still not guaranteed. However, what separates them from their parents is that even though they might also have endured a period of poverty, they were extremely privileged to be living in the 20s, the height of career pathing, during the golden age of development in Hong Kong. With the refugees from China also came tons of capital and entrepreneurs who pushed Hong Kong towards a thriving secondary industry and as long as they put effort in work, regardless of the job category, social mobility was always assured. A lot of them are now at the top level in all of the important and influential sectors of Hong Kong such as finance and politics, experiencing the fruits of economic development. Most of these boomers believe that their current successes were the results of their personal achievements and their personal achievements only, thus exhibiting a conservative, proestablishment attitude, viewing the teenagers who are discontent with Additionally, due to their lack of material fulfilment in their childhood, they value their current material achievement and stability over progressive values that they have rarely been in touch with for most of their lives. And since the protests would hurt their vested interests, they became the biggest opposition to the protests. They see the action of protesting itself as a disruption of social norms that would threaten the status quo, and the goals of protests as unknown change that could take away their privileges. This can be seen by observing the most common arguments made against the protests, which mainly involves criticism of the disruption of stability, economic development and so on. Furthermore, they often claim that the protestors were only protesting because they were funded by foreign countries, which shows that they fundamentally do not believe in the fact that the younger generations would choose post-materialistic values over materialistic enjoyment, as they would not do so themselves. This is in fact the crux of the division between the two sides, with the older generation preferring stability over everything due to their position, and the younger “One of the biggest misconcpetions is that the protests are led and participated only by teenagers”

generation who neither have nor value material life and would rather live with freedom. From the third generation of Hongkongers onwards begins the ‘post-materialistic generation’. This generation includes those who are at the end of their 30s and early 50s and they are most likely the middle class of Hong Kong. Born about 20 years after the boomers, they have had a relatively stable and wealthy childhood, enjoyed compulsory but free education, and have had lesser social mobility but still enough to have a stable, well-off income. As Hong Kong transited into the tertiary sector, the third generation became the pillars of Hong Kong’s day to day operation and they are mostly found in professional industries like banking, civil servants, musicians, doctors, lawyers and teachers. Most of the third generation have been exposed to progressive values and incidents like the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, therefore raising their awareness to democracy, freedom and rule of law. Although they might not be as invested into these concepts as future generations, they still have a respect for them, since the integral constitutionality and professionalism brought by the UK was crucial to their success. That said, when the extradition bill was introduced and its implications brought to full attention of the city, the third generation has both the capability to fully understand its impacts and incentive to defend the core values of Hong Kong. However, this generation is less likely to take part directly in street protests, especially those that became more violent due to police intervention, as they do not want to risk losing their jobs by being arrested. Instead, they participate through alternative indirect methods like donating capital and supplies, providing transportation to help protestors entrapped by the police escape, using their professional knowledge to advice and guide the protests, and help spread awareness to foreigners. The fourth generation is the generation referred to as the millennials in the west and are usually in their mid 20s to mid 30s. This generation is mostly children of the boomers but are different to them in many ways. First of all, they most likely have a secured and economically well-off childhood with education to at least a high school or undergraduate degree. With the popularisation of the internet they are fully aware of all the human rights abuses committed in mainland China and are repelled by the Chinese government. This is “This is the crux of the division between the two sides, with the older generation preferring stability and the younger generation who would rather live with freedom”

different to the boomers, who are easily content about occupying the upper class and are ignorant of China’s erosion of Hong Kong’s core values. With the progression of Hong Kong’s economic development and the third generation occuping professional roles, the millennials have experienced serious credential inflation, economic inflation, industrial homogeneity, and have had no social mobility whatsoever. Their educational level may not bring them high paying jobs but are certainly sufficient enough for them to understand and treasure progressive values. Yet they could never be as prosperous as their previous generations and their income is far from enough to cover the cost of living, especially housing in Hong Kong. This means that they have no choice but to be post-materialistic as they could not enjoy a materialistic life with all the education and have nothing to lose anyways.

The fourth generation has always been passionate about social movements in Hong Kong like the Umbrella Movement in 2014 and the Fishball Revolution in 2016, and when the extradition bill came they naturally defied, committing to the protests both physically and mentally. A lot of them have lost their savings, their jobs, their health and well-being, but this is not stopping them from participating because they have no other options. They are not rich enough to emigrate and will be direct victims of the Chinese government’s oppression due to their long history of opposing it.

The final generation is typically known as the Gen Z, which are generally the students who are old enough to understand what is going on and decide to participate. They also belong to the postmaterialistic generation, as they grew up in an environment that was extremely stable, too stable in fact, in every possible way. Witnessing all the social problems in Hong Kong and aware of all the human rights issues in China, they are educated enough to be politically enlightened. Most of Gen Z values the limited freedom left in Hong Kong and fears the authoritative Chinese government. As the youngest generation who is not old enough to work, they naturally do not have the financial ability to emigrate. This generation will definitely face the repercussions if the protests failed, and thus they have no choice but to resist, even if it means a temporary physical destruction of their home city. Without financial burdens and conflicting invested interests like any other generations, Gen Zs are naturally the most passionate protestors. This can be seen by how one third of those who have been arrested during the protests are those aged 20 or below. That said, their ways of protesting are also the most innovative. Learning from the failures of the Umbrella Movement, and with the help of technology to set up online communication platforms, they introduced the ‘water styled’ revolution that saw greater success in comparison to previous social movements. To conclude, the essence of the protests can be viewed from the perspective of how one’s generation affects their political standpoints. The old typically value their materialistic life to the point it has become their “Without financial burdens and conflicting invested interests, Gen Zs are naturally the most passionate protestors”

sole life goal, thus the long-term freedom and autonomy of Hong Kong, which they will not live long enough to benefit from, is meaningless to them. In their eyes, the efforts of the youth in obtaining freedom and autonomy only serve as obstacles to their cozy, stable life and it is unlikely that either side would change their views towards the protests easily.