I presented a talk titled “Hong Kong, a revolution with(out) Protest?” in response to the text “Politicizing Sadness” by Colectivos Situaciones. I discussed how mass protests have been transformed in various form of activities in Hong Kong after the imposition of the new National Security Law in Hong Kong in 2020. The rise of young pop singers or performing groups and the phenomenon of fandom were particularly investigated. I argue that the fandom serves not only as distraction from the “political sadness” suggested by Colectivos Situaciones, but also an alternative way of developing the civil society that has been severely repressed by political purges.
The talk was joined by Wirunwan Victoria Pitaktong, an independent translator and a founding member of a literary collective, Namkheun, and also a member of Speedy Grandma, an independent space that supports creative experiments of specifically emerging artistic practitioners in Thailand.
“What happens after the protest dies down?” is the eighth event of the inappropriate BOOK CLUB, which is part of Talk-Talk-Vilion, a pavilion in the Bangkok Biennial 2020, co-organised with three other groups: Speedy Grandma, Text and Title and untitled for film.