PREFACE

The question of what to call the protest movement that began in Hong Kong in June 2019 has been a vexed one for writers and commentators. The protests were initially referred to as the ‘Anti-Extradition Bill Protests’, reflecting the cause that was the catalyst for the movement. However, the protesters’ demands quickly expanded beyond just the extradition bill, and the protests continued long after the bill was suspended and then withdrawn. ‘Hong Kong’s Summer of Discontent’ seemed an appropriate name, but summer soon gave way to autumn and then to winter, with no end to the protests in sight.

The protests that Hong Kong witnessed in 2014 came to be known as the ‘Umbrella Movement’, and in 2019 commentators again looked for a similar icon that might lend its name to the movement: some (including the present author) proposed the ‘Hard Hat Revolution’, after the distinctive yellow hard hats worn by protesters that became emblematic of the movement’s visual identity. Others advocated for ‘Water Revolution’, in homage to the protesters’ Bruce Lee–inspired ‘Be water!’ philosophy. Both seemed a touch contrived.

Neither ‘Anti-government protests’ nor ‘Anti-China protests’ seemed sufficiently specific, and as the months wore on many also pointed out that the events of 2019 seemed to have long outgrown the descriptor of ‘protests’; this was a city-wide uprising. However, to call it the ‘Hong Kong Uprising’ (or variants on that term) surely risked being melodramatic.

In the end, simplicity seems to be the most appropriate course. The Maoist-inspired protests that rocked Hong Kong in 1967 came to be known simply as the ‘1967 riots’. It would appear that, at least for now, the ‘2019 protests’ is the appropriate term, especially for use in a book that covers events current to and concluding with the end of that calendar year.

As we move into 2020, protests are still continuing in Hong Kong, and the movement that began in 2019 may yet find its historical destiny — and its name. But that will be the topic for another book.