Hong Kong as an (In)Operative Community
Speaker: Prof. Pang Laikwan (Department of Cultural & Religious Studies)
Date: 14 February 2014 (Fri)
Time: 4:00pm
Venue: G24, Arts and Humanities Hub, Fung King Hey Building, CUHK
Language: English
Abstract: Many young residents begin to see Hong Kong less as an abstract global city in which they climb their individual social ladders than a community with living history, material existence, and daily intersubjective encountering. The meanings of living “here” pertain no longer just to the city’s provision of individualistic opportunities but also emotive embedding and social responsibilities. However, this new sense of communal belonging also breeds parochialism, inviting local members to show contempt against all foreign others. This talk hopes to provide some academic resources for us to develop a more productive and pluralistic politics to treasure yet intervene the idea of community. A focus would be the “Law,” something the Hong Kong people have taken for granted as a “core value” of this city. What exactly does the Rule of Law mean in the current Hong Kong – mainland tensions? How does a reinvestigation of the concept of the law might help us develop a “legal subjectivity” that opens up to others instead of closing down the community, as well as the meanings of Hong Kong to the PRC?

 

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