Embodied Presence, Responsible Active Citizenship and Dissent in Hong Kong

Protests and riots in Hong Kong in 2019-2020 have occurred over concerns about perceived increasing threats to political freedoms, especially surrounding the proposed extradition bill. Underpinning the protests are broader issues of social and economic grievances. In short, there is a sense of increasing disempowerment. However, one's sense of power can also be framed internally, as the capacity to control one's thoughts and feelings, as well as one's relationship to the world. Most social justice narratives today lack this internal perspective. The paper thus introduces the concept of responsible active citizenship, which is in turn founded upon the ideas of embodied presence and cognitive responsibility. This paper makes the argument that the development of a greater internal sense of agency may form part of the long-term response to the shift in power balance between the citizens of Hong Kong and the governments of the SAR and Beijing; not as a replacement for activism, but as a cognitive structure which might underpin it in the future.