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Paper short abstract:

The paper draws attention to doing ethnographic work during multiple crises. My study explores recent creative and collective responses to the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong. I make a case for a renewed consideration of the shifting role of activists, artists and researchers.

Paper long abstract:

In July 2020, the Chinese Communist Party introduced the National Security Law, one of the most restrictive measures taken to tighten its grip over the former British colony, known as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997. The Law not only poses threats to academic freedom in and outside Hong Kong but has drawn international condemnation. Moreover, the ongoing exodus from Hong Kong presents growing fears and uncertainty for the city's future.

Undertaken during the pandemic and political unrest in the city, this visual ethnography explores recent creative and collective responses to the erosion of freedoms through the perspectives of six Hong Kong artist-activists.

As a Hong Kong-born and trained artist and educator, I undertake this study of my home city while removed from it. Throughout the protest movement, the pandemic, and radical changes in Hong Kong, I have been an international student living and working in Melbourne, Australia, a city that has experienced the longest accumulated lockdown for any city in the world. I have experienced racist encounters and witnessed the Australian government's privileged treatment of migrants from Hong Kong. The ethnography is presented alongside autoethnographic reflections on disruptive historical events amid the pandemic. These events exposed deep-rooted issues of post-coloniality before decolonisation and surfaced conflicting ideologies that further divided many cities. The paper draws attention to my reflections on doing ethnographic work during multiple crises. I make a case for a renewed consideration of the shifting role of activists, artists and researchers.