This lecture will present Professor Ming-sho Ho's new book on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement of 2019–2020, commonly known as the Be Water Revolution.
I propose an agency-based explanation to understand how this unexpectedly prolonged and disruptive protest movement operated without centralized leadership. Triggered by a series of moral shocks, perceived threats, and reflections on past failures, collective improvisation emerged as a key mechanism. This process, driven by widespread peer production, enabled tactical innovation. I also explore how decentralized participation fostered creative cultural expressions, energized overseas diaspora communities, and sustained resistance against the police state enforced under the national security law.
About the Speaker
Ming-sho Ho is a professor in the Department of Sociology at National Taiwan University. His research focuses on social movements, labor sociology, and environmental issues. His published works include Challenging Beijing’s Mandate of Heaven: Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement (2019) and Working Class Formation in Taiwan: Fractured Solidarity in State-Owned Enterprises (2014). Currently he is working on a monograph analyzing how the alliance of social movements and political parties resulted in varying reforms.
The ANU China Seminar Series is supported by the Australian Centre on China in the World at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.