Webinar: Explaining the "Umbrella Revolution"

Professors Michael Davis and Victoria Hui (University of Notre Dame) will be speaking on "Explaining the 'Umbrella Revolution' for Political Rights in Hong Kong" in a webinar on Tuesday, 7 October 2014, 10:00 EST (10pm HK time) organised by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.  Click here to register to join the webinar online.  Description: This webinar analyzes the unfolding "umbrella revolution" in Hong Kong. International media have reported on how hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong protestors have maintained nonviolent discipline and order. International observers see images common to nonviolent movements around the world: strength in number, determined faces in front of riot police, slogans, songs, and more. Beneath such broad strokes of similarities, Hong Kong is unlike other cases given the constitutional structure of "one country, two systems" agreed to between Beijing and London. While Hong Kong has only semi-democracy, people are free to protest. While the police sometimes make arbitrary arrests, the independent judiciary inherited from the colonial era routinely releases activists. This constitutional structure presents a very open political space unseen in the rest of China and yet makes it difficult for activists to mobilize the largely contented population. Against this backdrop, the unprecedented use of riot police and the firing of tear gas seemed to have galvanized popular support for the protesters fighting for genuine democracy and increased sympathy for their nonviolent actions.  To view the Webinar, click here.