The inability of the largely peaceful Umbrella Movement to secure universal suffrage encouraged radicalist groups to seek greater use of violence. Unlike the 2014 Occupy Movement, in which students emphasized peace and non-violent civil disobedience as core principles of the movement, the “Fishball Revolution” saw violence that resulted in 130 people injured, and around 60 people arrested.

Second, the line between protests and riots has become blurred due to increased violence. The HKI also maintains close association with pro-independence groups such as Civic Passion. The HKI manifesto disavows the OCTS framework and the Hong Kong pan-democrats who attempt to work within it. However, more radical groups such as Hong Kong Indigenous (HKI), one of the main participants of the Mong Kok protests, have gained support. In the past, most pro-democracy groups had sought autonomy from China, with student activist groups such as Scholarism advocating the strengthening of Hong Kong’s autonomy within the existing “One Country Two Systems” (OCTS) framework. The demonstrations were the largest since the 2014 Umbrella Movement, but more importantly, reflected potentially significant shifts in Hong Kong protest culture.įirst, a more radical set of localists groups has gained prominence. The “Fishball Revolution,” triggered when police cracked down on unlicensed street hawkers in Mong Kok during the Lunar Year, attracted international media attention to Hong Kong.

Umbrellas in Bloom by Jason Y. Ng