Transgressive Images in 'One Country, Two Systems': Hongkongers vs. Mainlanders

2012 has been described as a time when the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), a part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), took an anti-communist and anti-mainland turn. The reasons for these developments are complex, but can be said to be unintended consequences of cultural, economic, social, and political measures the PRC government took beginning in 2003 to assist Hong Kong’s economy and suppress a rising democracy movement. Three of those actions, accelerating Hong Kong’s economic and physical integration with the mainland, liberalizing its tourism regime, and deferring democratic development benefited co-opted political elite. They, however, also (eventually) provoked resistances from grassroots and middle class Hongkongers who suffered disproportionately and benefited less than the regime’s clients. In 2012, pressure from tens-of-millions of mainland tourists possessing distinctly different cultural, political, and social norms overwhelmed the territory, and a variety of local and national crises erupted over mainland mothers, cross-border drivers, parallel traders, property speculators, and tourists. Some of these predicaments even provoked intervention from Chinese leaders and raised questions regarding the viability of the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ framework. As part of this culture clash, many transgressive images frequently incorporating public photos, juxtapositions, and montages of mainlanders, HKSAR officials, and Chinese leaders emerged online (and in some protests) to distinguish Hongkongers from mainlander, and capitalist Hong Kong from communist China. This paper investigates the use of transgressive and profane images of mainlanders and local and central officials by Hongkongers in rejecting the Chinese national identity and ‘One country’ notion.