LEAVING THE GROUND:
A LAUSAN ROUNDTABLE
After waves of mass protests and a glimmer of radical possibility that emerged in 2019, China’s National Security Law (NSL) and support for the US’ right wing politics now dominate the political landscape of Hong Kong. A new cohort of Hongkongers is stranded on foreign shores, finding themselves in the footsteps of forced migrants and revolutionaries in exile that had once fled from Mainland China to Hong Kong, amongst other locations. Yet, under the global reach of the NSL, Hongkongers on the ground, those in the diaspora, and other supporters of the city’s social movement all face the threat of state violence for perceived breaches of China’s sovereignty. These conditions have brought about a necessary conversation to re-examine the relationship between those on the ground in Hong Kong and those who are outside of its territorial bounds, particularly in the context of their respective involvement in the geopolitical power play between the US and China.
Presented as an informal conversation with and among members of Lausan Collective – a group of writers, translators, artists, and organizers whose work focuses on fostering transnational leftist solidarity from Hong Kong – this roundtable takes stock of the current state of Hong Kong’s protest movement and explores the following questions: How have the respective stakes changed for those in Hong Kong and those abroad in light of the NSL? What systems of power subtend the tensions and dynamics between those deemed local and those regarded as foreign, and how do these dynamics shape their respective discursive power? What are the determinants of the "Hongkonger" identity, and how have the anti-extradition law protests formed and also put pressure upon its criteria? Purposely invoking the Cantonese term “lei dei” (離地), which literally translates to "leaving the ground," meaning that one is unmoored from grounded realities, this conversation will explore the many dimensions and interpretations of this term. Through discussing the sightlines of power that are surfaced by leaving the ground, this roundtable seeks to examine its implications for Hong Kong’s political futures.
