Deploying Weapons of the Weak in Civil Society: Political Culture in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Summary

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Lo et al examine the discursive elements of civil speech through an analysis of political cartoons in Hong Kong and Taiwan. They contend that the cynical civic engagement is "the practice of resorting to arts of resistance as a means of civil expression, which facilitates a form of civic participation registered with criticisms of and disbelief in such participation."

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Extract

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Deploying Weapons of the Weak in Civil Society: Political Culture in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Introduction

AT THE CLOSE OF THE 20TH CENTURY, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN HELD THE FIRST national democratic elections in their history. In both settings, a long and complicated set of global maneuvers by more powerful states kept democracy from emerging and threatened to delegitimate local identities. The reality of this past colonization and current, informal imperialism has until very recently discouraged, or even censored, political discourses informed by robust civic engagement. The slow, limited, but often successful efforts at institutionalizing democracy in these contexts are thus remarkable; neither the current situation nor the legacy of political disempowerment has proved strong enough to dissuade civic engagement. Our article, however, focuses not on the history of how such institutions were built, but on cultural legacies. How do histories of colonialism and resistance, if at all, shape the political-cultural repertoire of a society after institutional markers of democracy are more or less in place? Our article takes up this question as a point of entrée into exploring how civil-political discourse is manifested in places deeply divided by historical and present power differentials.

We begin with a review of the literature on civil society, explaining why the question posed above is crucial and how it has been inadequately addressed. We suggest that to develop a richer understanding of the historical continuity and cultural creativity of the groups that have only recently been included in civil society, it is important to examine how their cultural legacy, developed under conditions of oppression, is transformed in the civic moment and informs their new civil speech. To develop theoretical tools for such inquiries, we take up W.E.B. DuBois' ideas about double consciousness and veils, as well as James Scott's description of "weapons of the weak," and elaborate on their relevance in the context of civil society. Because of the nature of our inquiry, we use as our data rich, multivalent expressions in the form of political cartoons.

By exploring public political engagement in Hong Kong and Taiwan during their first democratic elections, we broaden our understanding of how civil society, at least that sector engaged with the state, develops despite these legacies. Yet to explain what we wish to accomplish requires us to attempt to bring a coherent understanding to the notion of civil society. We describe civil society as: (1) a network of autonomous associations in the space outside the state and the family, and (2) a culture of civility that informs individuals' participation in these associations (Hall, 1995; Bryant, 1995; Giner, 1995). In addition to a set of institutional arrangements that guarantee the freedom and autonomy of the associational sphere, civil society mus...

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