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The Inalienable Alien : Giorgio Agamben and the political ontology of Hong Kong

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Date
28/01/2019
Author
Leung, King-Ho
Keywords
Hong Kong
Giorgio Agamben
Political philosophy
Sovereignty
B Philosophy (General)
T-NDAS
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Abstract
Drawing on the work of Giorgio Agamben, this article offers a philosophical interpretation of Hong Kong’s recent Umbrella Movement and the city’s political identity since its 1997 handover to China. With the constitutional principle of ‘one country, two systems’ it has held since 1997, Hong Kong has existed as an ‘inalienable alien’ part of China not dissimilar to that of Agamben’s political ontology of the homo sacer’s ‘inclusive exclusion’ in the polis. In addition to highlighting how Agamben’s politico-ontological notions such as ‘exception’ and ‘inclusive exclusion’ can illuminate the events of the Umbrella Movement, this article focuses particularly on the figure of the student, which many have seen as the symbolic face of the protest campaign. Considering how the student may also be regarded as a figure of ‘exception’, this article argues that the ‘exceptional’ role of the student highlights the unique sociopolitical as well as pedagogical aspects of the Umbrella Movement. Finally, comparing Hong Kong’s 2014 protests to Agamben’s philosophical account of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, this article concludes by suggesting that the Umbrella Movement is not simply a one-off event but fundamentally a manifestation of Hong Kong’s continuing political existence since 1997.
Citation
Leung , K-H 2019 , ' The Inalienable Alien : Giorgio Agamben and the political ontology of Hong Kong ' , Educational Philosophy and Theory , vol. 51 , no. 2 , pp. 175-184 . https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2017.1310015
Publication
Educational Philosophy and Theory
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2017.1310015
ISSN
0013-1857
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017 Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2017.1310015
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/18539

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