{"id":78,"date":"2019-11-27T09:33:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T02:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/?p=78"},"modified":"2020-04-28T08:33:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T01:33:48","slug":"political-science-honed-ph-d-students-identity-as-hong-konger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/?p=78","title":{"rendered":"Political science honed Ph.D. student’s identity as Hong Konger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Pei-Yu Lin\/ Published on the Arizona Daily Star<\/a> on Nov. 27, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sanho Chung is one of 23 students from Hong Kong enrolled at the University of Arizona this semester.
Photo: Peiyu Lin \/ Special to the Arizona Daily Star<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sanho Chung never thought the first tear-gas grenade would explode, but it did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He heard the blast while distributing surgical masks, bottles of water, umbrellas and first-aid supplies to protesters in Hong Kong during the 2014 Umbrella Movement, where people demanded to elect their own leader without China\u2019s interference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then smelled tear gas. He cursed in his native Cantonese. He knew something bad just happened. He started to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smelling tear gas was \u201cjust like you put a bunch of wasabi in your nostrils. The wasabi went down from your nasal passage to your trachea, and you have to cough it out,\u201d Chung said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow \u2026 of course, it\u2019s nothing,\u201d he said. \u201c(I\u2019m) getting used to the smell of tear-gas grenades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chung, who identifies himself as a Hong Konger and a participant in social movements in Hong Kong since 2013, started his first semester this fall at the University of Arizona as a doctoral student in the School of Government and Public Policy, at a time of escalating protests in Hong Kong. The UA says 23 students from Hong Kong are enrolled at the university this semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Chung\u2019s career goal is to become an assistant professor in the United States or elsewhere, he still cares about public affairs in his homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chung, 26, was born in Hong Kong four years before the United Kingdom ended its colonization and transferred the sovereignty of Hong Kong to China. He didn\u2019t realize the influence of British governance on his hometown until he grew up, Chung said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His parents were from Fujian, a southern province. He became a fan of Chinese history after his cousin introduced him to \u201cRecords of the Three Kingdoms.\u201d When he was in high school, Chung expected to become a high school history teacher himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he changed his career goal to a university professor after he studied government and international Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I got into the Baptist (University) in GIS, government and international studies, I realized, \u2018Oh, I love political science and I\u2019m interested in doing research as well,\u2019\u201d Chung said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying political science has changed his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cActually, I called myself politically apathetic in the past,\u201d he said. He just wanted to research history. However, he later realized that history and politics are closely bound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chung thought deeper when he learned from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Max Weber\u2019s concept of sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPut these things into China-Hong Kong relations,\u201d he said. \u201cHong Kong-China relations, you would realize that one country, two systems is not going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He first participated in politics on June 4, 2013. Chung went to Hong Kong Victoria Park where people were mourning the 1989 victims of Tiananmen Square through a candlelight vigil. The protesters cried out, \u201cWe Chinese must fight for democracy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou would feel like you were participating in a cult,\u201d Chung said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Chung, people who held the vigil believed that only when China turns to democracy can Hong Kong have democracy, and that Hong Kong can be a model of democracy to affect the whole of mainland China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He became a supporter of democracy in Hong Kong and his identity as a Hong Konger, instead of a Chinese. That was what triggered him to go on the street again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn fact, the Umbrella Movement to me is not a paradigm shift, because I realized that the identity of being a Chinese and that of a Hong Konger became incompatible a long time ago,\u201d Chung said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding his role in social movements, Chung considers himself as a participant, rather than an activist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think this label (activist) is a little bit strange,\u201d Chung said. \u201cI don\u2019t engage in politics for a living, nor do I join any political parties, or have launched social movements, but I truly put more attention on current political and social situation than normal people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would also interact with activists, but I\u2019m not being more active, or as active as they are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam Douglas Henry, an associate professor in the UA School of Government and Public Policy, said he first met Chung in a workshop in 2018 in Singapore. He encouraged Chung to apply for the UA Ph.D. program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry remains neutral when asked about Chung\u2019s participation in social movements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m aware that he\u2019s a participant of social movements,\u201d Henry said. \u201cI\u2019m aware that these movements are important. But I\u2019m not really involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chung said it\u2019s hard to get people in Tucson to care about Hong Kong issues. \u201cMaybe use NBA as an example. You know? Morey, that case. Blizzard Entertainment, Hearthstone \u2026 These can work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General manager Daryl Morey of the NBA\u2019s Houston Rockets tweeted and quickly deleted an image that showed support for Hong Kong protesters on Oct. 5, offending Chinese people and eventually causing China\u2019s state broadcaster to suspend a plan to broadcast the NBA\u2019s preseason games in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ng Wai Chung, a Hearthstone player from Hong Kong, also known as Blitzchung, was punished by Blizzard Entertainment after he repeated pro-democracy protesters\u2019 slogan \u201cLiberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times\u201d in Mandarin in an interview in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cWhen China\u2019s interference didn\u2019t only happen in Hong Kong, but also reached to Americans\u2019 daily life, American people might start to follow (the news), because Hong Kong and America have a common issue: China\u2019s interference,\u201d Chung said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fall, Chung and a group of graduate students from Hong Kong established the Hong Kong Democratic Alliance of Overseas Postgraduate Students. The organization aims to promote Hong Kong studies in academic fields in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a very single concept that I want to share with people,\u201d Chung said. \u201cWhat I did is based on my belief. Whenever what is good for Hong Kong, I would just say it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pei-yu Lin, from Taiwan, is studying for a master\u2019s degree in journalism at the University of Arizona. This story was originally completed for an advanced reporting journalism class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Pei-Yu Lin – Published on the Arizona Daily Star.
\nSanho Chung never thought the first tear-gas grenade would explode, but it did.<\/p>\n

He heard the blast while distributing surgical masks, bottles of water, umbrellas and first-aid supplies to protesters in Hong Kong during the 2014 Umbrella Movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12,30],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-articles","tag-arizona","tag-hong-kong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334,"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/peiyulin.tw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}