Chapter 4. Identity of Hong Kongers in Taiwan
4.3 Cultural Identity and Collective Memories
4.4.1 The use of SNSs
Revolution. Then during the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement in 2019, the term yellow ribbon represent those who support the democratic movement16; the term blue ribbon represents those who support the pro-China camp in Hong Kong17 or those who support the government.
The next section will discuss the use of SNSs among different age group of migrants. For students, some of them used Dcard as one of the channel expressing political views and discuss with other students who study in Taiwan; for most of the Hong Kongers in Taiwan, they used Facebook as the platform to connect each other and hold offline events to gather migrants in Taiwan or support Hong Kong‘s social movements.
4.4.1 The use of SNSs
Following the 2014 Umbrella Revolution, social media was widely used as one of the channels for expressing Hong Kongers political views. From Liu (2008), although migrants might stay in a host country for a long period, they still have frequent interaction with their mother country - society, politics, culture and economics. And in the research report done by the Center of Youth Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2017), Hong Kong youth frequently participated in online political activities and they usually expressed their political views on the SNS. Some Hong Kongers in Taiwan use the functions of some social media sites to organize events in Taiwan, to support the political events in Hong Kong. Among the popular SNSs, Hong Kongers in Taiwan have frequently used Facebook, YouTube and Dcard. According to the Taiwan Internet Report 2019, which studies the behaviour and trend of Internet users, Facebook is the 1st and Dcard is the 3rd social media site in Taiwan. In this section, I will discuss the role of different social media among Hong Kongers in Taiwan, and its impact to the Taiwanese society.
16 Yellow Ribbon (黃絲帶). Retrieved from:
https://evchk.wikia.org/zh/wiki/%E9%BB%83%E7%B5%B2%E5%B8%B6
17 Blue Ribbon (藍絲帶). Retrieved from:
https://evchk.wikia.org/zh/wiki/%E8%97%8D%E7%B5%B2%E5%B8%B6
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Figure 6. Main website or brand (Taiwan Internet Report, 2019) From online to offline – platform connecting host and mother country
Facebook is one of the most popular SNS in the world. For March 2020, the average daily active users of Facebook were 1.73 billion18. The use of Facebook groups allows Hong Kong migrants to connect to each other. As for Facebook events and the Facebook page, Hong Kong migrants usually share their political views or life experience on it and organize offline political events. People can set up Facebook groups and allow others to join, the group owner can decide the group‘s privacy, and those who want to join must answer certain questions and wait for the approval. Some Hong Kongers in Taiwan have set up several groups on Facebook, allowing migrants and potential migrants to ask questions and hold events in the group. B told me the secret behind these groups: most of the people think these groups are managed by certain migrants, in fact the migration agency set up the groups, but only a few people know about it. These agencies have lots of experience assisting Hong Kongers to migrate to Taiwan. Those who set up the groups also used other SNSs to connect Hong Kong migrants in Taiwan. For example, in one of the Facebook groups – ―Hong Kongers in Taiwan‖, they created a Telegram channel (one of the SNSs). Once they‘ve organized gatherings in Taiwan, they will release the news there. If migrants have any questions, they may also ask them in the channel. Besides, Facebook has also organized hot topics in the groups, people can click on topics and browse the posts that they are interested in.
18 Facebook Reports First Quarter 2020 Results. Retrieved from: https://investor.fb.com/investor-
news/press-release-details/2020/Facebook-Reports-First-Quarter-2020-Results/default.aspx#:~:text=Facebook%20daily%20active%20users%20(DAUs,%25%20year%2Dove
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Figure 7. A post on Facebook group introducing the Telegram account and hot topics in the group 19
I joined two of the Facebook groups to observe the online behaviour of Hong Kongers in Taiwan. There are a few types of people who frequently joined these groups: potential migrants in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Taiwanese living in Hong Kong, or Hong Kongers living in Taiwan, and students studying in Taiwan.
Figure 8. List of Facebook Group observed
19 Retrieved from:
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=509491463097715&set=gm.528899664411102
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Most of the groups provide a platform for people from both places to discuss problems in their daily life and allow them to join other SNS groups for further contact. The hot topics in these groups have changed from time to time, in different political environments. Before June 2019, for most of the Hong Kongers in Taiwan, they usually discuss issue of everyday life, such as where to buy Hong Kongese ingredients in Taiwan. But after that, many potential migrants join the group and ask migration related question and seek opinions. For example, the investment migration process, the list of schools accepting students from Hong Kong and the city where these migrants should move to are the most popular issues among potential migrants.
And as a result of Taiwan‘s Corona virus lockdown in February 2020, more Hong Kongers and Taiwanese joined the group and expressed their views on being separated from their families or spouses in both locations.
These groups included people of different age groups, when compared to Dcard, which only allows students to use, the topic discussed within the group is more diverse. Hong Kongers in Taiwan and Taiwanese also have frequent interactions in these groups: they do not only talk about their daily life in Taiwan but also about political issues. From Larsson & Teigland (2020), those who are foreign-born express their political views online through social media more easily; digitalization has changed the political dialogue. The formation of the Hong Kong Outlanders is one of the examples, they are a group of Hong Kongers who are located in Taiwan and wish to contribute to their homeland. They used the function of Facebook events, to organize and promote offline events, to gather Hong Kongers in Taiwan.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Figure 9. Facebook Page of the Hong Kong Outlanders20
People from all over the world can easily access political dialogue through Facebook. The Facebook event - the 9/29 demonstration in Taipei in 2019 is an examples. The Hong Kong Outlanders organized the event with some Taiwanese NGO‘s and local organizations to support the protesters in Hong Kong, and respond to the demonstration in Hong Kong. Taiwanese and Hong Kongers are welcome to participate in this event.
Figure 10. Event page of the 9/29 Demonstration21
20 Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/HKOutlanders/
21Retrieved from:
https://www.facebook.com/events/392770148103285/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A5%2C%22a ction_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22page%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22mai
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
They also listed details of the events and the advocates on Facebook, people can access the event page and even invite friends to view and like the page. These events allow Hong Kongers in Taiwan to join the demonstration to show their support to their homeland, and even invite friends to view and like the page.
Figure 11-12. Details of the 9/29 demonstration and the advocates on the event page
22
Besides, H is one of the successful cases using social media to build his personal brand, by sharing his own experience in Taiwan and introducing himself to potential migrants, he quickly became very popular among them. He shares his experience in consulting with potential migrants with me in May 2020, at which time he already told me that about 50 or 60 families had contacted him through social media and that they plan to migrate to Taiwan in 2020. However, since the Taiwanese government has closed the border since February, some are postponing the plan while others are still sending the application.
Anonymous dialogue – channel that students used to shared their political view
Dcard – a Taiwan-based online forum found in 2011, open only to students who studying in Taiwan, allows students to talk anonymously online. Hong Kong students
n_list%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%22%5C%22[]%5C%22%22%7D]%2C%22has_source%22%
3Atrue%7D
22 Retrieved from:
https://www.facebook.com/events/392770148103285/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A5%2C%22a ction_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22page%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22mai n_list%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%22%5C%22[]%5C%22%22%7D]%2C%22has_source%22%
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
in Taiwan are allowed to ask questions and collect information from it. In November 2018, they set up a sub-forum in Hong Kong and included a sub-forum targeting only overseas Chinese students (僑生), and Hong Kong students studying in Taiwan are included. Hong Kong students in Taiwan are allowed to express their views on the forum, for instance, minority and political issues are the most popular one on Dcard.
In October 2018, a Hong Kong student expressed her perspective on same-sex marriage in Dcard and compared the differences in how people treat minorities in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The comments below are highly positive and support her decision to stay in Taiwan. Some Hong Kong students in Taiwan have also commented on the post and they are connected through the platform.
Starting from 2014, Hong Kong and Taiwanese students frequently share their perspective on political issues and discuss on Dcard. In the past, the only way they can understand the whole story is to read news or articles online, while by Dcard, they can read people‘s story, discuss the issue and even ask questions to better understand.
Two significant cases are the Sunflower Student Movements in 2014 and the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement in 2019. These topics are really hot in the year occurred. At the Dcard Annual Review announced in January 2020, the Hong Kong ―Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement‖ is one of the most popular issues on the forum in 2019.
Just after the movement began, on June 10, 2019, a Hong Kong student studying in Taiwan posted an article on Dcard, explained the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement to Taiwanese students, more than 2000 Dcard users liked the post.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Figure 13. June 9 Call from Hong Kongers (A post from Dcard) 23
As Dcard is open to all students who studying in Taiwan, students from China can also read the post. Some students from China and Hong Kong argue under this post, here are some of the comments in the post:
23Retrieved from: https://www.dcard.tw/f/trending/p/231460538
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Figure 14-16. Comments from June 9 Call from Hong Kongers (from Dcard) 24 According to the above comments, some Taiwanese students do not only show their attitude of support toward Hong Kong students but also rethink their political issues. For example: the presidential election in Taiwan and the cross-strait issues, some even suggested explaining Hong Kong‘s issue to their family members or friends from other countries. Hong Kong and Taiwan have always been connected on
24 Retrieved from: https://www.dcard.tw/f/trending/p/231460538
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
the political issues, both people struggle for democracy and the separate identity from China. Today, the political issue in Hong Kong has alarmed Taiwanese youth and forced them to rethink the future of Taiwan. As a platform, Dcard allows students to exchange views and even affected their peers from other places, it has brought positive effects and allow students to think.
When comparing interviewees of different ages, it‘s clear that those who are younger are more willing to participate in politics using SNSs, especially on local issues (the political incidents in Hong Kong). This is consistent with Davidson and Cotter (1989) research, people with a strong sense of community expressed themselves politically through a variety of channels. Through their conversation with family and friends, they have begun to reflect on their self-identity. For the interviewees who are older, they still maintain certain ties with political incidents in Hong Kong, but they may not have much political dialogues with family and friends publicly. They are more willing to focus on helping other Hong Kongers in Taiwan to solve their daily life issues.