Turning the Spotlight: Thinking the recent District Council election though objects
The first District Council election of the ‘new’ Hong Kong has just come to an end. While the result gained attention not only locally but internationally, the streetscape before, during, and after the election has no doubt changed with the increasing number of election objects.
This precisely highlights the concern of human geographers regarding materiality in public and domestic spaces. While some people or even scholars (Müller (2015), more recently Holmes (2020), Woodward (2020)) may view these everyday objects as too ‘mundane’ to investigate, their impact on politics and society can be massive.
In one of the foundational works in popular geopolitics, Jo Sharp (1993, 2000) conducted a case study on The Reader’s Digest during the Cold War and explained that those magazines provided a site for elites to construct the readership’s geopolitical discourses by portraying the Soviet Union as a totalitarian and expansionist threat while emphasizing the heroic role of the United States in countering the Soviet Union’s invasion in the ‘free world.’ Through the consistent presentation of this particular worldview, the magazine exerted influence over its readers’ understanding and perspective of geopolitics between the United States and the Soviet Union, thereby heightening global political divisions. The magazine, therefore, not only represented the political situations among states in that intense era, but also reflected how those objects are situated in daily life in a profoundly impactful way, which gives them the power to shape geopolitical realities and, as such, they are so important that they cannot be ignored.
Perhaps this case study is too distant and not directly related to the same kind of everyday objects that the District Council election is related to. But the interactions happen on the seemingly mundane objects around us are similar. These objects, such as the banners and posters placed in their locations, or even leaflets and cards circulated around, express and even help structure the power relationships between the government and the local people exercised across the whole of Hong Kong. The state strongly desired registered voters to really vote in order to achieve its political aim of promoting to the world that ‘Hong Kong democracy has never changed’, even though it has changed. The paper votes also carry citizens’ political perspectives. They are tools that voters use to exercise their power to alter politics by choosing how to use them, or not using them.
In academic language, these objects are therefore interwoven together to form an assemblage (Müller, 2015) that links with different actors such as states and citizens in the political society. Ultimately, it powerfully forms the geopolitical landscape.
One more example illustrating such a relationship is that the changing activities of these objects also reflect the ‘new’ Hong Kong politics. In the past, disobedient citizens would destroy banners to express their opposition to a specific party or politician. This time, the decreasing number of these incidents encapsulates the impact of the national security law on citizens’ actions.
As shown, objects can be boring yet interesting, as they can offer a lens for understanding what is happening. They are acting way more powerful than you imagine. Next time, when you walk through places that you visit daily, do not forget to observe your surroundings objects, as they may tell you clues about what recent events are happening in our society, and why. Try to connect those objects and the ‘big incidents’ together so that you may find them funny to explore.
Reference list
CGTN (2019). Results of HKSAR district council elections announced. Available at: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-11-25/Results-of-HKSAR-district-council-elections-announced-LUhRoB0snK/index.html (Accessed in 12 December 2023).
Ho, K. (2023). Hong Kong to arrange polling stations near border for mainland-based voters in ‘patriots-only’ District Council election. Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP). Available at: https://hongkongfp.com/2023/11/07/hong-kong-to-arrange-polling-stations-near-border-for-mainland-based-voters-in-patriots-only-district-council-election/ (Accessed in 12 December 2023).
Holmes, H. (2020). Material relationships: Object interviews as a means of studying everyday life. In Holmes, H. and Hall, S. M. (Eds.). Mundane methods: Innovative ways to research the everyday. Manchester University Press. pp. 66–83.
Müller, M. (2015). Assemblages and actor‐networks: Rethinking socio‐material power, politics and space. Geography compass, 9(1), pp. 27–41.
Sing Tao Daily (2023). 區議會選舉2023｜記者實測4分鐘完成邊境投票站投票 投票巿民：港人有義務投票 [District Council Election 2023 | Journalist Completes Voting at Border Polling Station in 4 Minutes; Voters Say Hong Kong People Have a Duty to Vote.]. Available at: https://www.singtaousa.com/2023-12-10/%E5%8D%80%E8%AD%B0%E6%9C%83%E9%81%B8%E8%88%892023%EF%BD%9C%E8%A8%98%E8%80%85%E5%AF%A6%E6%B8%AC4%E5%88%86%E9%90%98%E5%AE%8C%E6%88%90%E9%82%8A%E5%A2%83%E6%8A%95%E7%A5%A8%E7%AB%99%E6%8A%95%E7%A5%A8/4693800 (Accessed in 12 December 2023).
Sharp, J. P. (1993). Publishing American identity: popular geopolitics, myth and The Reader’s Digest. Political geography, 12(6), pp. 491–503.
Sharp, J. P. (2000). Condensing the Cold War Reader’s Digest and American Identity. University of Minnesota Press.
Woodward, S. (2020). Opening up material collections: Adored, forgotten about, potent and mundane objects. In Holmes, H. and Hall, S. M. (Eds.). Mundane methods: Innovative ways to research the everyday. Manchester University Press. pp. 17–31.
