Abstract
This chapter discusses how the Mongkok Riot (MKR) should be labeled as a “riot” verses a "disturbance". After a brief "Introduction", Section I : “Varieties of Definitions” takes issue with how various Hong Kong people (e.g. radical protestors and establishment politicians) came to perceive and later define the MKR.
Section II: “On Defining and Labeling” takes up the challenge of defining and labeling MKR by first inquiring into the purpose, function and typologies of definition. This raises issues about whether West and East (China) look at these subjects in the same way. Section III: “Debate Over Riot versus Disturbance: West versus East” compares and contrasts how West and East (China—old and new) define riot as opposed to disturbance. Section IV: “Conclusion” provides a discussion of how the MKR should be appropriately defined, recognizing the political differences and pragmatic interests at stake.
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Notes
- 1.
I am indebted to Professor Gary T. Marx who pointed this out: “Two issues here—what are the different ways of framing the issue[s] and then how should they be labeled? what do we do when different persons of varying degrees of good will say different thing? is it enough just to say as the Americans do, ‘different strokes for different folks’?” E-mail communication on file with author, June 6, 2018.
- 2.
Karen Sternheimer, “Civil Unrest, Riots and Rebellions: What’s the Difference?” Everyday Sociology Blog. May 3, 2012.
- 3.
E-mail communication on file with author, June 6, 2018.
- 4.
“暴亂?衝突?香港媒體怎樣稱呼「旺角騷亂」” (“Riot? Confrontation? How did the HK media label ‘Mongkok Disturbance’”) 端傳媒 (Initium Media) February 17, 2016.
- 5.
Michael Ford. “Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations—Aphorisms 1–10.” www.voidspace.org.uk.
- 6.
R.A. Duff, Lindsay Farmer, S.E. Marshall, Massimo Renzo, and Victor Tadros, “The Boundaries of the Criminal Law.” Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2011.
- 7.
The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1966), p. 168.
- 8.
Howard Becker, Outsiders (New York: Free Press, 1963, 1973), 9.
- 9.
Hakan Seckinelgin, “The naming is labelling: it does matter,” Reinventing Peace February 4, 2014.
- 10.
Secretary for justice vs. Wong Chi Fung (黃之鋒), Law Kwun Chung (羅冠聰), Chow Yong Kang Alex (周永康). In the high court of the Hong Kong special administrative region court of appeal, application for review no. 4 of 2016.
- 11.
Haipeng Zhou, “Whose Sound and Fury? The 1967 Riots of Hong Kong through The Times,” Global Media Journal, Vol. 4(6): 1–28 (2005).
- 12.
“[林忌评论]香港旺角冲突的真相” (‘Kay Lam Commentary’: Truth behind Mongkok Confrontation) Radio Free Asia February 15, 2015.
- 13.
“Were the Mong Kok clashes a riot?” ejinsight February 11, 2016.
- 14.
I am indebted to Professor Marx for the following insightful comment: “The distinction between ‘structures’ and institutions as ‘causes’ pushing people to act vs. the ‘agency’ view in which people autonomously make choices would seem to apply here. Are people simply pawns pushed around by external winds—unjust social conditions, police agents who manipulate or can they weigh and choose how to act on their own?” (E-mail communication on file with author of June 12, 2018).
- 15.
Alan Wong, “China Labels Protesters ‘Radical Separatists,’ and They Agree,” NYT February 20, 2016.
- 16.
“梁天琦指當選目標較手段重要 回覆選舉主任:不會續推港獨 真誠擁護《基本法》” (“LTK pointed out that getting elected is more important that method used, in answering to director of election: I would not pursue HK independence and sincerely support ‘Basic Law’”) Standsnews July 26, 2016.
- 17.
“旺角「騷亂」定義字眼起爭議 學者:稱「暴亂」明顯誇大” (‘MKR’ definitional dispute. Scholar: ‘Riot’ label clearly exaggerated). 852郵報(Post 852) February 13, 2016.
- 18.
Kam C. Wong, Chapter Three: “Policing in China: Terrorism and Mandate from Heaven”, pp. 71–101 in John Eterno and Dilip Das (eds.), Police Practices in Global Perspective, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010).
- 19.
Gary Cheung, “1967 ringleader Yeung Kwong ‘just followed orders’,” SCMP October 3, 2016.
- 20.
新東補選: 7候選人定性旺角黑夜-暴動?起義?嚴重暴力衝突? (New Territories—East by-election: 7 Candidates characterization of MK Dark Night—Riot? Uprising? Serious violent confrontation? HK 01 March 11, 2016.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
Gary Cheung and Peter So, “Veteran unionist Yeung Kwong, ringleader in 1967 Hong Kong riots, dies at 89.” SCMP, May 16, 2015.
- 29.
“In direct contrast to certain early conservative theorists such as LeBon, most American sociologists studying collective behavior hold liberal-to-left political oriented and perspectives. They rather naturally and correctly reject the Gustave LeBon–Ronald Reagan ‘mad dog’ image of rioters, though in so doing there is a tendency to ignore variation and see all violent outbursts as ‘rational,’ ‘intrinsically political,’ and ‘instrumental and purposive.’” Gary T. Marx, “Issueless Riots,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 391, September 1970, pp. 21–33.
- 30.
Matthew D. Lieberman, Ruth Gaunt, Daniel T. Gilbert, Yaacov Trope, “Reflection and Reflexion: A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Approach to Attributional Inference,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 34, December 2001, pp. 199–249.
- 31.
皇甫清, “旺角「騷亂」:「Revolution」、「暴亂」定「騷亂」 中外傳媒點樣報?” (“MK disturbance: ‘Revolution’, ‘riot’, ‘disturbance’, how local vs. foreign media report it?”) 853 Post February 13, 2016.
- 32.
“六七暴動研究者:稱旺角事件為暴動「不對稱」 與六七不可比” (“Researcher of 67 riot: Calling MKR ‘not appropriate’, cannot be compared with 67) Standnews February 22, 2016.
- 33.
暴動與騷動 [名人教英文] (Riot vs. Disturbance) (Famous person teaching English) Mingbao March 11, 2016.
- 34.
Leeds-Hurwitz, W., “Social construction of reality.” In S. Littlejohn, & K. Foss (Eds.), Encyclopedia of communication theory (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2009), pp. 892–895.
- 35.
Definitions (Substantive revision Mon Apr 20, 2015). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- 36.
Ibid.
- 37.
Ibid.
- 38.
Sarah Mattice, “On ‘Rectifying’ Rectification: Reconsidering Zhengming in Light of Confucian Role Ethics,” Asian Philosophy 20 (3): 247–260 (2010).
- 39.
There is an issue whether this applies to events, as in the case of labeling a riot. The simple answer is yes, because riots are conducted by people, and people’s actions must follow the correct path and be described as such. See Geir Sigurðsson, Confucian Propriety and Ritual Learning: A Philosophical Interpretation (SUNY Press, January 8, 2015).
- 40.
Ibid.
- 41.
Ibid. p. 113.
- 42.
“孔子「正名」思想的現代意義” (Confucius’s ‘reification of name’ thinking in modern meaning.”) 第五届世界儒学大会论文集 (Fifth Annual World Confucius Conference Proceeding Papers) May 20, 2013. http://www.kongziyjy.org/Item/1981.aspx.
- 43.
The Analects, XIII.
- 44.
I have long argued that HK legal studies and policing research should start to develop indigenous theory and incorporate local practice into its as yet limited corpus. See Kam C. Wong, Policing in Hong Kong: Research and Practice (Palgrave 2015).
- 45.
Gary T. Max, “Issueless Riots,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 391, September 1970, pp. 21–33.
- 46.
Riot versus unrest is divided along ideological lines. Alex Lo, “Riot or unrest? An ideological divide over what happened in Mong Kok at Lunar New Year,” SCMP April 6, 2016. Wann, D. L., Koch, K., Knoth, T., Fox, D., Aljubaily, H., & Lantz, C. D., “The impact of team identification on biased predictions of player performance,” The Psychological Record, Vol. 56 (1): 55–66 (2006).
- 47.
Simon, Zhang, “To Construct a Riot: Interpretations and Consequences of the 2011 English Riots,” Journal of Politics & Society, Vol. 24 Issue 2, pp. 6–24. Fall 2013.
- 48.
Seattle Office of Emergency Management: Seattle Hazard Identification and Vulnerability Analysis.
- 49.
Ibid.
- 50.
Definition of “riot”. Cambridge Dictionary online.
- 51.
Definition of “riot”. Merriam-Webster online.
- 52.
Zhou Zhongwai, The handling of Mass Incidents (Jiangxi renmin chubanshe, 2006).
- 53.
Literally, 暴 is violence and 動 is movement. Together the term 暴動 means violent action or violent movement against the state.
- 54.
Literally, 暴 is violence and 亂 is chaos. Together 暴亂 stands for violence with intent to or resulting in chaos.
- 55.
Literally, 作 is to cause and 亂 is chaos. Together 作亂 means bringing about disorder, or being rebellious.
- 56.
Literally 動 is to act and 亂 is chaos. Together 動亂 is to ferment unrest or cause disorder.
- 57.
Literally, 騷 is instability and 亂 is chaos. Together it refers to people engaging in disorderly conduct within a people, for example a clan feud, or unrest against rulers, for example a mass movement.
- 58.
Literally, 叛 is to turn or rebel against established authority and 亂 is chaos. Together 叛亂 stands for rebellion.
- 59.
Literally, 叛 is to turn against and 变 is to change allegiance. Together 叛变 is rebelling against the authority or overthrowing the emperor; that is, regime change.
- 60.
Kam C. Wong. “Confucianization of the Law: A Study of Speech Crime Prosecution in China,” Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law Vol. 11 Iss. 3 (2004).
- 61.
Lon L. Fuller, The Morality of Law (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969).
- 62.
El-Enany, Nadine. (2014) ‘“Innocence Charged with Guilt”: The Criminalisation of Protest from Peterloo to Millbank’. In Pritchard, David and Pakes, Francis (eds.), Riots, Unrest and Protest on the Global Stage (London: Palgrave Macmillan), 72–97.
- 63.
Kam C. Wong. “A Comparative Study of Laws of Assembly in China: Historical Continuity or Political Departure?” Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, Vol. 7 Iss. 2 (2006).
- 64.
Haipeng Zhou, “Whose Sound and Fury? The 1967 Riots of Hong Kong through The Times,” Global Media Journal, Vol. 4(6) (2005).
- 65.
Michael Huguani, “Hong Kong’s Lion Rock spirit dies for good in a society at war with itself,” SCMP April 5, 2016.
- 66.
Art Markman, “You End Up Believing What You Want to Believe,” Psychology Today, July 1, 2011.
- 67.
Thomas E. Nelson; Rosalee A. Clawson; Zoe M. Oxley, “Media Framing of A Civil Liberties Conflict and Its Effect on Tolerance,” American Political Science Review 91(3), August 1997, pp. 567–583.
- 68.
Greer, Chris and McLaughlin, Eugene, “We predict a riot? Public order policing, new media environments and the rise of the citizen journalist,” British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 50(6), November 2010, pp. 1041–1059.
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Wong, K.C. (2019). What’s in a name? “Riot” versus “Disturbance”. In: Public Order Policing in Hong Kong. Palgrave Advances in Criminology and Criminal Justice in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98672-2_3
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