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Feminist academics and activists across the world often question: What
does feminism mean in the contemporary context? What constitutes
feminism in a rapidly changing social and political context? How can
feminists engage with the state and other social movements? And what has
globalization brought to women's activism in the local and national
context? This book, Transnational Feminism and Women's Movements in Post-1997 Hong Kong: Solidarity Beyond the State,
by Adelyn Lim, explores these critical questions and offers a unique
glimpse into women's movements and women's activism in post-1997 Hong
Kong under the People's Republic of China (PRC)—a rarely researched
topic. Based on in-depth interviews with fifty-five women activists from
women's groups in Hong Kong, focus group discussions, and participant
observations at various campaigns and events and a variety of sources,
Lim provides a more critical and comprehensive understanding of women's
activism in post-1997 Hong Kong. The book presents a detailed analysis
of major activists, organisations, campaigns and strategies that women's
groups in Hong Kong have adopted to address a range of issues, namely,
the feminisation of poverty, violence against women, prostitution and
sex workers and domestic workers. In doing so, Lim uncovers the
contradictions and complexities women's activists face in Hong Kong
while making efforts to embrace differences in perspectives and
strategies among women activists and members/constituencies, to include
newly emerging groups such as labour migrants, and to respond to the
changes and opportunities influenced by globalization.
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Throughout the chapters, the author highlights the conceptualisation of
feminism as a collective action frame rather than a collective identity.
She argues that 'feminism as a frame … is continuously being
constituted, contested, reproduced and displaced by other frames during
the course of mobilisation' (p. 19) and that the frame has been shaped
by sociocultural, economic and political contexts and is open to
renegotiation (p. 87). For example, the author presents the politics
surrounding sex work in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, women activists, not
sharing the same view about prostitution, through 'ongoing processes of
self-critique and collective reflection' learn different perspectives
and positions and collaboratively engage in public education and
advocacy on sex workers.
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The engagement of women's movements with the state or institution has
been a recurrently debated topic among feminist activists not only in
Hong Kong, but across the world. For example, the author presents two
different approaches that two women's groups have adopted while dealing
with violence against women. The Hong Kong Federation maintains distance
from feminism which might give it a bad reputation for presenting
'oppositional forms of collective action,' (p. 11) and being afraid of
ruining its relationship with the PRC and the Hong Kong governments.
They adopted strategies based on degendered aims such as family
stability, social harmony and social management. On the other hand,
NKWCEO (Hong Kong Women's Coalition on Equal Opportunities) prefers not
to associate with the state or pro-democracy politicians to maintain
their identity as a feminist oppositional force, defining violence
against women as a gender-based rights issue and pressuring the state
and public through confrontational tactics such as demonstration
rallies, protest marches and street performances (pp. 11–14). The author
does not regard this difference as problematic, rather she asserts that
this discrepancy in women's movements would add to 'the on-going
construction and contestation of what feminism means' (p. 11) in Hong
Kong.
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Taking local and migrant domestic work as a case of transnational
feminist solidarity, the author also demonstrates how feminism has been
expanded to include women of different class, ethnic and national
backgrounds and how feminist solidarity against exploitation and
oppression in domestic work is closely related to struggles against
power and domination in Hong Kong. In this process, feminism, the author
argues, is not only 'an argument for recognizing the common experiences
of women but an argument for recognizing common interests and a common
context of struggle at a particular historical moment' (p. 126). The
author maintains that the advocacy work for sex workers and domestic
workers, in particular, has generated new terms and spaces through which
feminism and feminist engagement can be reinterpreted.
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Despite its merit, being original, well-researched and communicative,
the definition of key terms such as feminism and the women's movement,
yet repeatedly used, has not been discussed in a lucid way. The author
has explained the differences between the women's movements and feminism
(p. 15), based on Myra Marx Ferree's work.[1]
She sees that women's movements involve 'naming "women" as a
constituency to be mobilized and building a strategy, organization and
politics around issues defined as being particularly "women's" concerns'
(p. 15). On the other hand, she has asserted that 'feminism is activism
with the "goal" of "challenging and changing women's subordination to
men"' (p. 15). Further, the author seems to use the two terms, women's
movements and feminism, interchangeably without differentiation
throughout the book. The author needs to more effectively address the
subtle difference between the two terms. In addition, how the terms are
defined and understood by women's activists in Hong Kong needs to be
discussed in further detail. She repeatedly claims that feminism is a
collective action frame but has not offered any details as to what would
be major values and guiding principles in this frame.
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I commend this book to feminist activists and scholars interested in
understanding women's activism in non-western countries, as well as to
keen readers of Hong Kong in general. This book assembles strong
evidence to make the case that feminism is continuously constructed and
renegotiated at the specific historical social context and serves as 'a
collective action frame' for women's movements, often fragmented yet
united for fighting against women's issues. In particular, given its
unique geographical, historical and cultural situation, Hong Kong is the
best site to explore the practice of transnational activism. I hope
this book is a valuable addition for feminist activists to imagine a new
future and create activism that goes beyond multiple presumed
boundaries of class, gender, ethnicity and nationality and for feminist
scholars to further reconsider and theorise transnational feminism.
Note
[1] Myra Marx Ferree, 'Globalisation and feminism: Opportunities and obstacles for activism in the global arena.' In Global Feminism: Transnational Women's Activism, Organizing and Human Rights, ed. Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp, New York and London: New York University Press, 2006, pp. 3–23.
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