Spotlight Event “On Hip- Hop, Hong Kong & Social Justice in the Asia-Pacific Rim”

Updated: Dec 19, 2020

I chose to go to this event because I wanted to see how the speaker could bring together, in what I believe unrelated topics of hip-hop, hong kong, social justice. I was shocked to find out all of the similar inequality issues that are happening in Hong Kong today. During the event, I thought about our discussion about the East and West as cultural constructs. Which talks about how the West/America creates over-generalizations about the East. I realized how much I did group together the Asian landmass as if all of the people live the same lives. My idea of life in China was people went to school, grew up and worked. A place where everything was already determined without much spontaneity. I was viewing China through its entirety when in reality there are distinct political and cultural differences. People living in Hong Kong like here in the US, are dealing with the same issues of oppression and are looking for ways to achieve equality. For example, the Umbrella movement which started from Hongkongers fight for universal suffrage granted after becoming sovereign from the British in 1997. The power of the movement was fueled through its effective digital media communication. These movements can be compared to the “Black Lives Matter” movement here in the United States where large groups of people come to fight against a common power. It is important to see these similarities in the struggle for equality across cultures. Oftentimes here in the US, we see inequality only through a lens of race. However, the reality is that oppression takes many different forms. As Benjamin Chang explained, the disparity of inequality persists because there are more business representatives making decisions. There is an unequal power distribution among businesses over things like education and transportation. This event opened my mind to the different forms of inequality that can be solved by uplifting the voices in the community.