Anti-ELAB Movement Zines, Asia Art Archive Hong Kong

Project Statement by Charlotte Mui and  S. Yiyao Chao

When 1 million people took to the streets on 9 June 2019, no one could have envisioned that it would spark a six-month-long-and-counting movement that enveloped the entire city. More popularly referred to as the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement (Anti-ELAB), the initial protests called for the withdrawal of the bill that would have sent Hong Kong fugitives to Mainland China, subjecting them to China’s own heavily criticized judicial system. These protests and conflicts have since violently spiraled into the current state of social unrest in the city. Zines, therefore, have become a way for the people to document, process, and respond to the socio-political situation in Hong Kong. Usually adopted by the oppressed and the marginalized, zines are freely circulated works of effort that provide a personal and autonomous space for the maker to express their own opinions without any institutional restraints. Neutrality, therefore, becomes secondary. Zines also frequently create a feeling of comradery and connection as they capture, often in fragments, a creative momentum influenced by our surroundings. They evoke and draw from collective experiences and trauma that the maker and reader have both encountered.   

Created simultaneously with the developments of the protests, these zines encompass various facets and perspectives of the participants, physically preserving a moment in time, in ways that news reports cannot. In this collection, there are various types: zines with timelines and photographic documentation explaining the protests to locals and foreigners alike; satirical commentary unique to the current generation; self-care zines that deal with mental health, digital security, and basic first-aid instructions for protest-related injuries; a father’s point of view on why he’s participating in the protests; documentation of songs parodied and written for the movement; letters expressing solidarity from overseas Hong Kongers; as well as writings and diary entries from frontline protesters.   These zines could be found anywhere. They could be picked up at rallies, on the shelf at an independent bookstore, circulated by the zinesters themselves or as viral posts on social media platforms, or even like this; at an exhibition. This curated selection of zines, drawn from Asia Art Archive’s collection is but a corner of an ever-growing movement.