Sign of the Times: Framing the Grievances of the 2019-2020 Hong Kong Protests

Jul 13, 2026

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Examining protest signs from the 2019–2020 Hong Kong (Anti-extradition Bill) movement, the study analyzes intertextual expression of grievances across 246 signs collected from Lennon Walls and social media sources. Qualitative content analysis identifies three collective action frames: solidarity among pro-democracy participants, highlighting police brutality and human-rights abuses, and emphasizing conscience before politics in response to violations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

Title Sign of the times: Framing the grievances of the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests Author(s) Kate Mei Lam Lai, Teresa Wai See Ong and Su-Hie Ting Copyright © 2022 International Journal of Language Studies This is the published version of the following article: Lai, K. M. L. , Ong, T. W. S. , & Ting, S.-H. (2022) . Sign of the times: Framing the grievances of the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests. International Journal of Language Studies, 16(3), 61-82. [http://www.ijls.net/pages/volume/vol16no3.html](http://www.ijls.net/pages/volume/vol16no3.html) Sign of the times: Framing the grievances of the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests Kate Mei Lam LAI, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 1 Teresa Wai See ONG, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Su-Hie TING, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia The 2019-2020 Hong Kong (HK) protest movement, which was initially triggered by the HK government’s proposed bill, eventually turned into a prolonged civil resistance. Collective action frames (CAFs), which can bring legitimacy to civil disobedience and mobilise collective actions, were manifested through protest signs that “blossomed” throughout HK. The study examined intertextuality in the expression of grievances of the 2019-2020 HK protests in signs. A total of 246 protest signs from the “Lennon Walls” and social media sources from the 2019-2020 HK protests were collected for analysis of CAFs using qualitative content analysis. The analysis shows three primary CAFs: (1) “unified prodemocracy Hongkongers”which emphasises the solidarity and unity among movement actors to maintain collective actions for the protests; (2)“police brutality” which stresses HK police’s abuses of human rights in order to mobilise the readers to respond in ways that are in favour of the protests; and (3) “conscience before politics”which highlights the importance of having a conscience in view of human rights violations. The study showed that the language of the protest signs marks the target audience and further reinforces the solidarity of Hongkongers to resist the undemocratic government and fight for freedom. Keywords: Framing; Hong Kong; Intertextuality; Lennon Wall; Social Movement 1. Introduction This paper examines intertextuality in protest signs in the 2019-2020 Hong Kong (HK) protest movement (also known as the “Anti-extradition Bill Movement”) . We show that HK protest signs juxtapose human rights violations and police violence. 1 Corresponding Author ([Email: kate.ml.lai@connect.polyu.hk](Email: kate.ml.lai@connect.polyu.hk) ) ISSN: 2157-4898; EISSN: 2157-4901 © 2022 IJLS; Printed in the USA by Lulu Press Inc. On 16 June 2019, a protest in HK with almost two million participants broke the city’s record of largest protest (Lee et al., 2019) . The protest was organised in response to the proposed “extradition bill” by the HK government in early 2019 (Lee, 2021) . The government used a murder case that happened in Taiwan as a justifica

Jul 13, 2026

Upload by Quinn