Event Date: November 27, 2014 - 11:30 am

JEAN-FRANÇOIS DUPRÉ, University of Ottawa.

Presented by CIPS and the School of Political Studies.

Free. In French. Registration is not required. Seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.

Recent months have witnessed an upsurge in mass protests and civil disobedience in Hong Kong. These events have partly been motivated by the slow pace of local democratic reforms and a perception that the autonomy vested in the “One Country, Two Systems” formula is being encroached upon by China. Of course, these manifestations of solidarity also testify of the crystallization of a new Hongkongese identity, which was until recently deemed to be anchored into pragmatism and political apathy. The talk will discuss the claims and stakes of recent protests, with a focus on the rise of Hongkongese identity and the hurdles to democratic development in Hong Kong.

Jean-François Dupré is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Chair of Taiwan Studies, University of Ottawa. Before his arrival at uOttawa, he spent more than five years in Hong Kong. His research centres on linguistic, ethnic and national identities in the Greater China Region, with a particular focus on democratisation and identity politics in Taiwan and Hong Kong. He has published on language and identity in Québec, Taiwan and Hong Kong.