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Introduction
The movement opposing the Extradition Law Amendment Bill (Alt 1МТШВШ^ faandeoi saudeng toufaan tiulai, below Anti-ELAB movement) in Hong Kong has reignited a new protest cycle after a period of abeyance following the 2014 Umbrella movement (UM). Back in February 2019, the HKSAR government put forward a proposal to amend existing ordinances to allow Hong Kong to detain and transfer fugitives to countries and territories where there is no formal extradition agreement, including mainland China. Although the bill, according to government officials, was triggered by a 2018 murder case in Taipei, public concern about the authorities' motivations gradually turned into contention inside and outside the Legislative Council (LegCo). After massive demonstrations in June 2019, unceasing waves of protests have expanded the imaginations and modes of political resistance among Hong Kong citizens. In terms of movement strategy, the organic combination of "peaceful, rational, and non-violent" (woleifei ¾??) actions and "militant" (jungmou confrontations demonstrated an unanticipated evolution of the contentious repertoire of Hong Kong social movements. Indeed, this seemingly dramatic change emerged incrementally from a specific political context, rather than transforming rapidly.
This short article examines how the Anti-ELAB movement reconfigured former movement experiences and produced new meanings of political resistance in Hong Kong. It begins with a brief review of the development of the contentious repertoire in post-handover Hong Kong before the debate over the extradition law amendment in early 2019. After contextualisation, the article then focuses on the three distinctive dynamics underlying the parallel forms of action that have emerged between June 2019 and January 2020. In order to capture the trajectory of changing repertoires, original data gathered from protest onsite surveys will be presented, complemented by press reviews. These onsite surveys were carried out by a team of researchers from four Hong Kong universities at nearly all major protests during this period, assisted by a group of trained helpers.1
Contentious repertoire in post-handover Hong Kong
As a hybrid regime, Hong Kong had rarely witnessed highly disruptive or even violent social mobilisations either before or after the transfer of sovereignty because of its institutional setting and conservative protest culture (Ku 2007; Fong 2013; Cheng 2016). Even after the momentous demonstration against National Security Legislation on 1st July 2003, mass protests and rallies tended to...