Contents
The 2019 protests in Hong Kong are one of the clearest examples of a movement deliberately doing without a fixed form. They show how much mobility this brings. But they also show where formlessness reaches its limit: when the opponent can change not just the street but the whole terrain.
The lesson of 2014
Situation
In 2014, demonstrators in Hong Kong, many of them students, had occupied central streets for 79 days to demand free elections. The movement had well-known faces and fixed camps. In the end the camps were cleared, and several initiators and student leaders were later convicted. The long blockade also met with resistance from parts of the population.
Link to the principle
An occupation is a fixed form. It has a place that can be cleared and leaders who can be put on trial. It wears out your own people and the neighbors. The protesters of 2019 drew a clear lesson from this: no camps, no leaders.
Be water
Situation
In June 2019, mass protests begin against a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China. The protesters invoke Bruce Lee, the martial arts star who once lived in Hong Kong. In a 1971 television interview he had said, in essence, that you should be formless like water, which can flow or crash with force. The protests are organized mainly through Telegram, online forums and social networks. The movement appears largely without leaders. Even well-known activists describe their role as supportive.
Link to the principle
Without leaders, there is nobody to arrest in order to stop the movement. Without a fixed location, there is nothing to clear. The police find no center to target. They face a crowd that keeps re-forming.
Appear, disperse, regroup
Situation
On June 12, there are clashes with the police. On June 21, it becomes clear how the protesters now operate: instead of long sit-ins, they move from place to place over the course of a day, from Harcourt Road to police headquarters in Wan Chai, to Revenue Tower and to Immigration Tower. They spontaneously block roads and surround buildings before withdrawing. A poster circulated on Telegram advises them to conserve their strength when few people are there and to give everything when more than 30,000 turn up.
Link to the principle
This is formlessness in motion. The crowd gathers where the police are weak and disperses where they become strong. It withdraws before it becomes a nuisance. Like water, it takes the shape of the terrain and still remains the same force.
First successes
Situation
On June 15, the government suspends the bill. The protests continue because the protesters make further demands. On September 4, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announces that the bill will be withdrawn completely. This formally happens on October 23, 2019. From the summer on, the confrontations grow harsher, with violence on both sides.
Link to the principle
Formlessness can wear down an opponent who is geared to fixed targets. The government found no negotiating partner and no place it could clear. It gave in on the issue that had sparked the protest.
The limit of formlessness
Situation
In early 2020, the protests ebb, partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the bans on gatherings. On June 30, 2020, a national security law passed in Beijing by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress comes into force in Hong Kong. It makes many forms of protest punishable by heavy sentences. The movement largely comes to a halt. Many activists leave Hong Kong; others are charged, and some are sentenced to prison.
Link to the principle
Formlessness protects against opponents who are looking for a center. It hardly protects against an opponent who changes the rules for everyone. A movement without leaders also finds it hard to negotiate compromises and to secure successes. Water can give way, but it cannot sign a treaty.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- Learn from your defeats which fixed form made you vulnerable.
- If you have no center, you offer the opponent no point of attack.
- Gather where the other side is weak, and withdraw before you tire.
- Formlessness helps you evade, not negotiate.
- Be prepared for a powerful opponent to change the entire playing field.
Summary
In 2019, the protesters in Hong Kong learned the lesson of the fixed occupation of 2014. Under Bruce Lee’s motto “Be water,” they organized without leaders, appeared, dispersed and regrouped elsewhere. In this way they got the extradition bill withdrawn. Against the national security law of 2020, formlessness no longer helped. The example shows both the strength of the principle and its limit.
Sources
- Zeynep Tufekci: Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. New Haven: Yale University Press 2017.
