Critical Issues Confronting China Series featuring Laikwan Pang — A Sense of Justice: The Struggle with Laws in Hong Kong

Speaker: Laikwan Pang, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Cultural & Religious Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Discussant: Li Jie, Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies, Harvard College Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Harvard University

Can a state maintain a sense of justice among its citizenry even as it tightens the legal apparatus of social control?  This talk analyzes how Hong Kong’s citizens, since the introduction of the National Security Law in 2020, are dealing with their new legal environment. Through a discussion of the film, The Sparring Partner (2022), Professor Pang highlights the ways in which collective sentiments are evolving. She argues that framing a sense of justice remains an important duty of the state, even amid a strengthening of political control.  As the government increasingly relies on legal instruments to manage dissent, the question is not simply how it will choose to enforce security laws, but whether its citizens can still maintain a feeling of justice, despite it often being a mirage.

By exploring Hong Kong people’s current sense of justice, the presentation also examines the scope and limits of the PRC’s paternalism, which underpins not only Hong Kong’s National Security Law but also the entire governance in China. This paternal order relies on both public obedience and the active social reproduction of the dominant ideology. Hong Kong serves as a critical case study revealing the mechanics and limitations of this governance model.   

Laikwan Pang received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Washington University in St. Louis, and she has taught at CUHK since 2002. She is now Choh-Ming Li Professor of Cultural & Religious Studies. She specializes in critical theories, and her research spans a broad spectrum of issues related to culture in Modern and Contemporary China and Hong Kong. One of her central philosophical projects is the exploration of the dynamics between “many” and “one,” manifested in the intersections between culture and politics, copies and models, plurality and unity, as well as democracy and sovereignty. She is the author of a few books, and her scholarship has been recognized internationally. Creativity and Its Discontents received the Chiang King-Kuo Foundation Publication Award, The Appearing Demos received the American Library Association Choice Outstanding Academic Title, and One and All was shortlisted for the Political Studies Association W.J.M. Mackenzie Book Prize. She also received the Discovery International Award offered by the Australian Research Council, the Research Excellence Award, and the Young Research Award from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.