Politicized Pandemic Narratives: A Case Study of Hong Kong

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic, superimposed upon the preceding pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong, has created a complex environment for grappling with questions surrounding the implementation and implications of the "one country, two systems" principle. Drawing upon twenty-seven in-depth interviews, this paper presents the blurred, contradictory, and intricate political narratives of Hong Kong citizens as they pertain to issues of self-identity, governance rights, and central-local relations. This research calls for a multidimensional understanding of the complexity and ambiguity inherent in the evolving social dynamics to rethink the paradoxical relationship between cooperation and confrontation among Hongkongers and their counterparts in mainland China.