The Unprecedented as Narrative Strategy

Abstract This essay analyzes the “unprecedented” using Ackbar Abbas's introduction to Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance (1997). Abbas's critique hinges on the term unprecedented in relation to Hong Kong's late-colonial status, with the surge of political and cultural consciousness on the brink of the city's transition. This essay revisits the “unprecedented” to interrogate its significance today, amid the resurgent authoritarianism and struggle for democracy in Hong Kong. The discussion explores how “unprecedented” moments are remembered or erased in relation to political power and how each invocation of an ostensibly unique event carries echoes of its precedents. The essay shows how authoritarian regimes deploy the rhetoric of unprecedented crises to justify repression and how activists counter this by invoking historical precedent. The essay argues that challenging the rhetoric of the unprecedented by foregrounding historical precedents through collective memories provides critical resources for contemporary struggles.