The lyricism of revolution: A choreographic analysis of the 2003 and 2014 protests in Hong Kong

Abstract

Through the 2003 and 2014 protests in Hong Kong, this paper proposes using choreographic analysis for the study of social movements in terms of corporal movements. By looking at the organization of actions and creation of postures and gestures and all the movements driven by the mental force lyricism, choreographic analysis seeks to identify and articulate the infinite potential, realized and not, revealed in a revolution, that marks the latter as a singular moment of eternity that produces new thoughts. As the case of Hong Kong shows in the light of this method, the site of radical politics locates in the persisting colonial alienation that separates the people from the authority.