BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

Itineraries of protest signage: semiotic landscape and the mythologizing of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement

Lou, Jackie Jia and Jaworski, A. (2016) Itineraries of protest signage: semiotic landscape and the mythologizing of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement. Journal of Language and Politics 15 (5), pp. 612-645. ISSN 1569-2159.

This is the latest version of this item.

[img]
Preview
Text
26882.pdf - Author's Accepted Manuscript
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.

Download (4MB) | Preview

Abstract

The pro-democracy occupation of three commercial and retail areas in Hong Kong that lasted over two months in the fall of 2014 – known as the Umbrella Movement – created a myth of Utopia (Barthes 1984 [1954]). In this paper, we track the itineraries (Scollon 2008) and resemiotizations (Iedema 2003) of the protest signage to show how they mythologized the Movement by “branding space”, “regulating and disciplining actions”, and “unifying the voice of protest”. We argue that the semiotic processes and effects involved in the emplacement and widespread distribution of the protest signage were not only key in the mobilization during the Movement but also the emergence and reinforcement of a “new” Hongkonger identity in the long run.

Metadata

Item Type: Article
School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
Depositing User: Jackie Lou
Date Deposited: 27 Mar 2019 10:29
Last Modified: 25 Jul 2025 22:38
URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/26882

Available Versions of this Item

  • Itineraries of protest signage: semiotic landscape and the mythologizing of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement. (deposited 27 Mar 2019 10:29) [Currently Displayed]

Statistics

6 month trend
1,538Downloads
6 month trend
381Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

Archive Staff Only (login required)

Edit/View Item
Edit/View Item