This working paper examines visual and historical materials arising from grassroots social movements in Hong Kong from the postwar period to the present. These visual manifestations—often ephemeral—include photographs, prints and books, publicities, and, more recently, the exponential proliferation of digital and virtual artefacts such as Internet memes and generative AI imagery.  These artefacts provide historical and geopolitical contexts as well as developmental trajectories of both grand and micro-narratives of Hong Kong’s grassroots social movements.  These movements are framed against the city’s complex colonial histories and sovereignty transitions: first under British colonial rule (1841–1997) and subsequently as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (1997– ), with the transnational, transcultural and (trans)constitutional hypothesis of ‘one country, two systems’—a communist–capitalist hybrid system originally promised to remain unchanged for 50 years (1997–2046).

Making sense of Hong Kong’s multifaceted historical and political narratives requires scrutiny of these visual and historical materials.  The historicity of civil disobedience and visual imageries—whether in Hong Kong, in the region, or globally—is as intriguing and informing as the evolution and progress of the social movements themselves.  Two aspects will be discussed: (a) the evolution of visual media, from photography to generative AI, in relation to grassroots social movements; and (b) the shifting notions of visual representation, indexicality, and truthfulness under conditions of accelerated technological-and-ideological changes and challenges. 

Written from a personal perspective, the paper also reflects on how subjective and lived experiences trouble the notion of disobedient imageries. The personal and anecdotal approach offers a methodological instance for engaging with the themes of the workshop and exhibition.