Civil society

Abstract

Nowadays, "civil society" has become a common term in the everyday vocabulary of ordinary citizens in Hong Kong. In fact, it is rather hard to imagine that just over ten years ago the term was little used and perhaps unfamiliar to the general public. The term itself gained popularity only around 2003 when Hong Kong, collectively as a society, survived the SARS epidemic and went through much of the political turbulences that were associated with the proposed national security bill and the massive July 1 demonstrations. Looking back at the first ten years of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Hong Kong's civil society was considered to be coming of age. A rough estimation of the number of demonstrations, rallies, and petitions initiated by the civil society between 1998 and 2006 showed a general upward trend from double digits in 1998 and 1999 to about 200 in 2005 and 2006 (Chan & Chan 2007). Moreover, Hong Kong's civil society continued to be active in its attempt to influence public policies in the last few years with the most prominent incidents including the construction of the express rail link between Hong Kong and Guangzhou and the debate surrounding the government's proposal of the methods in selecting the chief executive and the legislative councillors in 2012. While these activities certainly constituted an important part of the civil society, they represented only one of the many dimensions of it.