Raw fear in Hong Kong

Abstract

This article rethinks the politics of fear through the researcher’s ethnography in Hong Kong. Fear is often explored as a tool of manipulation that disempowers people. In contrast, the bodies, subjectivities, and actions of the fearful people are rarely examined. This article discusses Hong Kong society’s fear through the lens of anthropological and cultural studies of affect, especially through the concept of “raw fear” proposed by David Parkin. It also investigates how fear emerges in everyday life through the researcher’s self-reflections and his conversations with other people.