Be Water: Collective Improvisation in Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Protests

Professor Ming-sho Ho will deliver a presentation on his latest book, which explores Hong Kong's 2019–2020 pro-democracy movement, widely known as the Be Water Revolution. In the book, Ho proposes an agency-based explanation to understand how this unexpectedly prolonged and disruptive protest movement operated without centralized leadership. Triggered by a series of moral shocks, perceived threats, and reflections on past failures, collective improvisation emerged as a key mechanism. This process, driven by widespread peer production, enabled tactical innovation. He also explores how decentralized participation fostered creative cultural expressions, energized overseas diaspora communities, and sustained resistance against the police state enforced under the national security law.