“One Opera, Two Nationalisms”: Negotiating Hong Kong Identity and Chinese Nationalism in Cantonese Opera

Abstract:While scholarly attention on nationalism of recent Hong Kong sheds light mostly on social movements, social media, and cinema, the performative role of yueju (Cantonese opera), as a Chinese vernacular theatre, in post-1997 Hong Kong is often neglected. This case study examines how different ideologies, political consciousness, and cultural ideals come into conflict and are mediated within the Cantonese opera circle since the 2014 Umbrella Movement. By investigating both the top-down and bottom-up approaches of propaganda as well as the potential of performing the opera as pro-democracy activism, this essay interrogates the dynamics between the hegemonic Chinese nationalism and the rising political consciousness of seeing Hong Kong as a separate entity.