Misogyny Beyond the West : The Hong Kong Golden Forum During Protests

This groundbreaking study offers the first comprehensive analysis of misogyny within the Eastern context, and uniquely, within Hong Kong’s digital landscape during the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests. Centred on the Golden Forum, Hong Kong’s only right-leaning online community with a distinct subculture, Misogyny Beyond the West explores how misogyny manifests and circulates online in times of sociopolitical upheaval.

By conceptualising misogyny as a distortion of the public sphere, Chris Tsui positions the Golden Forum as one of the last remaining digital spaces for public discourse in Hong Kong’s post-National Security Law era. Through a two-phase research design including qualitative content analysis of forum posts and interviews with forum members and managers—this work uncovers both overt and subtle expressions of misogyny, revealing how contempt for women permeates online interactions and potentially influences offline relationships and societal norms. Challenging Western-centric definitions, Tsui proposes a spectrum-based understanding of misogyny, highlighting the dangers of its normalisation and the invisibility of its more subtle but equally harmful manifestations.

Insightful reading for scholars of digital media, gender and Asian studies, Misogyny Beyond the West offers a timely intervention into the study of misogyny and the public sphere in a region where democracy and dissent are increasingly under threat.