In my project, I will look at shared spaces and shared experiences in the field of the arts, including film, visual arts, and photography, and their impact on suppressed social movements amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased authoritarianism. In particular, COVID-19, in combination with the Hong Kong national security law, suppressed the protests in the city under the guise of 'public health concerns, forcing a 'mainlandification' The Chinese government slowly shut down most of the pro-democracy newspapers and removed many sculptures and works of art referring to the Tiananmen massacre. These blatant instances of suppression of freedom of speech could not result in any demonstration or social unrest of high participation. Hong Kong artists have, however, continuously tried to oppose this reconstruction of history.
