%0 Journal Article
%T When a historical analogy fails: Current political events and collective memory contestation in the news
%A Dennis KK Leung
%A Francis LF Lee
%A Joseph Man Chan
%J Memory Studies
%@ 1750-6999
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1750698017703809
%X Collective memory studies have emphasized how people can utilize important historical events as analogies to make sense of current happenings. This article argues that the invocation of historical analogies may, under certain circumstances, become an occasion for people to negotiate and contest the significance of the historical events. Focusing on Hong KongĄ¯s Umbrella Movement in 2014, this article analyzes how references to the 1989 Tiananmen Incident emerged in the news as a dominant historical analogy when the movement began, foregrounding the possibility of state violence. But when state violence did not materialize, the authorities, young protesters, and radical activists started to contest the relevance of Tiananmen. The analogy was largely abandoned by the movementĄ¯s end. The analysis illustrates the recursive character of the relationship between past and present events: after the past is invoked to aid interpretations of the present, present developments may urge people to reevaluate the past
%K generational differences
%K historical analogy
%K media discourses
%K memory contestation
%K social movements
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1750698017703809