From handover to leftover Tatming, Umbrellas, and the Postcolonial Ruins of Hong Kong

In September 2014, thousands of people started occupying different
areas of Hong Kong, demanding “true democracy,” ushering in what
was known as the “Umbrella Movement.” Two years earlier, Tatming
Pair, an influential electronic formation, in a series of concerts, vented
their worries, frustrations, and anger over the future of the city, giving
voice to a deafening sense of disquiet. This article reads this performance
as foreboding these upcoming political protests, attesting to the close
alliance between the cultural and the political. It shows how popular
music, in word, sound and image, both reflects, as well as impacts on,
the city of Hong Kong.