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Article published In:
The Linguistic Landscape of Covid-19
Edited by Jackie Jia Lou, David Malinowski and Amiena Peck
[Linguistic Landscape 8:2/3] 2022
► pp. 264–280

Complicating solidarity

The Hong Kong Covid-19 landscape

ORCID logo | The University of Edinburgh
| Monash University | The University of Hong Kong
| National University of Singapore

Prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, there had been an extended period of civic unrest which began as opposition to an extradition bill but which later grew into a larger socio-political movement. We consider the relationship between ongoing political sentiments and the Covid-19 pandemic as evident through public signs; particularly, how commercial signage aligns and disaligns with government discourse on solidarity evident through recontextualization of the official tagline “Together, we fight the virus!” We suggest three analytical categories: (1) signs which demonstrate an alignment stance with the institutional sense of solidarity; (2) alignment with the pro-democracy movement, and thus disalignment from the institutional sense; and (3) politically ambiguous stances appealing to a broad understanding of solidarity for commercial gain. The pandemic occurring at a politically sensitive time has caused and made evident fractures in the way solidarity is construed, resulting in (dis)alignment and differing stances arising from the various social actors who have emplaced signs.

Keywords: Linguistic Landscape, Covid-19, solidarity, Hong Kong, advertisement, stance
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Landscapes of communicative solidarity in a pandemic
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Governmental alignment
    • 3.2Disalignment
    • 3.3Doubling between
  • 4.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 1 September 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.21036.the
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