76 Books & arts The EconomistSeptember 28th 2019
2 they argue, sit awkwardly in a club founded
on Napoleonic legal precepts and Kantian
utopianism. In this analysis, leaving the
eu, particularly at a time when storm
clouds loom, could be a sort of homecom-
ing to Britain’s peculiarity—and a chance
to realise its inherent advantages.
“The Britons have created a strange so-
ciotope for themselves,” Mr Buchsteiner
writes, “with a spaceship-like capital city
whose international character overshad-
ows all other European metropolises.”
Here, “Openness, revolution and tradition
are uniquely entangled...In all their urban-
ity and exceptionalism [Britons] are a
strange people.” He suggests that as Ameri-
ca turns away from Europe and Asia rises,
Brexit might turn out well, though he ac-
knowledges that only time will tell. Mr
Roche is less cautious. Brexit, he says, will
mean Britain’s rebirth—albeit as a low-tax,
low-regulation Trojan horse for American,
Chinese and other intercontinental inter-
ests at the doors of Europe. “Far from sink-
ing, England [sic] will be renewed. And
Elizabeth II will doubtless celebrate her
100th birthday in her revitalised country,
confident of itself and prosperous.”Best of all possible Brexits
All of which is a refreshing change to sim-
plistic continental shock. Britain’s vote to
leave the euwas indeed partly a reflection
of its “otherness”. A few Brexiteers, particu-
larly among Britain’s elites, are indeed ur-
bane and worldly. Their aim is not to close
the country off, but rather to make it more
open to the world beyond Europe. Some be-
lieve that Britain’s relations with its imme-
diate neighbours will be more harmonious
after it extracts itself from a project to
which it is ill suited.
But they are a minority. For more of its
adherents, Brexit is a nativist project that is
supported by isolationist arguments. Vote
Leave, the more “moderate” of the two pro-
Brexit campaigns in 2016, fear-mongered
about millions of spectral Turkish immi-
grants. Nigel Farage, the leader of the other,
more hardline campaign, was the domi-
nant personality of the referendum. And
far from reconciling the country to itself,
the vote has left it bitterly divided. To re-
gard Brexit as a sunny liberation, as Mr
Roche and Mr Buchsteiner do, and thus
that the best of all possible futures awaits,
is a fallacy of its own.
Nor was eu membership remotely as
alien to Britain’s traditions as the authors
argue. The club has grown organically, and
usually in response to crises, not according
to a grandly un-British utopian vision. In
any case, Britain has shaped the euin myri-
ad ways, most notably helping to develop
the single market that is at the core of the
union. Membership does not prevent it
cultivating partners further afield; rather
it amplifies Britain’s voice in its dealingswiththem.Aboveall,exceptionalismisnot
aget-outfromthebasiccalculusofeco-
nomicsanddiplomacy:Britaincannotex-
pecttocutitselfofffromitsbiggestmarket
andnearestallieswithoutpayinga costin-
prosperityandinfluence.
Eventsofrecentweeksonlyemphasise
these realities. Mr Roche claims that
“Brexithaskilledpopulism”;heevidently
didnotanticipateBorisJohnson’sillegal
prorogationofParliament.Meanwhile,the
residencyofmanyeunationalswhohave
livedinBritainforyearsisinjeopardy;car-
makersand banksare eyeing theexits.
Thesetwobooksareinsightfulandworth-
whilecommentariesona countrybothau-
thorslove—butitissurelya gloomyread-
ingofBritain’straditionstoseeitscurrent
predicamentasa nationalself-fulfillment.
AsMrLévyquixoticallyinsisted,Britainis
betterthanBrexit. 7A
t the endof April, when Hong Kong’s
pro-democracy demonstrations were
small, Kacey Wong, an artist and activist,
wheeled his latest work out into the street.
The installation was a mock prison, remi-
niscent of a British telephone box. It was
made of bright red bars, and topped with a
handsome blue-and-gold shield embla-
zoned with the letters hk-cn—an inver-
sion of a commonly used code that desig-
nates Hong Kong as cn-hk. As part of the
performance, Mr Wong and a friend
dressed as mainland policemen, sporting
aviator glasses, white gloves and trun-cheons, which they wielded to “arrest”
some of the crowd. The protesters found it
all hilarious, gathering in groups to take
selfies as they were incarcerated.
Since the demonstrations took off on
June 9th artists, cartoonists and graphic
designers have produced a torrent of new
work, most of it circulating online. Just as
with Mr Wong’s installation, at first the
mood of this outpouring was lighthearted.
Badiucao, a political cartoonist who has a
tattoo of a tiny man in front of a huge tank
on his upper arm, created a flag of coloured
squares. They represent the Post-it notes
stuck on the many “Lennon walls” around
the city that are taken down by municipal
cleaners at night, only to be replaced by ac-
tivists before sunrise.
Artists reworked old tourism posters
that extolled the virtues of Hong Kong as a
resort, and Eugene Delacroix’s “Liberty
Leading the People”, replacing the Tricolor
with the pro-democracy black bauhinia
flag (pictured). A videographer working for
Ai Weiwei, an exiled mainland artist, cap-
tured a young couple kissing—with their
gas masks rather than their lips. Just as the
alternative, crowd-sourced anthem, “Glory
to Hong Kong”, evokes a 19th-century ro-
mantic nationalism, so did much of the
imagery created by the pro-democracy
movement’s idealistic young artists. It was
mostly produced at speed and posted on
Telegram, the activists’ favourite app.
Recently, however, the imagery, like the
atmosphere, has darkened. Take, for in-
stance, a pop-up show at the Kong Art Space
in Central District. Reminiscent of art pro-
duced at the time of the Umbrella Move-
ment in 2014, which was made of debris
collected at the protests, the Kong show has
elaborate installations made of face masks
and empty tear-gas canisters. Mr Wong,
meanwhile, has put away his jaunty jail.
His latest piece is a yellow cartoon that
frames two black masks, one representing
civil disobedience, the other what the artist
calls “uncivil disobedience”. That is a refer-
ence to the rising determination that he
senses among Hong Kongers to step up
their resistance to the mainland.
The twin masks imply that the protests
will not have a happy ending. So does
“Skew”, a new work by Xiao Lu, China’s
best-known female performance artist. In
her new piece, Ms Xiao is trapped in a per-
spex prism, up to her ankles in blood-red
liquid. Dressed all in black, she writhes and
cries out in anguish, unable to escape. In
1989 the Chinese authorities closed a show
in Beijing by Ms Xiao after she fired an air
pistol at her own work. The incident be-
came known as “the first shot of Tianan-
men”. At the opening night of Ms Xiao’s
show in Hong Kong on September 12th, one
visitor voiced what many may have been
thinking: “Let’s hope she doesn’t turn out
to be Hong Kong’s Cassandra.” 7HONG KONG
The art inspired by pro-democracy
protests is getting darkerMighty memesPictures to die for