ABSTRACT
Some youth in Hong Kong remain liminal denizens whose unlikely ability to make future economic contributions to society tender their obsolescence. This chapter explores this spectrum of youth citizenship, with particular focus on official responses to marginal street youth as well as young and educated political dissidents whose direct confrontations with police and government indicate the largest challenge to governmental legitimacy since the riots of the late 1960s. It focuses on two ostensibly disparate groups: psychotropic drug abusers and young night drifters, as well as the politically dissident elements of post-80s and post-90s youth. The chapter reviews a quote presented earlier in this book, in, from the secretary for home affairs, summarizing Hong Kong officials idealized view of efficacious consultation. It is the post-80s and post-90s youth who are inspiring and mobilizing mass movements against political authority in post-colonial Hong Kong; it is to these groups that attentionwith its various potential consequencesis being directed.
