ABSTRACT
The losses, closures, and mass emigration in Hong Kong in the wake of the NSL caused tremendous social anxiety. Several popular and influential groups through their social media and YouTube channels helped to re-create a foundational popular culture on which new communities and a new self-identity could be built. This chapter discusses the significance of the TV reality talent show, the King Maker, and the idea of self-creation as an act of self-determinacy. The chapter also explores the importance of the performance groups, MIRROR and ERROR that resulted from that competition, and the cultural and social power of the community of fans, especially surrounding MIRROR. At the same time, ERROR presented a critique of the absurdities in the new political and social reality that resonated powerfully among the city’s residents.
