By Chan Ka Hay, Gladys
An institution is defined as “an interlocking double-structure of persons-as-role-holders or office-bearers and the like, and of social practices involving both expressive and practical aims and outcomes”. In institutional talks, there are asymmetrical speaking rights and obligations for the two sides. The asymmetry in power is demonstrated through the ability for the one of the higher rank to discipline, regulate, or even punish the lower rank. This asymmetry of power could be observed in the interactions between citizens and officers of different police institutions in different countries.
The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF), with no exceptions, has demonstrated institutional talks on multiple occasions towards local citizens. Since June 2019, there has been a wave of democratic movements in Hong Kong. There are frequent conflicts between HKPF and local protestors or citizens. During the conflicts, there are several recurring features in the discourse between the male officers and female citizens.
Vocabulary
Term 1: Angel (天使 / tin1 si2)
Tin1 si2 means “angel” in Cantonese. However, in Hong Kong, the word has an overtone, meaning “young females that provide sexual services”. The term is first introduced by Fanny Law, member of the Executive Council, stated on air publicly that she received confirmed information about the so-called “frontline angels” in the movements. The concept of “frontline angels” has been circulated among the pro-government camps. Since then, the term tinsi has frequently been used to insult female pro-democratic protesters.
Term 2: Liberal cunt (自由閪 / zi6 jau4 hai1)
The term zi6 jau4 hai1 was first used by an officer of the Special Tactical Squad (STS) of HKPF in June 2019. This is a combination of “freedom / liberal” and “cunt” in Cantonese. In Cantonese, “閪” is a profane word with the meaning of vulva, which could be directly translated into the swear word “cunt” in English. Recorded in a video clip, the STS officer shouted the term towards the crowd of protesters, who were behind a locked glass door of a shopping mall.
Different from the first term angel, this term includes a Cantonese swear word. This could be identified as abusive swearing. According to Pinker (2007), it is used with the intention to offend, intimidate, or cause harm emotionally or psychologically to the target listener.
Content: Verbal Assault
Verbal assault could be observed in the above examples. Bosch (2004) suggests that the methods of verbal assault are used in order to weaken, control, and manipulate another person to create shame, humiliation, hurt, and anger.
The name-calling strategy is used by the HKPF officers by assigning names with sexual overtones like “angel” or “liberal cunt” to female citizens, the HKPF officers’ attempts of belittling their target through the sexual aspect.
Content: Control of Topic
According to Bajner (2006), men are trained to capture power in their interactions, therefore they tend to make attempts to control the topic, even when they only have limited knowledge about the topic. In addition to the institutional power they have as police officers, there are obvious attempts for the male HKPF officers in trying to control the topic. Despite the aim of their speeches is to command the citizens to leave, the irrelevant and sex-related words like “angel”, “cunt” are used by them. Their identities as police officers and male are advantageous for them to control the topic more easily, especially for the act of redirecting the topic from requests for citizens to leave to groundless sexual accusations towards female citizens. By the topic redirection towards the aspect of sex, the male officers of HKPF were in the upper hand in the conversations.
Conclusion
There is a tendency for male officers of the HKPF to employ speeches with sexual overtones towards female citizens. Both verbs (“get fucked”) and nouns (“cunt”, “angel”) used in their speeches are sexually provoking. These preferences of words could be seen as a demonstration of the power of the identities as male police officers.
From the language used by the HKPF in the conversations with female citizens, there are demonstrations of power as both a police officer and a male in the society. These cases have provided evidence of the existence of verbal assault from the officers of the HKPF towards the local citizens, especially towards females. Female citizens, as the disadvantaged side in the asymmetry of power in the aspect of institution and sex, became the easy target of verbal assault of the HKPF officers.
Language Culture and Society in Hong Kong (and beyond) 