Everyday Movement

by Gigi L. Leung, Jennifer Feeley (Translator)

A powerful, award-winning novel that follows the lives of two women as democracy starts to crumble in Hong Kong.

On a weekend morning, college roommates, Ah Li and Panda, wake up with very different reactions to the night before. They have been chased and tear-gassed in the streets of their city after joining tens of thousands of others to protest a national security law that would effectively spell the end of democracy in Hong Kong. Ah Li couldn’t get out of bed, her heart heavy with the lingering images of the police and the violence on the streets, and her worries about the future of her hometown. Panda, whose resistance is no less ardent, put on a sundress, lines her eyes and urges Ah Li to join her for brunch.

While the demonstrations rage, the routine of life also persists for Ah Li, Panda and people in their orbits. They attend family gatherings, fight with their mothers, try and fail to focus at work on Mondays, and make time for dinner dates and app hookups. But the looming political tension and anxiety for the future transform such everyday encounters. In the span of a few months, life as they know it seems to become a the comfort of air-conditioned shopping malls is disrupted by bloodshed; tear gas and sounds of rubber bullets amid neon signs strangely evoke happier memories of summer night fireworks.

Leung Lee Chi’s visceral novel Everyday Movement reveals existential questions that interrupt normal belonging, patriotism, the meaningfulness of an electoral democracy as well as the pampering sense of norm created by consumerism. Fiery and tender, Leung’s writing captures the heartbreak, turmoil and rebirth in bearing witness to and engaging with a shattering reality.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, China, Asia, Adult, Asian Literature, Novels

288 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication February 10, 2026

Reviews

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyday Movement is effective without being flashy. It takes place in an urgent time in Hong Kong’s history, during China’s proposed extradition bill of 2019, one that would undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy. Serious uprising and protests created division in the region, leading to injuries and even deaths. Leung approaches this period in history with a story of interconnected lives—family and friends who don’t always agree on how this matter should be settled. Don’t be surprised if you find parallels in the resistance movement in the everyday lives of Americans, also.

More than a window, it felt like I was eavesdropping on the lives of the characters. Even people protesting on the same side experienced painful conflict at times. Some folks imposed a strict lifestyle on themselves, refusing to spend money on pro-government corporations. Others needed an escape from the clashes and conflict and remained consumers of mainland China’s businesses. We also follow the drama of first love, mother/daughter relationships, and best friends trying to find normalcy in a world gone awry.

Leung presents her narrative without any authorial intrusion, without leading the reader to one way of thinking, allowing different points of view to exist in the same story without judgment. Both sides of the issue are fraught and often fractured, and the reader will get caught up in the emotional and personal lives of the characters. I learned much more about the protests than I observed only in images on American TV, but by the end of this story, I was caught up not only in the political fight, but in the “everyday movement” of HK civilians. My eyes stung when people were tear-gassed and my throat clenched when relationships split apart. Gigi L. Leung is a writer to follow.

Jennifer Feeley’s translation was smooth and natural, and seemed as if I was reading it in its original prose. A big thanks to Riverhead for sending me an advanced copy for review.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is set in Hong Kong during the pro-democracy protests, and centers on a handful of students and associated parents and teachers. The students are desperately trying to organize a resistance to Mainland China's authoritarian control, continually clashing with police, being pepper sprayed and shot, and fleeing. Resistance has become central to their lives but the novel zooms out to include those who are less invested or are resigned to the inevitable, and instead are concerned with shopping, housing, and self care. It ends with an election that the students frame as being decisive and existential - but not everyone is convinced that their votes will have any impact on Hong Kong's ability to self govern.
This is a book that, ten years ago, might have felt near future dystopian, or at least touristic but now as so many direct parallels to life in the US. Maybe we're not being pepper sprayed outside most of the time - but some people are, and some people are being disappeared and the executive branch seems just as hell-bent on imposing its unpopular agenda on people who are sometimes trying to organize resistance. Dark times indeed.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

[Becky]

書看起來頗有份量結果是分成十幾個短篇，很快就讀完，導讀推薦序和作者跋也值得一讀。每篇故事的角色互有連結又可獨立閱讀，即使只有最最外圍的運動參與經驗或沒經驗相信也能引起共鳴，抗爭者的精神震盪並不亞於政治環境的劇烈變化，想到這些角色的悲傷、憤怒、自我懷疑、漠然…該是需要多少時間的觀察和痛苦的討論或自問才能描寫得出來，而這一切都還沒有結局，就對作者的誠實和勇敢感到十分敬佩。

[新新 Xin-Xin · Rating 5 out of 5]

內容沉重但每段篇幅不長其實很好入口。
讀完後記，心裡閃過從 2019 到 2022 發生的事，時間過得好快又好慢，突然意識到正如後記所說：「與其說這是一本關於抗爭的小說，不若說更多是運動傷害，或是，傷害本身。」
然後我就突然想起來自己其實蠻痛的，哭了一下子。

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sujet passionnant : comment Hong-Kong a basculé en 2019 sous l'impérialisme de la RPDC. Sans un bruit ou presque dans le reste du monde alors qu'il y a eu des morts, des blessés pour que les Hongkongais gardent leurs libertés... cela n'a pas suffit. Et maintenant, cette ville moderne et incroyable est sous le joug de la Chine, a fait changer les manuels scolaire et mettre en prison les journalistes.
Un cri d'alarme nécessaire, même si le livre comporte pas mal de longueurs, son propos est indispensable.

[xkdlaej]

2024年7月19、20日 書展：界限書店被貿發局禁售區家麟、廖偉棠著作
Banned/Censored books in Hong Kong 香港禁書目錄/清單

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

***I was provided with a digital advance readers copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review***

4.5/5

TL;DR: Set in Hong Kong in the turmoil of protests and violent police backlash, Everyday Movement is an intimate, nuanced, painstakingly detailed window into the lives of several characters involved in pro-democracy activism.

Admittedly, I didn’t have enough political or historical context to understand everything about the Hong Kong protest movement without doing a bit more reading on current events in HK, but the depiction of grassroots activist movements, state injustice, and police violence against protestors felt chillingly universal and prescient, especially given the current context of the U.S. government.

Leung perfectly captures both the infectious, bold energy behind resistance movements but also the defeat, fear, and despair that comes with rising political chaos. She paints a compassionate portrait of each of her characters, posing equally legitimate and human ways that people cope with the world crumbling around them: Panda’s passion and vivacity and commitment to compartmentalizing her social life from her life as an activist; Ah Lei’s depression and ennui in the face of disaster; Ah Mak’s journey from passivity to passionate resistance. Each character is sympathetic and immediately gripping and vivid, with strong chemistry from their first scenes together. Shifts in POV with each chapter result in a beautifully kaleidoscopic effect that further fleshes out each character’s personal experience and their relationships with one another.

Leung’s novel is also an exercise in dialectics, playing with conflicting, opposite realities side by side, especially epitomized by Panda and Ah Lei. From the first chapter, we’re presented with Ah Lei and Panda and their wildly different ways of approaching the world around them. The symbolism is clear and strong while never heavy-handed: by the end of chapter one, we’re already given plenty to chew on. Do material pleasures and comforts provide a necessary escape in hard times, or are they just a distraction or a capitulation to capitalist greed? Leung leaves this up to the reader, but she seems to suggest that both of these interpretations might be true.

I can’t quite put a finger on why, but the pacing lagged for me slightly in parts two and three. There is a slight shift from slice of life (granted, a chaotic, violent, and traumatic life) type depictions of a cast of characters to something more action-packed, complete with some time skips between events. I also felt like it lost the threads of some minor characters in a way that felt vaguely incomplete. That said, endings are notoriously difficult to nail, especially open ended ones, and I think Leung hit the mark perfectly.

While I took the time to savor each chapter, I didn’t dread picking Everyday Movement back up as I sometimes do with books that feel too violent and real. As dictated by the subject matter, it’s heavy and visceral, but it’s also full of humanity and hope. Jennifer Feeley’s translated prose is beautiful and smooth in a way that lets the characters and their complexities shine. This novel is simultaneously personal and intimate and so much greater than itself, and it’s left me plenty to ruminate on long after I’ve finished it.

[Mollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyday Movement by Gigi Leung, tr. Jennifer Feeley, is a kaleidoscopic novel following two young women and the people connected to them during the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019. Instead of focusing on the protests themselves and the brutality inflicted by the police, Leung highlights the everyday moments in the characters’ lives as they struggle to balance activism with their normal routines.

Although the scope of the novel suggests Leung’s position, she carefully excludes herself from the narrative. Each character has their own internal struggles—although they are sympathetic to the protesters, we see internal conflicts over who is doing “enough” for the movement, which methods of resistance are most effective, and whether you can truly disrupt a system while still participating in it. All are struggles common to most political movements, but Leung’s quiet exploration of these ideas through interpersonal conflicts offered a deeper and more nuanced understanding.

I must admit when the narrative first shifted away from Ah Lei and Panda, I was a little unsure if I would be able to be invested in so many characters. However, Leung masterfully weaves each of the narratives together to create a dense network of stories spanning the few short months of summer 2019. The translation flows beautifully, with multiple moments where I had to pause after a particularly revelatory sentence.

My one small struggle with this novel was that sometimes the jumps in time within a chapter were a bit confusing for me. I sometimes struggled to determine whether we were getting a flashback or a flash-forward. This may be less of an issue for readers more familiar with the intricacies of this event, but I sometimes had to go back and re-read a few pages to get my bearings.

Overall, I found this to be a quiet yet powerful work. I strongly recommend this book to lovers of literary fiction who revel in the in-between moments. Leung and Feeley will transport you to the kitchen table, the dorm room, and the mall in Hong Kong during the summer of 2019.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the gifted eARC. All opinions are my own.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this novel. This novel follows a group of interconnected young people during the protests of the proposed extradition law in Hong Kong. The characters and their relationships are all impacted by the social and political changes taking place, and they are all forced to take stands or explain their apathy. Two female university students stand at the center of this social circle and go through cycles of energy and angst. They participate in marches and then pull back to support roles or the political process as things become more violent and murky. The men in the story are generally more apathetic and possibly more realistic. They don't understand why their girlfriends are so concerned, but perhaps they have less to lose or just cannot process the issues. The women are generally more energized and some use their energy as purity tests for everyone around them. Everyone has a different history with the mainland and that affects their beliefs. The story is very careful to show the points of view of all the characters as they try to navigate this extraordinary moment in history while also navigating social changes that have already scrambled relationships in Hong Kong during this period. I really enjoyed reading this snapshot in time in Hong Kong describing how everyone's lives were impacted by the protests.

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Riverhead for the ebook. As democracy starts to crumble in Hong Kong, we follow two college students, Panda and Ah Lei, starting in the morning after a demonstration which turned very violent. With the smell of tear gas still on them, Ah Lei feels overwhelmed by it all and can’t get out of bed, while Panda is vibrating with energy with all that needs to be done. This is an excellent novel that branches out from these two to further tell the story through their boyfriends, parents, teachers and distant relatives. It’s eye opening to see a group of young people fighting inch by inch and day by day for something that they believe in.

[Citron Pineapple · Rating 4 out of 5]

She chose a great angle to interpret and to describe a very complicated theme which is the anti-extradition bill protest in Hk. The mouvement is relatively recent
, so as many critics said, it’s not easy to make any conclusion and evaluation.

The author focused on the ordinary life during the protests and didn’t heroize any characters and try to analyze them in an objective way. It takes great effort and courage. The readers have the rights to be picky, but ordinary life isn’t perfect. really touching epilogue.

[Wictoriane Wic · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai commencé la lecture très enthousiaste ! le style de l'auteur est vraiment agréable, une sorte de murmure, comme une confidence, je me suis sentie happée par le récit de ces habitants de Hong Kong qui subissent une évolution dans leur société. Cette histoire m'a intéressée car je ne connaissais pas grand chose (rien) à la rétrocession de Hong Kong par le Royaume-Uni à la Chine.

Toutefois, le roman est complexe : c'est un roman choral où l'on suit les pensées de nombreux personnages et ce n'est pas aisé de continuer à se sentir impliqué auprès de tous.

De plus je me suis senti mal à l'aise car je réprouve toute forme de violences dans les manifestations et j'avais mal pour ceux qui se retrouvent gazés, blessés etc...Je suis trop sensible !

Enfin, je n'ai pas trop compris dans le roman l'enjeu des contestations. Certaines explications sur les lieux de naissances qui donnent droit à certains lieux d'instructions sont presque ubuesques (faire des kilomètres pour étudier) mais je pense qu'il y a des aberrations même en France !

Heureusement qu'il y a un résumé des phases de la révolte à la fin du roman mais il aurait fallu les mettre au début en prologue.

Ce roman aura eut comme effet bénéfique celui de m'intéresser à l'histoire de Hong Kong, je poursuivrai donc quelques recherches pour en savoir plus.

Ce sentiment, son moi d’avant, celui qui ne portait qu’un masque ordinaire et qui traînait sans but, l’a connu lui aussi. Un jour, une grenade lacrymogène s’est coincée dans un arbre tout proche de lui, explosant dans une pluie d’étincelles rouges. Il y a eu de la fumée partout. Ça lui a rappelé un feu d’artifice qu’il avait vu au Japon : à l’instant précis où les premières fusées avaient explosé, ses yeux l’avaient fait affreusement souffrir.

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a well written and eye opening novel. I felt many parts were relevant to today’s world and the chaos amid social justice protests. The main characters were fascinating and I felt like I got to know them personally. With themes of everyday issues we all deal with like family drama, careers, and relationships, there was so much to relate to for me, all while it feels like the world is crumbling. This book is so well written and had me feeling less alone.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The student uprisings in Hong Kong protesting the government have been so powerful to watch. Here, two students return after the Chinese government unleashed tear gas and rubber bullets against these two young women but both react so differently. Like spokes of a wheel, their lives touch many others, as they move through the protests as well as daily interactions. It's not all protest, all the time, but much more intricate and interesting. While this is set in Hong Kong, the movements and fights are universal.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un des rares ouvrages s’emparant de l’histoire des mouvements récents à Hong Kong et traduit en français. Une semi-fiction bien ficelée où l’on passe d’un protagoniste à l’autre pour découvrir avec effroi l’ampleur du séisme. Quatre étoiles pour la narration, une de plus pour l’importance de conserver une trace de cet épisode historique .. et si triste.

[Ishq · Rating 4 out of 5]

我認為本書尖銳之處，在於直面「兄弟爬山」不問路線與策略的倫理困境，及民粹式情緒動員的巨大反噬，沒有意圖為2019反修例運動再撰「史詩式」謳歌，而是以平視的角度，從人物所處的微觀脈絡，探詢經濟繁榮表象下的社會肌理，在長久累積的張力下遂成之裂變。暴力始於日常，允許極權與鎮壓的平庸與非政治人格，早就刻印在我們身上，在家庭，工作，學習與親密關係中不停預演。我們閱讀這些「衝突鑲嵌於生活裡，成為日常」的故事，也將重認各自平凡的臉，脆弱的身體與心靈。

(李智良〈分岔的風景〉，全文見：https://www.patreon.com/posts/fen-cha...)

[Hychan · Rating 3 out of 5]

偶有亮點

[yuc yuc · Rating 4 out of 5]

以日常角度鉅細靡遺的收錄2019年社運下，背景、經歷、立場各異的角色，以及他們共有但無法發洩的情緒。

明顯感覺「樹的憂鬱」文筆較「日常運動」進步很多，但「日」忠實的還原了社運氛圍與諸多面貌。

2023年回頭看更加難過。

由衷希望作者持續寫作，期待未來的作品！

[Mai H.]

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Riverhead Books

[vi_reads]

so much of this feels relevant to the us re: protests today. I learned a lot about the recent protests in hong kong and I liked the diversity of characters and perspectives

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intéressant sur les révoltes à Hong Kong mais trop long et ennuyant... J'ai arrêté avant la fin

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5?

[J R · Rating 5 out of 5]

effective book about the hong kong pro-democracy protests and struggling to fight for democracy no matter what. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.