Hong Kong is exemplary of predatory capitalism. Not only are most of the newly created public spaces being corporatized by the oligarchic land powers in the process of urban growth or gentrification, but the state is also obsessive about sterilizing the city in the attempt to craft Hong Kong into 'Asia's World City'. FM Theatre Power (FMTP), the largest alternate independent theatre group in the city since its establishment in 2001, has incorporated a deep-seated mission of challenging the state hegemony over public space management-particularly the restrictions concerning citizens' freedom of performance in public spaces. Equipped with the craft of public art-impromptu art that involves the audience, performances in public space, and insurgent art that reflects political issues-FMTP began to illegally occupy part of the pedestrian zone in Mong Kok for regular performances. Rounds of verbal warnings, arrests, and prosecution have not deterred their determination; instead, they have expanded their 'sphere of influence' to other tourist areas with flash mob performances. Such actions have successfully attracted copycats that have quickly filled the Mong Kok pedestrian zone with street performers. This has indirectly led the local council to relax restrictions on street performances, and such acts have even been embraced. In this chapter, I investigate the progression of the struggle of FMTP in the creation of alternative urban space by exploring how this public art movement endeavoured to integrate the excluded, linking insurgent art with the lives of ordinary people, cultivating their capabilities in the creative expression of ideas, and scaling up the social resistance that led to policy and finally success reclaiming the lost public space. Yet the contradictions generated by the movement, both within the community and with mainstream society, led to the movement's eventual demise.
