Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997 from Great Britain. As it operates under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy with China meaning that China still owns the territories of Hong Kong and Macau but the two regions have a high degree of autonomy. Scholarism/Demosistō believes that Hong Kong has been exploited under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party. Scholarism was involved in the anti-Article 23 rally in 2003 and the anti-High Speed Rail movement in 2010 which protested against Mainland China asserting more control over Hong Kong.
The anti-Article 23 rally was against Basic Law Article 23 which stated that Hong Kong could enact laws to prohibit any act of treason against the Chinese Communist Party while the anti-High Speed Rail movement opposed the creation of a high-speed train linking Shenzhen (closest city in Mainland China to Hong Kong) to Hong Kong. Scholarism gained recognition during the 2012 protests against the education reforms to Hong Kong and was successfully at forcing the Hong Kong government to repeal their decision.
Scholarism was established by Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam. Created in May 2011, it formed to retaliate against the "Moral and National Education" school curriculum pushed by the Hong Kong government. The "Moral and National Education" policy painted the Communist Party of China in a favorable light and ignored controversies of the Communist Party such as the Tiananmen Square massacre. Scholarism sought to distance Hong Kong's education policy from Mainland China's influence, specifically Pro-Beijing views. In 2012, the group protested at the Hong Kong government headquarters to pressure the government to retract the "Moral and National Education" policy. This protest is what spread the influence of Scholarism as it rose to prominence during the Umbrella Movement. In September 2014, the Scholarism group organized a class boycott for all university and high school students in Hong Kong. The members of the group became heavily involved in the protests and occupation of Central during the Umbrella Movement. In 2016, Scholarism merged to form a new political party in Hong Kong called Demosistō. Demosistō won a seat in 2016 for the Legislative Council with Nathan Law being elected to the seat. However, in 2017, Nathan Law was disqualified and imprisoned for his involvement in the Umbrella Movement. Demosistō still continues to enter the political landscape of the Hong Kong Government.
The ideologies of the group tends to be more liberal and radical than the majority of the population. There is an ideological split between those who want Hong Kong to be completely independent from China--breaking the One Country, Two Systems--and those who want China to limit its influence on Hong Kong with more freedoms and reforms. Scholarism/Demosistō wants Hong Kong to be completely liberated from China and to have it be its own country.
The leaders of Scholarism and the Umbrella Movement reject China's ideology of communism. Tensions have sparked when the People's Republic of China attempted to impose its communism ideals on Hong Kong through education reform and political leader in power. Hong Kong along with Macau, another special administrative region of China, have a capitalist society. Hong Kong under British rule has the ability to conduct its own economic system and mimicked some aspects of the British economy. The activists in the Umbrella Movement and Scholarism follow liberal-capitalism and do not want the government to have control over the economy. This creates a huge tension with the Chinese Central Government as the government officials want to exert more control over the Hong Kong government.
Through evidence like surveys and samplings , a significant portion of the individuals involved in the Umbrella Movement were young people. The numbers are not surprising due to the widespread student presence during the Umbrella Movement from Scholarism to teenage student organizations like the Hong Kong Federation of Students. The Umbrella Movement was heavily supported by individuals under the age of 40 that usually were educated to the university level. Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, Agnes Chow, Oscar Lai, and the other members in Scholarism/Demosistō are all young student activists. The leaders are all in their 20s and push for a pro-democracy agenda. Their political position is skewed to the left with their ideology focusing on direct democracy. There is no singular leader of Scholarism/Demosistō but the core members plan to enact change in the Legislative Council. The members tend to work together towards a collective goal through speaking at conferences or pushing for political change.