Edited by the Undergrad, the official magazine of the union, it compiled nine articles from students, scholars and commentators and argued the necessity of nationalism in Hong Kong.

That issue, known as "Hong Kong nation's self-determination of fate" (香港民族、命運自決),[a] urged for bolstering localism which would be the only path for Hongkongers' resistance.

In the same month, the Undergrad slammed the Occupy Central leaders for kowtowing to Chinese Communist Party, and believed a new democracy movement would be to align with Hong Kong independence.

But the discussion was mostly limited to the academic circle, and the book was relatively obscure and unknown to the general public, until Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying denounced the "fallacies" spread by it in the policy address delivered in January 2015.

We also ask political figures with close ties to the leaders of the student movement to advise them against putting forward such fallacies... As we pursue democracy, we should act in accordance with the law, or Hong Kong will degenerate into anarchy.The attack was anticipated as the pro-government papers had already singled out Undergrad on the morning of the policy address.

Nonetheless, the condemnation was unexpectedly placed at the early start, which Leung speculated it as a communist-style ideological confrontation intended to frighten the student activists.

Instead, the students explained, the book aimed to contribute to the academic discourse on Hong Kong’s identity and implications of that notion.

A year later, Jack Li defected to Hope for Hong Kong, a moderate party, rejecting separatism as impractical and unrealistic.