In a scarred Hong Kong, “good things are gone” Reuters

Authors: Yik Lam and Jessie Pang

Hong Kong (Reuters)-When the documentary filmmaker Zhou was walking through a pedestrian tunnel in Hong Kong on a recent day, he saw a team of cleaners scraping off the glue left by illegal advertisements and scrubbing the walls with a mop.

This reminded him of the day he became an activist in the democratic protests that promoted this Chinese-ruled city in 2019. At that time, he and his young son and some friends gathered together and used scribbled post-it notes to cover another tunnel wall with political messages and pictures.

Strangers join.

“I’m very happy. This is my first time as an organizer,” he said.

The next day, when he walked by, the cleaner was clearing the mosaic of notes, called “Lennon Wall” in Hong Kong, named after the original John Lennon Wall in Prague controlled by communism in the 1980s. It was covered with graffiti, Dissatisfaction with the lyrics and information politics of the Beatles.

On the phone of his wife, he picked up some notes from the ground. “Choose as many as you can,” she told him. “Get back your son’s painting!”

The cleaners on that day in August 2019 told Zhou that they needed to clean the tunnel walls and take photos as proof of their work for the boss. But then they told him that he could put the post-it note back on the other side of the tunnel.

For Zhou, this was the rebellious behavior of the cleaners. This experience inspired him to use his profession to serve his career.

“This is the spirit of Hong Kong,” he thought, and then took out his camera to film the protest. He hopes to finish editing the documentary later this year.

He said that the removal of the Lennon Wall was the beginning of the destruction of “beautiful things”.

“Of course, when good things disappear, we feel angry; this is important and we need to remember. But anger can also be transformed into persistence,” said Zhou, 42. After all, during the protest, the Lennon Wall Tunnel was demolished many times, but people rebuilt it.

But today, the Lennon Wall has disappeared. Since China issued a comprehensive national security law a year ago to combat what it considers to be subversion, separatism, terrorism, and collusion with foreign powers punishable by life imprisonment, they have been risky gatherings.

People who hope that the city has a democratic future are regrouping behind an invisible front line that is harder to destroy by tear gas and rubber bullets, but they say they are still under attack: memories of what happened in 2019.

Democracy activists accuse those in power of trying to control the narrative, and they worry that future generations will only hear the government’s view of the incident: the protests in 2019 were illegal riots controlled by a small number of foreign powers. Undermine the rise of China under the successful leadership of the Communist Party.

The public radio station, Radio Hong Kong, deleted files containing programs that included protests or criticizing the government and investigating those in power, prompting online activists to transfer backup copies to the blockchain platform.

The authorities declared certain slogans and songs illegal, deleted or redefined sensitive topics in the school curriculum, and removed democracy books from the shelves of the public library. Cinemas, universities and art galleries canceled screenings or exhibitions of works related to the protest.

The Hong Kong government recently issued new guidelines that allow the authorities to censor movies on the basis of maintaining national security. “Inspectors shall be vigilant in describing, describing or handling any acts or activities that may constitute crimes endangering national security… and objectively and reasonably can be regarded as supporting, supporting, propagating, beautifying, encouraging or inciting such acts or activities ,” the guide pointed out.

China and local authorities deny that freedom is restricted, and say that their actions are critical to defending the national security red line, restoring stability and bringing prosperity.

In response to a question from Reuters, a government spokesperson said, “No civil society in the world can accept what he called the violence and vandalism that occurred in the “riots” of 2019. He said that the government “is illegal and strong Condemn any attempt to glorify illegal behavior under the pretext of freedom and democracy. “

Regarding review rules, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said in June that her government must strike a balance between respecting creative freedom and maintaining national security. Officials “will discuss with the industry to alleviate their worries and anxiety.”

Broadcasting company Radio Hong Kong stated that its new archive policy for social media platforms is in line with the practices of its official website, which retains programs from the past 12 months, and few media organizations keep the entire archive online forever.

It said: “We don’t see how our Hong Kong and Taiwan program archive policies and arrangements on YouTube are related to your story about certain people in Hong Kong who tried to defend and save their version of social activities in 2019.”

The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council or Cabinet, and the Hong Kong Liaison Office, Beijing’s highest representative office in the city, did not respond to requests for comment.

This is not just a fight over narrative: since the protests subsided last year, the face of the city has changed, making familiar places unfamiliar.

The suspended sidewalk used by protesters to fire petrol bombs has been covered by fences and barbed wire. Water-filled plastic roadblocks surround and protect the administrative building, forcing pedestrians to pass through the roadblocks or through the narrow corridors between the roadblocks, and police officers in riot gear stand guard.

The entire city’s garbage bins used by protesters as shields have been replaced by plastic bags hung on metal rings. The paved sidewalk where the protesters dug up bricks and threw them at the police has been repaired with concrete.

“If Hong Kong is a person, the ground is the skin. It’s like they are doing laser surgery,” said Jade Chung, a 24-year-old freelance journalist who focuses on the struggle for rights of human rights and democracy activists. free.

Apart from the physical changes, she said that after the government began to suppress it, many things were difficult to tell. She said this led to a secret code of resistance to authoritarian rule.

Recently, when Chung asked for a Wi-Fi password in a small restaurant in Hong Kong, she got more answers: 721831101.

July 21, August 31, and October 1 were the three most violent days of the riots in 2019. It was a code that linked Zhong to the past that she believed the authorities were trying to rewrite after regaining control.

“I think this is the only way we can express ourselves now,” Zhong said.

She wants to unravel a version of the event that will not be mentioned in history class and is disappearing from public discourse.

“We don’t want to remember, but we don’t dare to forget. People do a lot to protect our collective memory,” said Zhong, who contributed to the book “The Road to Hong Kong”, a book about protests. . “We have not forgotten. We may be waiting for the opportunity to do something.”

Within a year of the implementation of the National Security Law, just a few minutes before the July 1 anniversary of the return of the former British colony to Chinese rule, China has also completely reformed the city’s political system, requiring anyone holding public office to be “patriotic.” “And loyal to Beijing. Most opposition politicians and democracy activists were either imprisoned, trapped by new laws or other reasons, or exiled.

In mid-April, the Hong Kong authorities celebrated the “National Security Education Day”. Schools carried out activities, games and performances. The police and other departments performed the “Goose Walk” parade of the Chinese army.

In schools and cultural centers, residents are invited to build a national security “mosaic wall,” which is a top-down, organized version of the Lennon Wall in 2019. “Supporting the National Security Law is not a problem. Support! Support! Support! I hope we can become one with the mainland,” wrote a post-it on the wall set up by Huang Zubao Middle School.

The children were given toy police guns and played with them under the surveillance of police in riot gear, including in a replica of a subway car. For many people in Hong Kong, these images are surreal shadow puppets where police rushed onto the train, sprayed pepper and beat the timid young man with a baton, which was widely broadcast on TV on August 31, 2019.

War of symbols

Activists say that the fight against the government in the areas of symbols, words and culture is the sequel to the more chaotic battle of 2019, when petrol bombs were thrown almost daily in one of the world’s most peaceful cities for months.

This is also a battle that the authorities have not avoided.

In early May, when Jay Chou was ordering food, the police car appeared at his newly opened Chickeeduck store in Tsuen Wan District. At first, Zhou believed that the authorities were there to impose COVID 19-related lockdowns on nearby buildings.

But the police wearing the “National Security Service” vest began to block the area around his shop, attracting groups of curious onlookers. They entered the store, showed him a search warrant, and then began to look at the items for sale.

“It’s like they raided a bar looking for drugs,” Zhou recalled, standing near a two-meter-high bust of a protester wearing a helmet, goggles and gas mask, holding a yellow rubber duck above his head, as if He is throwing a Molotov cocktail.

57-year-old Chow wore a long-sleeved shirt with “liberation sausages, vegetables of our time” and “five meatballs with no sauce left”-this pun echoed the slogan of the protests. For example, “Recover Hong Kong, revolution”. Our time” and “five requirements, one cannot be less.” He said that legally speaking, he believes that all his ducks are lined up.

Officials said the slogan “Recover Hong Kong” is subversive and illegal, and this claim will be tested in a court case against a motorcycle driver arrested under the new law in the coming months.

“Be water” beer is also available in Chow’s shop. The product name implies a protest strategy of playing cat-and-mouse with the police to consume their resources. It was inspired by a sentence by the Hong Kong martial arts legend Bruce Lee, urging fighters to keep adapting to the enemy.

Zhou’s food puns did not trigger arrests or any sanctions, but the raid was enough to scare two of his employees, who later resigned.

“I’m very angry-on a scale of 1 to 10, and the anger level is 9,” he said. “The remaining one is afraid that they will scare my colleagues and ask them to resign, but they did.”

The police said that after receiving a complaint about the shop’s alleged violation of the national security law, the police entered the shop with a court order.

Zhou said that he hopes his shop will become a place full of hope.

“We want to tell people that we still have space available,” he said. “This is because we see that they may change history.”

The film producer Zhou said that his child is a literal reminder of Hong Kong history: his son was born in 2014, the year that protesters of the “Umbrella Movement” occupied the main artery of the financial district for 79 days; his daughter was born in 2019 year.

“The regime wants us to forget. I want to remember with my camera,” he said. “We are resisting in memory. We are resisting forgetfulness.”