Political talk and protest action in Hong Kong

Clouds, not tear gas, over Hong Kong around sunset today

 A time and place to peacefully admire the sunset

A few minutes before I started writing this blog, the trigger-happy Hong Kong police fired still more tear gas at a relatively peaceful group of protesters in Sham Shui Po -- a district of Kowloon I like to go to for traditional Cantonese fare and retail therapy.  Until I got the news that they did so, I was thinking that today would be a time for people in Hong Kong to take a breather and time to reflect on what had happened yesterday, in particular last night, when the wheels threatened to come off the protest wagon after a series of ill-judged missteps at Hong Kong International Airport (for which representatives of the people responsible have apologized). 

At some point today, I went shopping (for groceries and pharmaceutical goods) in North Point, where thugs had attacked protesters (but then been repelled) on August 5th and other people (including two journalists) this past Sunday, and was happy to see that things looked to have returned to normal in the area (whose Chun Yeung Street wet market is one of my favorites in Hong Kong).  In a similar vein, things were peaceful enough this evening in Causeway Bay, where the police fired tear gas on August 4th, and where I met up with a friend for drinks and a meal (and also enjoyed sunset views from the edge of the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter while walking over to meet her).

During dinner, my friend and I talked about a variety of subjects that -- inevitably these days -- included what's been going on protest-wise and in the world of Hong Kong politics (which, today, included beleagured Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam firing her PR chief and Cathay Pacific sacking two of their pilots over Hong Kong protest-related incidents).  Politics was discussed quite a bit too when another friend and I met up for lunch yesterday.  Indeed, I don't think I've been able to have a single extended conversation with any of my friends in the past couple of months that have not ended up touching at some point on the protests and tumult that have been gripping Hong Kong for some time now.   

Not so long ago, I heard many people opine that Hong Kongers didn't care about politics, only making money.  I must admit to having been skeptical about this even then.  For one thing, money and politics are often intertwined to my mind.  For another, so many of the Hong Kong movies I've viewed over the years have had political undertones, if not outright political messages and commentary.  

My favorite movie in the whole, wide world, Peking Opera Blues, may be seen by some as primarily an action-(adventure-)comedy but it's always come across as more dramatic and full of political messsages to me.  In addition, there are the scores of films over which the events of June 4th, 1989, cast a long shadow, including those cinematic works made in the years leading up to July 1st, 1997, and even after it which expressed fears about the Handover and what would ensue thereafter.  And don't tell me that all those films set during the Second World War and even those works in which Chinese patriots are depicted rebelling against -- or just plain resisting the rule of -- the imperial Qing government aren't political because they're just martial arts movies!

Hopefully at some point in the near future, I'll be in the mood to view movies again.  Alas, at this point, there's been too much drama in real life -- and so much of it so surreal and close to unbelievable that if I viewed it in a movie, I'd dismiss it as not realistic! -- that I've just not been inclined to have escapist fun in watching a story unfold on a big screen in a darkened room.  Instead, I want to stay attuned to what's currently happening in Hong Kong, and also play a part in it as I truly believe that the fight is far from over and that our cause is a just one indeed.