Musings about mooncakes, Catholics and more on Mid-Autumn Festival eve

  

October 1st is China's National Day

 

This year, October 1st is also Mid-Autumn (aka Mooncake) Festival!

 

Despite it still feeling like summer weather-wise, today is the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival.  As can be discerned from its alternative names, this festival is also associated with mooncakes, moon viewing and lantern displays.  It's also associated with family reunions, with many families making a point to gather together to have dinner together on the festival's eve. 

 

Unable still to go see their loved ones in detention over in Shenzhen, the family members of the 12 Hong Kongers intercepted while trying to make their way to seek political asylum in Taiwan back on August 23rd went to the China Liason Office in Sai Ying Pun earlier today.  Denied entry and a meeting with the officials there, they proceeded to stage a demonstration outside that complex and left boxes of mooncakes in a symbolic protest to highlight their lack of access to their loved ones.

 

Beginning in 2010, Joseph, Cardinal Zen would deliver mooncakes to prisoners during the Mid-Autumn Festival.  This year, though, Hong Kong's Bishop Emeritus has been barred from doing so; with the authorities having deemed mooncakes to be political weapons and the donation of them to prisoners a political activity.  Such is the heightened paranoia and absurdities that have come to be the norm in Hong Kong in the wake of China's introduction of the security law to Hong Kong.  

 

Another disappointment that the 88-year-old cardinal has had to deal with recently came after he flew to Rome to seek an audience with Pope Francis but the Pontiff decided against allocating any time to meeting with him.  That U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also was denied a meeting with the Pope is no comfort; particularly as both Cardinal Zen and Pompeo shared the intent of voicing their concerns to the Pope about what's happening in Hong Kong (along with in Mainland China).       

 

From his track record, Pope Francis does not appear willing to support Hong Kong's attempts to not be suppressed by the atheist Communist Chinese government.  Back in early July, there were reports that he had planned to mention China's imposition of a security law on Hong Kong, only to then omit the relevant passages in the speech he ended up giving.  Even earlier, in January of this year, Pope Francis voiced concern about conflicts in parts of the Middle East, Africa, the Caucasus and Ukraine, as well as political crises gripping Latin America in his annual message to diplomatic envoys accredited to the Holy See but did not offer a single word about the situation in troubled Hong Kong.

 

Is it because Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam is Catholic?  If so, so are prominent advocates for Hong Kong's freedoms and bid for democracy such as Jimmy Lai and Martin Lee as well as Cardinal Zen.  More likely, it is Pope Francis feeling willing to sacrifice Hong Kong (with its Catholic community) along with the Muslim Uighurs and Buddhist Tibetans to cement a deal with the Chinese authorities; something that gets me thinking that he may be the modern day Pope Pius XII (AKA Hitler's Pope).

 

People looking from outside of Hong Kong may not think things are that bad in the territory.  As HK Wuliff, a Hong Konger whose musings and observations I often connect with, Tweeted back on August 1st: "yeah, we still have internet. we still get to go on youtube. we can go shopping. for a few days we almost lost restaurants but we have that back, now. we can still go to work and school and we’re still alive."  But also in the same thread can be found the following remarks: "it’s actually so insane how quickly HK descended into this state. imagine explaining to an acquaintance that in the space of one month, you’ve lost all political freedom and are now living in a city where dissent is punishable - actually punishable - by life in prison". 

 

Something else that happened in Hong Kong today was the police deciding to set up cordon lines and surround a young man reading a copy of Apple Daily inside an MTR station.  Earlier this week, this same youngster was suspended by his secondary school for two days for having worn his school uniform to (peaceful) lunchtime protests.    

Should it not be obvious: censorship fears have arisen in Hong Kong schools.  Hong Kong schools have been told to remove books that may violate the new security law, including two written by Joshua Wong and one by Tanya Chan (who, incidentally, is one of three pro-democracy lawmakers -- along with Chu Hoi-dick and Ray Chan -- who announced this week that they are leaving the Legislative Council; this even while the majority of the pan-democratic legislative councillors have elected to stay for another year and fight the government from within the legislative body).  

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Catholic diocese has urged its schools (which include leading institutions such as St Joseph's College, St Paul's Convent, Maryknoll Convent School and La Salle College) to promote national security education.  This undoubtedly is the kind of thing that would not have happened if Cardinal Zen still headed the Catholic church in Hong Kong.  As would Catholic school text books containing the following prayer: "Lord, thank you for letting me be born as Chinese. To express my gratitude to you, I will learn from Jesus to love my state and nation. Amen"!