An image that brings to mind a man who died
three years ago today for many Hong Kongers
The mind is a funny thing that can play all sorts of tricks on a person. E.g., sometimes it can make it feel like time flies while at other times, it can seem to freeze time. It also can cause one person to immediately make a certain association when beholding an image that means nothing to another individual.
A case in point with regarding to the latter: One evening in November 2019, I was walking in Tsim Sha Tsui with a woman who had called herself a Hong Konger but actually had not lived in Hong Kong for several years and, I discovered, hadn't been really keeping tabs on what had been happening in the city that she had newly returned for a visit (in order, among other things, to renew her permanent residency). Suddenly, I spotted something on a wall we were passing by that made me let out a little gasp as well as come to a halt.
The person I was with asked what had caught my attention. I pointed to the illustration that I took out my camera to snap a shot of (and which I've posted at the top of this blog entry). Seeing her blank expression, I explained to her that it was an illustrated tribute to Marco Leung Ling-kit. And upon her continuing to look befuddled, I outlined to her that he is known, and remembered, as the first anti-extradition bill protestor to die -- back on June 15th of that year -- after he fell from scaffolding at the Pacific Place mall that he had mounted to hang up a protest banner after a one million-strong protest march on June 9th had failed to convince Carrie Lam to withdraw the much-opposed bill and the police had attacked protestors who had assembled at Admiralty on June 12th.
Even though that interchange -- and sighting of that illustration of a yellow raincoat surrounded by black/darkness-- took place close to two and half years ago, I still remember it like had happened yesterday. And I also vividly remember when and where I was when I got the news about the death of the then unindentified protestor initially known as "Raincoat Man".
Very specifically: I was having after dinner drinks with a friend at a then favorite sake bar (which no longer exists; having shuttered late last year). At one point in the evening, he looked down at the screen of his smart phone and conveyed the news to me. I remember us trying to figure out of Marco Leung had accidentally fallen to his death or committed suicide. At the time, the information was inconclusive; and it wasn't until May 2021 that a jury at an inquest ruled that he had "died of misadventure".
In any case, news of Marco Leung's death soon spread quickly throughout Hong Kong. And the next day, for what turned out to be a protest march officially described as having involved 2 million protestors plus one (with the one being Marco Leung in spirit), many of the participants brought and carried white flowers that they then placed outside Pacific Place in tribute to their fallen comrade.
Three years on, Marco Leung has not been forgotten. And there are people who continue to mourn him -- privately, on social media and, also, outside Pacific Place. With regards to the last venue: doing so involved being harassed by the police -- as part of their bid to turn Hong Kong into part of the People's Republic of Amnesia -- and yet a number of people felt a need to go and mourn Marco Leung there. For yes, he and his death are now part of many Hong Kongers' collective memory -- one which is full of sad moments, far more than happy at this point in time, but one which we somehow could be said to cherish because it binds us together and gets us realizing that there are Hong Kongers out there willing to make great sacrifices for the sake of others. RIP, Mr Leung -- and I mean in power as well as peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment