Looking forward to the Hong Kong International Film Festival even as possessing certain books is revealed to be arrestable crimes in Hong Kong

Special arrangements for the first day of ticketing

for the Hong Kong International Film Festival ;)

 

That which one URBTIX staffer once told me was the worst day of work for her has arrived once more: the first day of ticket sales for the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).  As has become a tradition of sorts for me (since they scrapped postal applications for tickets some years back), I woke up early this morning and headed to an URBTIX outlet to get tickets for the film fest.  And even though I arrived before ticketing officially began, there already was already a queue in front out of the ticketing counter of eager film fans!

 

By the time I got to the counter to buy my tickets, tickets for three of my screening selections had already sold out.  That they were all for Hong Kong films is evidence that there most definitely is local support for Hong Kong cinema.  Another factor that has come to play in recent years is the fear that films that are screened at the fest will end up not getting (allowed to be) screened in regular cinemas.  A case in point: Stanley Kwan's First Night Nerves, which I viewed at the 2019 Hong Kong International Film Festival, has yet to be accorded a theatrical run -- in Hong Kong or anywhere else in the world.

 

Of course, since 2021, we've had films pulled out of the Hong Kong International Film Festival for what appears to be censorship reasons.  And this even though the fest programmers have become more conservative in recent years with regards to their programming.  A case in point: I don't think a work like Wang Bing's The Ditch (2011), a memorably devastating portrayal of the "anti-rightist" campaign masterminded by Mao Zedong, would get screened at the HKIFF these days.  Still, to be fair, there are films in this year's program that could be described as daring selections -- and the likes of me will be keeping an eye out to see if they get pulled (at the last minute) from the fest.  

The thing is: it's far from certain where the "red lines" are in Hong Kong.  But, at the same time, it's also clear enough that more and more things and actions are being declared illegal and grounds for arrest by the day.  

 

Indeed, after I got home from my HKIFF ticket purchasing outing this morning, I got on social media and learnt that the Hong Kong police had arrested two men for "possessing “seditious publications”, apparently the “Sheep Village” books".  Take a moment to let that sink in.  The Hong Kong police arrested two Hong Kongers for possessing books: specifically, illustrated children's books about sheep and wolves!  Produced by speech therapists!! 

 

After you do so, questions will inevitably arise in your mind.  A sample from the member of the Hong Kong Twitterverse who goes by John deFROG: "One big question for me is: how would the police know you own a seditious publication (presuming you're not spotted reading it on the MTR or whatever)? Hotline tipoff? Infiltrating social media groups? Tracking online book purchases?"  To which some people have replied "Yes" and "All of the above".

 

In any event, lawyer-political commentator Antony Dapiran has pointed out that: "*Possessing* a seditious publication: penalty is up to 1 year in prison & HK$2000 fine. To the extent any publications (like these sheep/wolf books) are ruled to be “seditious publications” in future, merely possessing them will be a crime for which you can be imprisoned in [Hong Kong]."  So while it can seem farcical, it's no joke for those who get arrested and found guilty of this "crime".

 

The arrests of these two as-yet-unidentified men brings the number of people arrested for sedition in Hong Kong in recent years to 75.  And it's also worth remembering that "Before apprehending the pair, national security police had already made four arrests in the past week"; including those of veteran activist Elizabeth Tang, her sister, Marilyn, and her lawyer, Frederick Ho, and a 23-year-old woman arrested last Wednesday under the security legislation for allegedly publishing messages online inciting Hong Kong independence.

 

At the risk of sounding like a broken record: this should not be -- and is not -- a normal, acceptable state of affairs.  Also making the news today: the League of Social Democrats' "Bull" Tsang Kin-shing being told at a hearing today that he will face trial, along with two others, this July for "allegedly displaying posters without government permission last May".  Honestly, each time the authorities dig up something obscure to prosecute and persecute people with, they remind us of the freedoms previously taken for granted and now lost in Hong Kong. 

For the record: "Tsang Kin-shing has now been prosecuted 5 times since 2019, all protest “crimes”: unlawful assembly twice; littering (for displaying props); flying a balloon in controlled airspace (the balloon said “release Political Prisoners”); [and] now displaying/affixing posters on [government] land."  And while "The Bull’s “crimes” are minor (he’s yet to be charged w/ an NSL offense)[, t]hey represent the regime’s use of “the law” to constantly persecute opponents who insist on being active [and] its absolute determination to wipe out the presence of political opposition in public places."