Still really f**king loving in Hong Kong even on gray, dark days

The umbrellas, including yellow ones, come out 

on wet days in Hong Kong

 

The past few weeks have been seen a number of gray and wet days in Hong Kong.  Then even have been days when it got as dark as night around midday and strong winds blowing got me wondering if a typhoon had sneaked up on us!  They're not ideal but they've also been preferable to the brutal heat wave that some parts of Asia have been experiencing.  And the wet weather helps to postpone the advent of summer: my least favorite season in Hong Kong; which, alas, feels like it's been getting longer and longer with each passing year.

 

In some ways, how I feel about current weather conditions can be seen as a metaphor for what I feel about how things are in Hong Kong in general: i.e., it's not ideal but, sadly, I can see how it could be worse -- and, sadly, do anticipate that it will be so in the not do distant future.  Also, liken me to the metaphorical frog in the slowly boiling water all you want but, for now, I am feeling it's bearable.  And I remain wary of -- to use another metaphor here -- jumping out of the frying pan, only to end up in the fire.

Put another way: I still am not sure that I will be able to enjoy a better life outside of Hong Kong in the parts of the world where I could easily move to and resettle.  (This aside from the issue of being reluctant to leave because my feeling is that if and when I finally do leave my heartplace, I will never (be able to) return -- even for a short holiday.)

 

I know people who will say: but what about all the repression and persecutions, the assault on Hong Kong's freedoms, Hong Kong not having democracy, etc.?  Here's the thing: yes, it's happening.  And it most certainly does negatively affect me.  For yeah, far from affecting just "an extremely small minority of people", the national security law affects even the likes of me -- in that that certain funds I used to donate to no longer exist, events I used to attend no longer can be held, films I want to see in Hong Kong cinemas can't be screened here, etc., etc., etc.

 

And yet, there still are a lot of things I can do here too that give me pleasure and also make me feel that I'm still part of a (yellow) community I care for.  I realize it might not seem like much (especially compared to what one could do just four years ago) but I still can support (existing) members of the Yellow Economic Circle, watch and support worthy Hong Kong movies, have access to -- and express myself -- on social media (I've long considered there being no access to the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Google sans VPN in Hong Kong, like is the case in Mainland China, to be a "deal breaker" for me), carry a yellow umbrella in public and -- despite what some people might want you think -- wear T-shirts with "Hong Kong ga yau" on it or, for that matter, black colored attire in Hong Kong.

 

To be sure, doing some of these risks harassment by the police.  (It's not for nothing that, as I've stated before, living in national security law-era Hong Kong can feel like living in a police state.)  But, okay, yes, I'm still willing to do so.  And should it not be clear: I still think life in Hong Kong is worth living, and Hong Kong still very much worth loving.  In short: yeah, despite it all, I still really f**king love Hong Kong -- and sincerely hope that the vast majority of the people who have felt obliged to leave it in recent years still do too.

The state of press freedom in Hong Kong laid bare this week by announcements of shutdowns that are the result of censorship and outright fear

  

One of many works created over the years and decades

by Hong Kong political cartoonist Zunzi

 

This has been one of those weeks which has seen further damage inflicted on press freedom in Hong Kong.  On Tuesday, James Ockenden announced on Twitter that he would be closing Transit Jam, the sustainable transportation website he started three years ago; this after, as observed by the Hong Kong Twitterverse member known as Old China Bland, "an article about him being a "foreign agitator" was published in the local Party mouthpiece a week or so ago".

 

And today saw veteran journalist Tim Hamlett announce (first on his blog; and then over on the Hong Kong Free Press website) that he was giving up on writing on Hong Kong politics.  Some informative lines from the announcement: "We are, of course, in dangerous times for people who do not share our government’s high opinion of itself"; and "comparatively harmless cartoonists and writers face a constant flow of official abuse, or as the Hong Kong Journalists Association put it when Ming Pao axed a long-running cartoon this week, “Backed by abundant resources and public power, the SAR government repeatedly targeted a mere [cartoonist], reflecting that Hong Kong cannot tolerate critical voices.”"

 

"Also, the risks seem to be increasing. There were, to quote another old song, “Ten green bottles hanging on the wall” and they have been falling one by one. I do not aspire to be the last one. I am still up for new experiences but the inside of a Hong Kong police cell is not on my bucket list."  (BTW, it's worth noting that Tim Hamlett's final Hong Kong Free Press piece is entitled "Why I am giving up writing about Hong Kong politics" but his blog post on the matter is the more encompassing "Why I am giving up on Hong Kong politics"!)

 

Still, even while I am sad to see the last of Tim Hamlett in the Hong Kong Free Press, the "development" which has shocked residents of the city the most this week is that which came in the wake of Ming Pao publishing a contribution of its regular cartoonist, Zunzi (the nom de plume of veteran political cartoonist Wong Kei-kwan) on Tuesday which poked fun at the small-circle government committees that will hold District Council seats under a proposed "reform" of the city’s local-level administration -- and the Hong Kong government objected to it.

As detailed in a Hong Kong Free Press piece: The cartoon in question the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau took umbrage with "showed one character telling another: “Failing in Chinese, English and math [exams]; high cholesterol; obesity; having heart disease; small stature; colour-blind; short-sighted, all of these are not problems.  As long as the official thinks [somebody] is suitable, they can be appointed to the District Fire Safety Committees [and] District Fight Crime Committees.”" 

 

In a statement on Facebook, the bureau complained that: "The content ignores facts, deceives the public and is discriminatory, insulting people with high cholesterol, heart disease and colour blindness [by] implying they are incapable of contributing to society,” the statement read. “Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak strongly condemns this behaviour."  In so doing, it showed that it lacked a sense of humor and made itself a bigger target of derision than would have otherwise probably been the case.  (For my part, when I first read about this, I genuinely found it hard to believe that this had been a bona fide statement by a government body; and I doubt that I'm the only person who felt this way!)

However, things took a serious and, frankly, disturbing turn the next day (this past Wednesday) when reports came in that Ming Pao was suspending (and, in all likelihood, terminating) Zunzi's comic strip effective this Sunday (May 14th).  Which, more than by the way, meant that more of his cartoons appeared in Ming Pao yesterday and today, and will do so for at at least one more day to come: with yesterday's joking that "to find a street stand of opposition politicians, one may have to fly overseas"; and today's satirizing book censorship in public libraries.

 

Some context: Zunzi's satirical takes on current affairs and public policies in the city have appeared in Ming Pao since 1983 and he is Hong Kong's most prominent Chinese language political cartoonist.  And over his career, he's also produced cartoons for pro-Beijing newspapers New Evening Post and Ta Kung Pao!   

 

Still, it's true enough too though that Zunzi's no stranger to criticism from the government; with previous works having drawn the ire of at least five government departments, including the police, and the Security Bureau formed in the wake of China imposing a national security law on Hong Kong in mid 2020.  So some might say that it's amazing that he's had his work published in Ming Pao for this long (even while others will maintain that political satire is something that mature governments should be thick skinned about).

As per a syndicated AFP report: "Ming Pao was [Zunzi's] last holdout in Hong Kong's mass media after Apple Daily, the Chinese [language] tabloid founded by jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, was forced to shut down in 2021." Something else worth noting: a year earlier, in 2020, the cartoonist had told AFP that "jokes can be very dangerous.  The powerful try to ... make the masses believe there is no one else but them to follow... Jokes can quickly pierce through all this and nail the lies. They can drag the powerful down from their thrones."

An afternoon walk on the Southside of Hong Kong (Photo-essay)

Today's one of those days that I have things to vent about if I so chose.  But it's also a day when I took advantage of the still relatively cool weather -- which I'm enjoying despite the lack of bright sunshine -- and went out for a walk in a part of Hong Kong I'd not been to since early on during the pandemic (pre-masking mandate but when people were afraid of catching Covid if not masked when outdoors).  And for the record: yes, one reason why I've not been out walking that route for the past few years is because I didn't want to do so while masked!  (So, yes, there are some advantages to the mask mandate having been dropped!) 

 

While walking from Repulse Bay to the area in front of Ocean Park, I not only had a good time but also got reminded once again that there are good reasons why I really f**king love Hong Kong and believe that Hong Kong is really beautiful. And since the number of negative posts on this blog are threatening to out-number the positive ones, here's going ahead and sharing photos that I took earlier today when ; at least a few of which I hope will bring a smile to your face upon viewing them:   

 

Pigeons and people on the beach, and 

boats on the water, at Repulse Bay

 

Looking back on my walk at Repulse Bay, with the Twins 

(of multiple steps infamy!) providing a green background

 

The sky ahead was lighter than the sky behind me as I walked!

 

A more scenic area to learn to crew than, say, over in Sha Tin! :b

 

I was far from the only person who was out walking 

along the path I chose this afternoon -- but it still 

was by no means crowded, thank goodness!

 

At Deep Water Bay, an egret gazed out at humans swimming by :D

 

A nice day to be at the beach if you're not into crowds! :)

 

There are times when Hong Kong can seem idyllic;

I just wish it was the case more often than has been so.. :S

Mad Fate is one of the more demented cinematic offerings out of Hong Kong that I've seen in a while! (Film review)

  

Mad Fate had its world premiere at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival

(and its Asian premiere at the 2023 Hong Kong 

International Film Festival)

 

Mad Fate (Hong Kong, 2023)

- Soi Cheang, director

- Starring: Gordon Lam Ka-tung, Lokman Yeung, Berg Ng, Peter Chan Charm-man

 

It sometimes can seem like Hong Kong filmmakers (or, at the very least, those who come up with English titles for Hong Kong movies) have an obsession with the word "mad".  How else to explain there being movies over the years with titles like Mad Dragon (1969), Mad, Mad Sword (also 1969), The Mad Bar (1970), The Mad Killer (1971), A Mad World of Fools (1974), The Mad Mad World (1981), Mad, Mad 83 (1983), It's a Mad, Mad World I (1987), II (1988) and III (1989), It's a Mad, Mad World Too! (1992) and... I think you get the picture!  

And, by the way, Mad Fate is the second Milkyway Image crime drama with "mad" in its title; with Johnnie To having also having a hand in producing -- and, in the case of the earlier film, directing -- Mad Detective (2007).  To be fair, the (police) detectives in this 2023 offering that's co-produced by Johnnie To (but directed by Soi Cheang) are actually on the sane side.  They also are not the movie's main characters though. (And yes, I do think it's telling that, like with last year's crime drama with a mentally unstable protagonist, Detective vs Sleuths, police officers are not the focus of the film.) 

 

Instead, Mad Fate's two principals -- both of them eccentric and of questionable sanity -- are the fortune teller referred to as The Master (portrayed by Gordon Lam Ka-tung) and a younger man prone to bloodlust known as Siu Tung (played by Mirror's Lokman Yeung); both of whom are introduced to the audience in memorable, well-designed and -shot sequences that take place in very different locales.  (In the case of The Master, it's a cemetery where he's carrying out a feng shui ritual to cheat fate; while in the case of Siu Tung, it's in an apartment building in Quarry Bay that's home to a number of brothels, including that of a prostitute called Jo (played by Ng Wing-sze) and The Master's client whom he was performing the ritual in the cemetery for.)

 

After a grisly murder is enacted, Siu Tung is found at the scene gleefully stepping in the blood of the victim -- who, when he entered her abode, was still alive but very clearly dying.  An ex-con currently employed as a delivery boy by his parents, who own a noodle shop, he immediately falls under suspicion; with his situation not being helped by the case's lead detective (played by Berg Ng) having been the police officer who previously arrested him for animal cruelty (after he was caught red handed trying to kill a scraggly black cat with menacing eyes).

 

But The Master, one of whose clients the murder victim was, takes it upon himself to vouch for Siu Tung -- and also try to rid him of the bad luck that he's fallen under.  In so doing, he is trying once again to cheat -- or, at the very least, change -- fate; something he believes can be done, albeit in ways that can seem pretty mad as well as elaborate and extreme!  So much so that it takes a giant leap of faith, among other things, to trust him; and it really doesn't help for it to get revealed that The Master has had to wage a life long battle with insanity!

 

Here's the thing: Mad Fate is full of scenes and sequences that are technically impressive and eye-catching.  It's also got interesting ideas and messages aplenty; including the conceit that nothing is a result of mere chance and what appears to be a suggestion that in trying to fight fate, one might well go mad!  It's just that as its story goes along, it feels increasingly preposterous and demented, and becomes in grave danger of spinning out of control.

 

And it doesn't help that lead actor Gordon Lam Ka-tung (who also starred in Soi Cheang's most recent movie prior to this one, Limbo) puts in another of his portrayals that may be too over the top; with Lokman Yeung a sometimes too eager to produce a similarly showy performance.  Amidst it all, the most restrained, if not completely rational either, performance of all is by Peter Chan Charm-man -- whose bespectacled character is referred to as The Murderer.  And it may be the most impressive precisely because it's so!        

 

My rating for this film: 6.0

The Streisand Effect in Hong Kong, including with regards to June 4th commemorations and national anthem controversies!

 

 This Pillar of Shame used to be on display at the University of 

Hong Kong's main campus but few people know where it is now

 

I spent a good part of yesterday outside of my apartment and not online yesterday.  In the afternoon, I went to view a movie.  Then I met up with friends for dinner and conversation.  It was all pretty pleasant.  Sadly, my mood took a turn for the worse after I got back home and went online to find two developments capturing the attention of a good part of Hong Kong Twitter.    

 

The first of these involved the "Hong Kong police [having] seized an exhibit... in connection with what they said was an attempt to incite subversion, with media reporting it was a statue commemorating Beijing's Tiananmen Square crackdown on democracy protesters in 1989.  Media reported the exhibit was the "Pillar of Shame," an 8-meter-tall statue depicting dozens of torn and twisted bodies that commemorates protesters killed in the crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square more than three decades ago." 

For those who didn't know: "The two-ton copper "Pillar of Shame" was first exhibited at a Tiananmen Square commemoration in Hong Kong in 1997, the same year Britain handed the city back to China.  In 2021, the University of Hong Kong dismantled and removed the statue "based on external legal advice and risk assessment for the best interest of the university."" Until yesterday, it had "been kept in a cargo container on university-owned land" but few people now know its current whereabouts.

 

In seizing Dutch sculptor Jens Galschiot's creation less than one month ahead of June 4th, the police have reminded people that the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre is coming up -- and how the public commemoration of it in Hong Kong used to be allowed but no longer is the case in the national security law era. (By the way, ever heard of the Streisand Effect? I had not until it got regularly applied to actions by the authorities in Hong Kong in recent years.)

 

As a matter of fact: topping my Twitter search this evening for "Streisand effect" is this Tweet about the Pillar of Shame's seizure.  Meanwhile a Twitter search for "Streisand effect Hong Kong" will also yield multiple entries about what has come to be known as "anthemgate" like this one.  

 

For those who didn't realize: there have been a series of incidents involving protest anthem Glory to Hong Kong being played at international sporting events at which teams representing Hong Kong were present instead of March of Volunteers.  The Hong Kong government has also been pressuring Google to remove Glory to Hong Kong from searches on the search engine as the protest anthem was topping searches for such as "Hong Kong national anthem"!

I wonder how the Hong Kong government feels about Wikipedia's "national anthem of Hong Kong" entry.  To be sure, it does mention that ""March of the Volunteers", the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, is the official anthem of Hong Kong after the handover from 1997 to [the] Present".  But it also notes that Hong Kong had other national anthems at other times (i.e., God Save the King (or Queen, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch) in the British colonial period, and Kimigayo, when Hong Kong was occupied by Japan during the Second World War).  And that Hong Kong has had a number of "unofficial" national anthems over the years.

 

For the record: the songs that fall into that latter category are Glory to Hong Kong (natch) along with Below the Lion Rock (aka Under [the] Lion Rock) and Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies.  But there's no mention of Dreams (be it sung by The Cranberries or Faye Wong) -- for good reason.  Specifically, until yesterday, when this ridiculous excerpt from a MUBI podcast about Chungking Express was brought to my attention by a number of people on Twitter, I had not heard of it being described as "the national anthem of Hong Kong"!

 

As human rights activist Xun-ling Au Tweeted: "It's a good song can't deny that... but to call it "national anthem of Hong Kong"... well that's some shit. Who told you that @emmy_the_great? You stepped into a bigger discussion, clearly without enough info." ("Emmy the Great" being Hong Kong-born indiepop singer Emma-Lee Moss who had been the guest on the MUBI podcast who had made that assertion.)

I wonder whether the Hong Kong government will hear of this and will step in to protest to MUBI; starting yet another episode of Anthemgate.  I'm guessing not because Glory to Hong Kong is not involved this time around.  But you never know, considering how sensitive it now is!  

International recognition of Chow Hang-tung, and Hong Kong's lack of press freedom on World Press Freedom Day (May 3rd)

Golden sky in Hong Kong the day after Golden Week ended! :D

 

Let's start with what passes for good news for pro-democracy Hong Kongers in the national security law era: It was announced yesterday that Hong Kong lawyer-activist Chow Hang-tung had been chosen by South Korea's May 18 Memorial Foundation as the winner of this year's Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.  ""Chow Hang-tung's struggle against the Hong Kong government's undemocratic, inhumane treatment has become the source of courage and hope for human rights advocates and those longing for democracy around the world, even when she is in custody," said Moon Hee-sang, head of the judging panel and former speaker of the National Assembly."

 

Some context from an article in The Korea Times: "The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights was established in 2000 to mark the spirit of the Korean movement for democracy and honor those who fight for human rights and peace. Previous winners include Cynthia Maung, a Burmese doctor and founder of Mae Tao Clinic which has been providing free healthcare services for internally displaced people and migrant workers, and Arnon Nampa, a Thai human rights lawyer and vocal critic of the country's monarchy."  (The Gwangju Uprising, known in South Korea as May 18, began in Gwangju on May 18th, 1980, and had as its goal the ending of dictatorial rule in the country.)

 

Also from the same South Korean new piece: "Chow, 38, who is in prison now after being convicted of inciting and taking part in arranging an unlawful assembly ― a commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre ― has become a symbolic figure for everyone who is longing for democracy, a judging committee said at the May 18 Memorial Foundation office in Gwangju".  And yes, it is heartening to get more confirmation that Chow is seen as such in territories beyond Hong Kong as well as her native Hong Kong.  (More than by the way, Chow Hang-tung also is one of six Hong Kongers nominated for the Nobel Peace Price this year.)

 

Sadly, since Chow is currently behind bars (and looks to be so for a time), she will not be able to travel to Gwangju to accept her award.  Instead, "[o]n behalf of Chow, her representative is expected to receive the award at the ceremony on May 18, Korea's anniversary of the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city."  And if it so happens that the six Hong Kongers nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize were to win it (a long shot but, hey, there's a chance!), they all would have to have representatives accept it on their behalf -- as was the case with Liu Xiaobo back in 2010.  

 

While we're on the subject: another of the six Hong Kong Nobel Peace Prize nominees is Gwyneth Ho, another Hong Kong political prisoner I got to thinking of yesterday as a result of it being World Press Freedom Day on account of her having been a journalist before becoming a political activist.  Ho and Chow are just two of the Hong Kongers I have much respect and admiration for; with ex-Stand News chief editor Chung Pui-kuen being another, and a fourth being former RTHK program producer Bao Choy, who yesterday began her final appeal over her conviction for making false statements to obtain vehicle records to make a documentary about the July 21st, 2019, Yuen Long attacks.   

 

The fact that Gwyneth Ho is currently a political prisoner, Chung Pui-kuen is on trial for sedition (and may well end up serving time being bars) and Bao was convicted for what many people don't see as a crime should tell you something about the state of journalism in Hong Kong. Put another way: it's not a surprise to see Hong Kong "languish near the bottom of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom ranking released on Wednesday’s World Press Freedom Day".

 

More specifically, Hong Kong "ranked 140th among the 180 regions in the international media watchdog’s latest ranking, trailing behind Colombia and Cameroon. [Meanwhile, (Mainland)] China ranked 179th, just above North Korea."  And while it's true that Hong Kong's ranking this year is eight positions higher than it was last year, it's only because press freedom had deteriorated even more in other territories rather than because the situation in Hong Kong had improved from a year ago!

 

As Cédric Alviani, East Asia bureau director of RSF pointed out, the international media watchdog noticed that 13 “press freedom defenders” (who include Gwyneth Ho and Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai) had been detained under “trumped up charges” in Hong Kong.  In addition, the RSF "had observed “an increasing number of journalists in exile,” including those who made “a very difficult decision to leave their home due to increasing pressure from the government” for places including the UK and Taiwan."

 

Speaking of which: Taiwan is at number 35 in the RSF's press freedom ranking -- which makes it the highest ranked Asian territory.  For context and comparison: the top-ranked territory is Norway, the United Kingdom is positioned at number 25, the United States is ranked at number 45, South Korea is at number 47 -- and even Malaysia, whose press I don't consider all that free, is at number 73; a whopping 67 places higher than Hong Kong!   

The assault on Hong Kong's district councils, dreams of democracy, and the truth in Hong Kong continues in earnest

  

Hong Kong under a gray cloud today --

both literally and metaphorically!

 

It's still Golden Week in Japan, and Mainland China too, but Hong Kong today returned to work after a protest-annulled May Day (that, interestingly, saw Hong Kong protest documentaries Inside the Red Brick Wall and Taking Back the Legislature take the number 2 and 3 slots of the Rotten Tomatoes streaming movies chart!) -- and saw more political hits rained upon pro-democracy dreams.  Specifically, Hong Kong cut the number of elected seats on its District Councils from more than 90 percent down to to (note: not by) 20 percent!*

As per an Agence France Press (AFP) report: Hong Kong dramatically slashed the number of elected seats in its local district councils..., effectively gutting the city's last remaining set of democratic institutions.  The change is part of a widespread crackdown by Beijing on political freedoms in Hong Kong following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.  The last elections for Hong Kong's district councils were held at the peak of those demonstrations and returned a landslide win for the city's pro-democracy bloc."

 

As a member of a Hong Kong Twittersphere who goes by the moniker Dystopian Gordon observed yesterday, ahead of the official announcement by Chief Executive John Lee: "The District Councils of Hong Kong has been mostly a consultative body, its influence over the city's governance is insignificant but the Beijing still wants to [effectively] scrap its direct elections. I guess Beijing was very humiliated by the opposition's landslide victory in 2019."

 

As further reported in the AFP piece: "The percentage of elected seats is now lower than when the district councils were created in 1982 under British colonial rule, rolling back decades of democratisation efforts."  (To those Tankies who like to go on about how terrible the British colonialists were to not give Hong Kong democracy: what say you now about Hong Kong under the rule of the People's Republic of China?)

 

Quoting once more from the AFP piece: "Kenneth Chan, a political scholar at Hong Kong Baptist University, told AFP that the change "confirms the perception that a pathway towards democracy has ended for good.  It now looks like the district councillors... would just be the echo chambers serving mostly the administration rather than channelling bottom-up views and expectations from the community level.""

 

Still, if truth be, the District Councils have been under attack and disabled for a time now.  After China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong (on June 30th, 2020), more than 300 of the district council members who were democratically elected on November 24th, 2019 have been unseated or resigned -- with some fleeing Hong Kong.  Today's announced changes have just effectively dealt the death blow on the local government bodies that had been hobbled and unable to fully function for some years already.  

 

Actually, for many people, what's worse is the attempted gaslighting that John Lee indulged in at this afternoon's press conference.  When a reporter (the South China Morning Post's Natalie Wong) brought up the 2019 protests, Hong Kong's Chief Executive (who was the Security Secretary then) retorted that "It is not the 2019 protests. It is the black violence. It's the attempt to make Hong Kong independent, and the attempt to cause disaster to Hong Kong society as a whole."

 

As the Hong Kong Free Press' Tom Grundy was moved to Tweet in response: "Accuracy please. Independence was never one of the five demands of the protest movement."  Instead, here's serving a reminder that the "Five demands, not one less" that protestors made were as follows:

1) Withdraw the Extradition Bill (the only demand officially enacted but then...);
2) Revoke the riot claims (originally, this was specifically for the events of June 12th which had seen the police be a greater menace to society than the people who turned up in great numbers at Admiralty that day but it was widely understood to be a claim that protests in Hong Kong should not be considered illegal);
3) Amnesty for arrested protestors;
4) An independent investigation of police conduct; and
5) Genuine Universal Suffrage. 

And not only did the Washington Post's Shibani Mahtani Tweet that "It still stuns me to watch this distortion of memory and facts happen in real time" but she also provides links to such as a Hong Kong government press release from June 9th, 2019, commending the "peaceful" and "orderly" march as an example of [Hong Kong] people "exercising their freedom of expression"; with further receipts including a link to a government press release from August 18th, 2019, commending that day's march for being "generally peaceful" (see here) and another "from the 2019 anniversary of the Umbrella Movement, acknowledging [that] the protests were about *political reform* and *universal suffrage*, saying 'one person, one vote' is "enshrined as an ultimate aim in the Basic Law".  No mention of independence" (see here)!

 

And, really, this is what we need to do: not only remember but also remind people what's true, and call out errors and lies.  For, to be sure, attempts at memory erasure are taking place but the result is not a foregone conclusion -- and we (who experienced and bore witness to what happened in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and into 2023) have the agency and a part to play to that ensure that it doesn't happen.

 

*Addendum: a good point made by lawyer-political commentator Kevin Yam over on Twitter: "More accurately, it’s slashed to 0%. The “20%” figure refers to candidates that have been vetted by Beijing on multiple levels and then put to the public for a vote. That’s not the definition of “democratically elected”."