Yellow rubber ducks (one still inflated; one deflated) in a part of the world for which yellow has a special meaning (Photo-essay)

Back in 2013, a giant yellow rubber duck came over to Hong Kong to visit.  For some reason, it didn't capture my fancy.  So, unlike with French artist Paulo Grangeon's 1,600 paper mache pandas installations (which Hong Kong played host to in June 2014), I actually don't have any photos from ten years ago of the "seriously over-sized bath toy" that was Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman's creation.  And if truth be told, I hadn't planned on going and snapping photos of the two 18-meter-tall yellow rubber ducks that Florentijin Hofman brought over to Hong Kong this time around.  

 

That is, until I saw photos and videos of one of those giant rubber ducks having deflated in Victoria Harbour earlier today!  Call it schadenfreude.  Or, rather, it was because I saw that it was a super high visibility day which would be conducive to photo taking!  In any case, despite today's high heat (which has been blamed for causing the duck deflation!), I got a massive yearning to go get photos of the yellow rubber ducks this afternoon... and did exactly that! 

 

By the way, one reason why I hadn't been planning on going to "visit" the rubber ducks this time around was because I found it rather strange that the waterfront at Admiralty, right in front of the government offices, had been where they would be "docked".  And I must say that it felt surreal at times to revisit the area one day and four years after marching there with some 1 million other people who were protesting a proposed extradition bill; this not least since there was quite the crowd there, many of them dressed in black and yellow (the two colours that tend to be most associated with pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong) -- even if it's just the case that many Hong Kongers' favourite clothing color -- even in summer! -- is black, and many of those wearing yellow today were doing so in honor of the rubber ducks! 

 

Not protest marchers but folks -- who just happen to have umbrellas

and such -- on their way to see the (remaining) rubber duck!

 

"What happened to my (yellow) friend? Did (s)he stray too close to 

the red line?" (Sorry, but that joke was just waiting to be made!)

 

Deflated rubber duck, still inflated giant rubber duck, and fans!

 

Some people brought their own rubber ducks to take photos of

with the remaining giant rubber duck!

 

Okay, I admit it: the giant yellow rubber duck's pretty photogenic! :)

 

But, okay, I also couldn't resist taking photos of

the deflated rubber duck! ;b

 

Especially if you've been in this area during the Umbrella Movement

and at certain points in 2019, this sight is just so surreal

 

Not the yellowing I expected to see in this part of Hong Kong!  

(That's the Legislative Council complex, in the background!)

The worrying treatment meted out to Hong Kong's political prisoners, including/notably juvenile inmates

One of Hong Kong's many correctional institutions

-- this one over at Cape Collinson

 

This was one of those days when I got to thinking of Hong Kong's (political) prisoners: because it's yet another hot summer day and a couple of years back, the suffering from of the heat of those behind bars in Hong Kong came to light during a record heatwave.  Of course, in winter, I also get to thinking of Hong Kong's political prisoners: because I doubt that prison cells are well heated then (just as they are not cool in the summer).  

 

And I also get to thinking of them when news comes out of this and that person (including those denied bail after being slapped with national security law charges) getting put in solitary confinement for doing such as giving another prisoner a hug.  The latest: Chow Hang-tung being penalized in this manner after she divulged that she planned to go on a 34 hour hunger strike to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre this past June 4th.

 

So I think it's fair to say that I find myself thinking often, and worrying, about them.  And I think and worry about Hong Kong's political prisoners and the treatment meted out to them even more after reading Shibani Mahtani's piece that came out in the Washington Post today about Hong Kong prisons working to compel loyalty to China among young activists.

It doesn't help that its first paragraph reads as follows: "The day begins with goose-stepping. In the prison yards of juvenile facilities across Hong Kong, young men and women practice the form of marching used by the Chinese military, kicking their legs up high as guards yell out commands."  And continues in the following manner: "In their mud-colored uniforms, the prisoners look almost indistinguishable from military recruits. But before they were detained, these inmates were foot soldiers in Hong Kong’s fight for greater democratic freedoms."

 

And here's the third paragraph of the piece: "Arrested for their involvement in the 2019 mass protests that saw almost a third of the population take to the streets, the detainees are now the latest subjects in China’s decades-long experiment in political control. The goal is to “deradicalize” them, echoing efforts honed by Beijing from the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters up to the forced detention and reeducation of Uyghur Muslims, though the Hong Kong version is not on the industrial scale of the repression in Xinjiang."

 

Some facts that will make all this even more chilling: As of April 30th, some 871 juvenile prisoners had participated in the program; with the youngest being just 14 years of age.  And "The ultimate objective, according to a former prison guard, is to create a feeling of hopelessness among prisoners, deterring the youngest former protesters from activism or even seeing a future in Hong Kong."

 

As Scottish Hong Konger Goose Lee was moved to Tweet after reading Shibani Mahtani's article: "This is stomach churning. The same dystopian ‘de-radicalisation’ techniques used in Xinjiang and Tibet are now being used in Hong Kong. My heart breaks for these kids."  And the fact that "All but one of the former prisoners said they did not regret their actions at the 2019 protests — only getting arrested for them" doesn't make one feel better about the treatment meted out to them.

 

Actually, reading details of the treatment they have got makes one blood boil, and question the humanity of the jailers and prison guards.  "Former prisoners said the withholding of letters from family and friends was a common punishment, leaving prisoners feeling isolated. Others were put in single cells for infractions like holding up five fingers during court appearances — a reference to “five demands, not one less,” one of the mantras of the protests." 

 

And if psychological punishments alone weren't bad enough: "One 20-year-old juvenile detainee said some officers hit the soles of their feet with a wooden stick if they could not accurately recite a list of 19 prison regulations. He said he was hit several times and received some 40 strikes in total. He also witnessed guards using their elbows to hit prisoners at an especially sensitive part of their back, a move the guards called “doing the chicken wing,” and kneeing inmates in their thighs.""

 

Serious kudos to Shibani Mahtani for producing this piece, which involved her speaking to "10 former juvenile prisoners and three prisoners formerly held in adult facilities, all arrested in connection with the 2019 protests, as well as two former employees at the CSD who described the program and how it has evolved over the past year."  (Understandably, all her interviewees spoke on condition of anonymity.)  It is a valuable piece of documentation; and works to help highlight what has been going on in a Hong Kong that is by no means (back to) normal.

 

One last quote from her piece, to make things clear(er): "For democracy to happen, you need people to confront their government, to be angry … that is sometimes inconvenient, but it is not radicalization,” said Louis Audet Gosselin, the scientific and strategic director for the Center for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence, a Montreal-based nonprofit. “Imprisoning and brainwashing is not deradicalization."

 

I'll leave the last word on this to lawyer-activist Kevin Yam though: "Xinjiang did not start immediately with full on crimes against humanity. It started with “deradicalisation” programmes for youths in the aftermath of the 2009 Urumqi riots. The rest was history. So please don’t take Hong Kong people’s warnings about what China might do lightly."

More horror and stress-inducing happenings in Hong Kong post June 4th

  

Good questions to ask about many things happening

in Hong Kong in recent days/months/years

 

With June 4th having come and gone (at least for this year) on Sunday, I was hoping that this week would be less fraught with disturbances.  But yesterday and today have brought word of further shocking events in Hong Kong (never mind other parts of the world, notably Ukraine).  

 

Yesterday saw the arrest of a mother for the murder of her three daughters (aged five, four and two years of age).  These killings by themselves are horrifying.  But the fact that they came just two days after the murder of two women has really shocked a city that -- fear-mongering anti-terrorism campaigns notwithstanding -- really does not see itself as crime capital.  

Something that both killers have in common is that they both had mental issues.  The 39-year-old man who fatally stabbed the two women in Diamond Hill on Saturday had a history of mental illness while the woman who suffocated her three children at their subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po "seemed to be suffering from a mental illness. She was said to have been babbling and talking about ghosts."  

 

This has led many folks here in Hong Kong to reach the following conclusion: "We don't have a sedition problem. We have a mental health crisis." And as another Hong Konger was moved to Tweet: "Hong Kong is a massive simmering bowl of unresolved tension and trauma, built up over the past 4 years. Continuing to push it under the surface won't make it go away..."

 

But instead of trying to solve or even ease Hong Kong's mental health crisis, the government looks to pile on the stress and distress.  Exhibit A today: the continued gaslighting of the public by officials, including Chief Executive John Lee -- to the point that The Economist's Don Weinland was moved to Tweet that: "It seems insane that ppl are constantly asking very direct questions about what is legal and what is not, only to be told in the vaguest possible terms that the law is clear and they must act in accordance with it".  

 

As for Exhibit B: how about the announcement by the Hong Kong government today that "it is seeking a court order to prohibit people from broadcasting or distributing the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” after it was mistakenly played as the city’s anthem at several international sporting events in the past year"?  Lawyer Kevin Yam has explained in legal terms why the Department of Justice would seek to do this.  As a layperson, all I can think of is this all seems to be pretty over the top and only adds to people's fears that Hong Kong is getting further and further away -- rather than closer -- to being a "normal", sane city.

 

For one thing, as Ming Pao's Alvin Lum pointed out: "Not only is [the Hong Kong government] seeking to ban the distribution of the song/lyrics/melody in any way..., it’s also seeking to impose duty on those knowingly allow others to distribute/reproduce the song with alleged illegal intent, which may affect internet platforms." And, oh, "the proposed injunction by [the Department of Justice] also seek[s] to ban 32 various renditions of Glory to Hong Kong on YouTube (in Eng[lish], Japanese, Dutch, Xiqu, orchestra, etc) and “any adaptation of the song, melody, and/or lyrics”"!

 

As Channel News Asia's Chonqing-born reporter Wei Du was moved to state upon reading what Alvin Lum had Tweeted, "This is terrifyingly reminiscent of the episode that led Google to leave mainland China. Pushed enough, tech platforms might start to ask if it’s still worth it, and [Hong Kong] is a puny market, China was big." And this is indeed my fear --  more so than the authorities being successful in getting Hongkongers to stop remembering and singing "Glory to Hong Kong", never mind whistling, humming, etc. its tune.  That is, that this move by the Department of Justice will result in the Great Firewall of China coming to enclose Hong Kong. :(

No candlelight vigil at Victoria Park this June 4th but Hong Kongers still remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre

  

By HKWuliff; featuring Alfred

 

Today marks the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.  Once again, there was no candlelight vigil held at Victoria Park; unlike before 2020.  And for the second consecutive day, the police apprehended people in neighboring Causeway Bay who sought to publicly mourn the civilians killed by the People's Liberation Army in Beijing that summer.  (Update: confirmation's been received that arrests were made yesterday.)    

What's been happening in Hong Kong -- actually, not just today but for some years now -- is, as one political studies professor over in Britain Tweeted, "desperately sad".  But as long-time Hong Kong observer Shibani Mahtani was moved to suggest: "What is notable aren’t the waves of arrests over the past 24 hours - it is that some Hong Kongers are still risking so much to commemorate a vigil that for some years faded out of importance, as a proxy for everything that has happened since June 4, 2019."

 

Amidst the frustration and tragedy, let's pay tribute to and honour the commitment to remember of, in the words of Bloomberg's Matthew Brooker, "These brave, fearless people" -- who include Chow Hang-tung here in Hong Kong (who was placed in solitary confinement by her jailers immediately after she announced that she would go on a 34-hour hunger strike to commemorate] the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre) and the Tiananmen Mothers over in Mainland China.

Also, do not underestimate the ability of Hong Kongers to find ways to "quietly protest" and undertake to ensure that Hong Kong remains outside the borders of the People's Republic of Amnesia.  One interesting method that a number of people have come up with this year: placing bets for 8-9-6-4 at the horse races today!

On a personal note: unlike last year, when I spent all of June 4th at home as well as depressed, I decided to venture out to, among other things, go view a film today.  And I have to say I chose well: because not only did Female Agents tell the story of heroines and heroes resisting against evil in an occupied land but one of this French film's final scenes involved an individual lighting candles in memory of fallen comrades -- in her case, after the enemy was finally overcome.

Preventing the commemoration of a massacre that took place in Beijing 34 years ago but not actual, contemporary murders in Hong Kong

More cops than civilians in this photo taken in

Victoria Park (a public park in Hong Kong) yesterday!

 

It's not yet June 4th but the authorities have already stepped up their efforts big time to make sure that the Tiananmen Square Massacre will not be publicly commemorated in Hong Kong this year (like it was for 30 years -- with a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park).  Among other things, 5,000 police officers -- not in riot gear but, still, dressed in anti-stab vests, complete with some collared thing around their necks -- were deployed to patrol Hong Kong Island's largest urban park and the areas nearby yesterday (June 2nd).  

 

It made this part of Hong Kong look like a terrorist target/police state.  It also seems like other parts of Hong Kong were not being policed as much as usual. Hence some criminals might have seen yesterday and might see this weekend as an opportune time to commit actual, serious crimes.  Like what happened in a busy shopping mall in Diamond Hill yesterday. As in: a man went and fatally stabbed two women. Right outside Plaza Hollywood's Sanrio Gift Gate outlet, to make things seem even more surreal than usual. 

 

Something I want to stress to those of you reading this outside Hong Kong: Murders are rare in Hong Kong (which generally has a very low crime rate); never mind ones taking place during the day in a crowded public space. And really should be when one considers how many police there are in Hong Kong and how super well funded the police force is too! 

 

The problem, of course, is that the police look to have the wrong priorities.  I mean: In view of the Diamond Hill murders yesterday, you'd think that the police would decrease the number of officers deployed to discourage people from going to Victoria Park to mourn the victims of a massacre commited 34 years ago, right?  Instead, the number of cops deployed there and nearby areas today (June 3rd) went up to 6,000!

 

And this evening, arrests look to have been made of artists (Chan Mei-tung and Sanmu Chan, separately), and a young couple carrying a bunch of white chrysanthemum flowers.  Here's the thing though: It's (currently) unclear if they have been arrested or just taken away from the area (Causeway Bay) by the police.  Because... well, what crime have they actually commited?

Is it a crime to mourn?  Is it a crime to remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre?  It is it a crime to carry flowers while walking around a popular shopping and dining area?  Is it a crime to shout out, as Sanmu Chan did, "“Do not forget June 4! Do not forget June 4! HongKongers don’t be afraid of them! Do not forget tomorrow is June 4”?

 

A reminder: For 30 years, candlelight vigils were peacefully held in Victoria Park to commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4th.  Then, in 2020, before China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, the candlelight vigil was not allowed to be held that year -- supposedly public assemblies were disallowed as an anti-pandemic measure; and that has become the "practice" since.  

At the same time, the government keeps on trying to tell the world that "Hong Kong is back"!  To what?  Definitely not normal.  Something I trust that the tourists in Causeway Bay this evening will see full well along with local Hong Kongers.  And the world at large as the news of what's happening -- or, as the case may be, is not allowed to take place -- in Hong Kong spreads internationally.

Already thinking of June 4th on the first of June

  

It may not look like much but the corner building

used to house a museum I'd visit annually

 

I used to make a point to visit the June 4th Museum (that commemorated the Tiananmen Square Massacre) around this time of the year.  My most recent visit there, on June 1st, 2021, coincided with a number of Food and Health Department Services also paying a visit to the premises.  As a result of their visit, the museum closed down -- and no longer exists.   

For a number of years, it also was a tradition of sorts for me to attend the Candlelight Vigil at Victoria Park on June 4th.  Again, that option no longer exists for me; with the authorities having closed the whole park -- Hong Kong Island's largest urban park -- on June 4th last year and in 2021 to the public.  (So people couldn't just not assemble to remember and mourn on the football courts, as had been the case for 30 years, but also avail themselves of other park facilities including tennis courts and children's playgrounds.)

 

In 2020, 2021 and 2022, the pandemic was the reason/pretext given for banning large public gatherings like the June 4th candlelight vigil.  But despite the pandemic no longer being considered to be at an "Emergency" level, there will once again be no candlelight vigil at Victoria Park on June 4th this year; this not least because the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, its organizing body, no longer exists and a number of its key members, including Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan, are currently behind bars.     

So Hong Kongers are having to come up with other ways to comemmorate June 4th this year; with many determined to do so despite the authorities very clearly trying to extend the borders of the People's Republic of Amnesia to include Hong Kong.  In addition to the removal of books about the Tiananmen Square Massacre from public libraries, a number of incredibly petty moves have been undertaken in recent days.

This includes the harassment of establishments such as a store in Sai Kung run by former pro-democracy District Councillor Debby Chan after she announced on Facebook that her shop will give away free candles to commemorate June 4th and the Hunter Bookstore operated by another former pro-democracy District Councillor, Leticia Wong, after she made known that she had trilingual scripts of May 35th, a play about June 4th, in stock by the police and representatives of such as the fire services and the housing department.  (As has been seen with the June 4th Museum and also a number of "yellow" restaurants and bars, the shops get accused -- often with no basis -- of violating minor regulations.  For example, Debby Chan's store was visited by the police who were there ostensibly to check if it was selling alcohol to underaged customers!)    

 

Then there's the farcical case of a cinema having been "advised by industry representatives" to cancel three private screenings of a film that has nothing to do with the Tiananmen Square Massacre because those screenings were scheduled for June 4th.  As it so happens, the private screenings had been organised by  AsOne, an online shopping platform and store founded by yet another former pro-democracy District Councillor -- in this case, Derek Chu -- who told Hong Kong Free Press that "It was scheduled on Sunday simply because the directors (who were going to do a post-screening Q&A) are not available on weekdays. But I think it’s the date that was targeted, not the movie".     

 

For the record: the film in question is To Be Continued, a local documentary about an iconic North Point entertainment landmark and its founder, legendary impressario Harry Odell, which had its world premiere in April at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.  And having been one of the people who saw it at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, I can personally attest to it not being about the Tiananmen Square Massacre (unlike, say, The Gate of Heavenly Peace, which I viewed not so many years ago -- but which can now seem like another life time now -- at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, and is available to be viewed on Youtube)!

 

In any case, Dora Choi, one of To Be Continued's co-directors (along with Haider Kikhaboy), has confirmed that all three screenings of her film scheduled for this Sunday have been cancelled. "It’s a great pity that To Be Continued cannot be screened on June 4 (Sunday). Since the film was screened in April, weekends have always been a peak time for audiences. Also, the two directors are only available to meet the audience on weekends", she told the Hong Kong Free Press. 

 

More than by the way, this is not the first time that the Golden Scene Cinema has felt obliged to cancel screenings of films as it was the cinema where screenings of Inside the Red Brick Wall, the award-winning documentary about the PolyU siege, had been scheduled to take place back in March 2021.  And I must admit to wondering if the Golden Scene Cinema folks are feeling particularly targeted by the powers that be and thus feel a greater need to be more careful than most because the cinema and its parent organisation is considered to be part of the Yellow Economic Circle.    

Seeing how To Be Continued was my favourite of the films I viewed at the 2023 Hong Kong International Film Festival, I do hope that people will have more chances to view it (and take the opportunity to go do so).  I've just checked the Golden Scene Cinema website and see that there are other screenings scheduled for it: on June 9th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 18th and 19th.  Seeing as they all appear to already be sold out, I hope that more screenings will be added -- though I guess public as well as private screenings will not be taking place on June 4th.

Over on Twitter, HK Hemlock (of the Big Lychee, Various Sectors blog) has jokingly asked: "Why not shut all all cinemas on June 4? Indeed, why not close everything on that 'sensitive' day? They could call it a Number 64 Signal."  Thank goodness for small mercies that Hong Kong cinemas will, in fact, stay open on June 4th.  And, if one were to look at the offerings, one might even see films playing on the day in which resistance and rebellion are depicted as positive, admirable actions too!

Amnesty International hands the Hong Kong government a publicity victory even while other events taking place don't place in it a great light

  

Inside an airport that Ugyhur folks would do well to steer clear of

 

Back in October 2021, Amnesty International announced that it would leave Hong Kong, where it had hitherto had its Asia-Pacific headquarters, citing concerns about the national security law that China had imposed on the city in June 2020.  One wonders how much of a negative effect this move has had on the human rights organisation's investigative abilities; this particularly after Amnesty International walked back its allegations that Ughyur scholar Abuduwaili Abudureheman had been "disappeared" in Hong Kong.

 

In a statement issued earlier today, the international NGO revealed that "Abuduwaili Abudureheman spoke with Amnesty International and told us he did not travel to Hong Kong, contrary to previous information received".  Amnesty International also stated that: "We are pleased that Abuduwaili Abudureheman is accounted for. We will continue to strive to offer support to people who reach out to us when they believe they or their loved ones are at risk of human rights violations." 

 

As Hong Kong Free Press chief editor Tom Grundy Tweeted though: Amnesty International "admits they got it wrong but no apology to we media, nor the local [government]. Could be ruinous for their reputation, [and] it's unhelpful for the press who are under major scrunity. Let alone the 1000s of Uyghurs who've been actually detained & are uncontactable by loved ones."  

 

It's worth noting that the NGO's international reputation already has taken a major knock in the past year with the stance they've taken on Ukraine.  And with regards to Hong Kong: what this Abuduwaili Abudureheman incident has done is provide a stick for the authorities to attack the credibility of the news outlets that carried the disappearance story, and to be able to say "See? We were telling the truth" and have proof to show for it -- something which I'm sure they'll make a big deal of for some time to come!

Something that I'm not so sure that the Hong Kong government would like the world to take note of is the trial that began yesterday of 13 individuals accused of "rioting" when they broke into the Legislative Council on July 1st, 2019.  Among them are actor Gregory Wong (who plead not guilty along with five others), and former University of Hong Kong Student Union president Althea Suen and pro-democracy activist-politician Ventus Lau -- both of whom are not even 30 years old yet.

 

The latter two have pleaded guilty; with Suen explaining her decision in a Facebook post which ended as follows: "I have never regretted fighting for freedom, justice & democracy… I am in Hong Kong, in prison, but my mind is still free.” A brave young woman who clearly loves Hong Kong and tried to do what she thought was best and good for it.

 

Another brave Hong Konger who has tried to do what he thought was best and good for Hong Kong, at his own peril is former Apple Daily boss Jimmy Lai. He too was in the news again yesterday; thanks to a Hong Kong court's denial of his "request to terminate his national security trial, pressing ahead with a landmark case seen as part of Beijing’s crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement."

 

As an Associated Press piece noted, Jimmy Lai's "lawyers [had] filed an application to halt the trial, raising concerns that his case was being heard by three judges approved by the city’s leader, instead of a jury.  When Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, it was promised that trials by jury, previously practiced in the former British colony, would be maintained under the city’s constitution. But in a departure from the city’s common law tradition, the security law allows no-jury trials for national security cases.  

 

But: "On Monday, Judges Esther Toh, Susana D’Almada Remedios and Alex Lee unanimously rejected Lai’s request, saying there was no reason to believe they “would be biased, actually or apparently, against” Lai."  Many people are less sure about that. After all, Jimmy Lai has long been a thorn in the flesh of their bosses, the Hong Kong government, and their bosses' bosses, the Chinese government over in Beijing.

 

Also, more than by the way, thus far, the jury-less national security law trials have had a 100% conviction rate -- something very different from the conviction rate of jury trials in Hong Kong. So even if the judges aren't necessarily specifically biased against Jimmy Lai, the evidence would seem to point to their having a predisposition to find all defendants of national security law trials guilty as charged.

 

For the record: Jimmy Lai's national security law case is the first one where the accused has been charged with "collusion against foreign forces".  Also, for the record, that's one of three national security law crimes that he has been charged with.  And, again, let the record show: this is the case for which he has been denied his choice of lawyer: Timothy Owen, King's Counsel.  When it finally gets going on September 3rd, I do hope that the world will not have forgotten this brave man and his beloved Hong Kong.