That day I watched the Hong Kong film 'Ten Years' (2015) 《十年》. It wasn't an easy film to digest. Directed by Kwok Zune, Wong Fei-pang, Jevons Au, Kiwi Chow, and Ng Ka-leung, the film comprise five short snippets set in or before the year 2025 in Hong kong; all of which eerily foreshadowed the events and social sentiments in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
The first two stories are a little slow and I couldn't quite get into them. The last three stories were more interesting to me. Jevons Au's 'Dialect' 《方言》is sooo real. It's not English that's the language in Hong Kong these days. It's putonghua. And the Hong Kongers have to adapt, or wilt. Kiwi Chow's 'Self-Immolator' 《自焚者》is sad and painful. Interviews with commentators are interspersed with the events at hand, of how a young protestor dies of hunger strike in prison. This story ends with an old woman (a long-time protestor) disillusioned with the political happenings, setting herself and her umbrella on fire in front of the British Consulate, alluding to the Umbrella Movement and the people's wish that the British would push for and uphold the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984.
The last story is Ng Ka Leung's 'Local Eggs' 《本地蛋》, revolving around a provision store owner and his son, and the Communist Party's Youth Guards. They go around to ensure adherence to words, phrases and items allowed in retail shops. The provision store isn't allowed to list eggs as 'local' (本地蛋). They could however, list it as 'Hong Kong eggs' (香港蛋). Okaaaaay. The provision store owner's young son is also involved surreptitiously in supplying the list of censored titles and words to the bookstore so that they could keep away 'contraband' books. Even Doraemon is banned! The provision store owner, his son and the bookseller would all be likely arrested and charged, if found out. Their actions would be considered 'insurrection', I suppose.
I have followed the arrests, court appearances and verdicts of the protestors and activists, and frowned at certain sentences meted out to them. Not dissimilar to what Singapore does to arrested activists. Much of what I have to say isn't for this blog. It's an in-depth analysis mostly for my own personal awareness, and to a lesser extent this year, work papers.
I feel for the Hong Kong protestors. I get what they're fighting for, but I don't see a way out. They're up against China. They're up against Beijing. And we know enough of history to know how rebellions and protests always end. There is no democracy. Beyond words, it's also obvious that the 'West' will not concern themselves with Hong Kong, not at the risky of angering China. This is a movement, it's a flash in the pan, and it's not easy to fight against the political tide. The over-arching National Security Law is Beijing's answer to Hong Kong's demands of democracy and its definition of the principle of 'one country, two systems'.
The book also covered three chapters on the thoughts of ethnic minorities who are also Hong Kong citizens, as well as migrant workers who are long-term residents, and also gangpiao (港漂), the drifters who are well-educated young mainland Chinese who have made the city home in the past decade, arriving through the Hong Kong Immigration Department programs targeting young professionals. There's a chapter under the theme 'Beyond Borders' that offered a 'View from Singapore', penned by SCMP reporter Dewey Sim. In many essays about Hong Kong, invariably Singapore is mentioned.
Unlike Hongkongers, Singaporeans were what he termed "law-and-order people" who had accepted that economic progress had its trade-offs, even if it meant giving up some rights. Ortmann said Singaporeans had been taught from school that it was "best to follow orders," with the government promoting the idea that "any opposition or challenge could pose a risk to the survival of Singapore, and thus, must be avoided." Many Singaporeans are therefore unsympathetic to Hongkongers, and this in turn gave Hongkongers the impression that some in the Lion City were gloating at their misfortune.
Perhaps the clearest demonstration of a culture clash was found in remarks by Singapore's prime minister at a business conference in October 2019, in which he criticized Hong Kong protestors' hallowed "five demands," which included the withdrawal of the extradition legislation and an inquiry into police conduct. Lee Hsien Loong told the forum that these demands were intended to "humiliate" the Hong Kong government and that acceding to them was unlikely to solve the deep-seated issues linked to one country, two systems. He said the protestors did not know what their endgame was, but were continuing to demonstrate as a way of expressing their unhappiness. At a separate event, he warned that the city state would be "finished" were it to suffer Hong Kong-style protests.
I really like this Cantonese description of mocking the government in handing out sweeteners to Hong Kong residents - 蛇齋餅糭. I appreciate the usage of Cantonese in English phonetics. It reminds me of what the Hong Kong protestors are fighting for. There's much meaning and significance to the names. Say, wo lei fei (和理非) and jung mou (勇武) to describe the protestors who are split into moderate and radical factions.
Wo lei fei and jung mou demonstrated a rare unity born of the lessons gleaned from the Occupy protests. The endless infighting between the moderate and radical factions of Occupy in the end gutted the movement from inside. The strategy of occupying spaces over long stretches inconvenienced people and drained their goodwill. Remembering these missteps, protestors like CC were disciplined about adopting short, seemingly random bursts of rampaging to sustain momentum and public support and elude any police target.
They also worked hard at cultivating the image of a leaderless movement, so there would be no ringleaders to arrest. The reasoning went that even if influential figures were picked up by police, others could step in.
The Hong Kong I know is fading, not for the lack of trying. This is a book that I'll be purchasing to keep on the shelves. There're objective and honest voices, and balance in both sides of the coin. The purchase (that takes up space) would be totally worth it, considering SCMP itself as a news outlet might become more conservative in the years to come.
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