After a successful Book Club launch this past
spring with Margaret Atwood and
Barbara Gowdy, we’re delighted to announce
the second in the series, this time in
Vancouver hosted by award-winning author
Esi Edugyan. Follow along with Edugyan
and The Globe and Mail Book editors as they
discuss the story and themes of her book
selection each week in the Globe Books
section and in the Books newsletter.
We are excited to reveal that Edugyan
has selectedTheBrokenHoursby
Jacqueline Baker. She has described
this book as “Deliciously creepy,
heartbreaking and beautiful”.
TheGLobeandMaIL
BOOKCLUB
ISBACK!
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Please go to the Arts & Books section of the newspaper for more details.
A6 | NEWS OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2019
Anti-government protests fizzled
on Friday after a night of clashes
in a central bar district, but promi-
nent pro-democracy activist Josh-
ua Wong has called for 100,
people to take to the streets of the
Chinese-ruled city on Saturday.
Flash mob protests in three
Hong Kong shopping malls, pro-
moted by activists online, failed to
materialize.
A day earlier, black-clad protes-
ters, wearing banned face masks,
mingled with dressed-up Hallo-
ween revellers in the narrow, slop-
ing streets of Lan Kwai Fong, the
first time the bar district had been
targeted.
Police fired tear gas to break up
the crowds down the hill in the
Central business district and were
heckled by revellers. TV footage
showed police firing pepper spray
directly into the faces of two pro-
testers.
Anti-government protesters
have taken to the streets for five
months of sometimes violent un-
rest, angry at perceived Chinese
meddling with the freedoms
guaranteed when the city return-
ed from British to Chinese rule in- China denies the charge.
Saturday was expected to mark
the start of 22 straight weekends
of protests.
Police said on Friday they had
seized stun guns and bombs
made from cooking- gas cylinders
in recent days. One man was ar-
rested for selling 20 extendible ba-
tons and 10 stun guns.
“The seizure of stun guns and
homemade mechanical bombs is
a bad omen,” Chief Superintend-
ent of Police Public Relations Tse
Chun-chung told reporters.
Activists have attacked police
with gasoline bombs, set street
fires andtrashed government
buildings and businesses seen as
pro-Beijing. One policeman was
slashed in the neck with a knife
last month.
Police have fired tear gas, pep-
per spray, water cannons, rubber
bullets and occasional live
rounds. Several people have been
wounded.
Joshua Wong was disqualified
on Tuesday from standing in dis-
trict elections, a move he said was
“clearly politically driven.”
“If more and more people, not
only a few thousand, but if more
than 100,000 Hong Kongers take
to the streets tomorrow, it can let
the world know how Hong Kong
people fight for a free election,” he
told reporters.
Mr. Wong was a leader of the
student-led pro-democracy street
protests that broke out in 2014 but
has not been in the forefront of
the current unrest.REUTERSActivists Joshua Wong, second from left, and Kelvin Lam, second from right, hold a media conference in Hong
Kong on Tuesday after Mr. Wong was barred from running for election.ANTHONYWALLACE/AFP/GETTYIMAGES
Activistseekshugeturnout
forweekendHongKongrally
Fridayflashmobsflop,
butcityisbracedfor
a22ndconsecutive
weekendofprotests
HONGKONG
Fire and police investigators inspected the burned-out ruins
of Shuri Castle on Okinawa on Friday to determine the cause
of the fire that nearly destroyed the symbol of the Japanese
island’s cultural heritage and history of struggle.
The fire Thursday burned down the three main halls and
four nearby structures at the castle in Okinawa’s prefectural
capital of Naha. It took firefighters 11 hours to extinguish the
blaze.
More than 130 investigators inspected the site on Friday,
according to local officials. They believe the blaze started in-
side the Seiden, the castle’s centrepiece, around 2:30 a.m.
when no one was around.
The late hour and the castle’s design, with a spacious
wooden main hall connected to other main buildings by hall-
ways, might have allowed the fire to spread quickly.
Shuri Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage site which dates
from the 1429-1879 Ryukyu Kingdom era. The castle, burned
down during the Second World War, was largely restored in
1992 for the 20th anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan
that ended the island’s 27-year U.S. occupation. Historians
and other experts had continued the restoration efforts until
recently.
Many Okinawans expressed
deep sorrow over the damage
to the castle, which is a symbol
of their cultural roots as well as
the history of their struggle
since the 1879 annexation by
Japan.
Okinawa Governor Denny
Tamaki said his heart was bro-
ken, but expressed his deter-
mination to reconstruct the castle. Mr. Tamaki, who cut short
a trip to South Korea and returned to Naha on Thursday, was
in Tokyo on Friday meeting central government officials to
seek their support.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed his
sympathy to the Okinawans, adding thatthe government is
willing to do everything it can to help the castle’s reconstruct-
ion.
Investigators were focusing on the ruins of the Seiden hall.
Video on NHK public television showed dozens of officials in
uniforms and white helmets searching through charred de-
bris, putting pieces into buckets for further examination.
The fate of hundreds of historic Ryukyu arts and crafts was
also uncertain. Fire officials said they believe treasures dis-
played at the castle were mostly replicas of originals kept in
safe storage elsewhere, but were trying to confirm their
whereabouts.
Okinawa Churashima Foundation, which oversaw the cas-
tle, said it could not immediately confirm the status of a col-
lection of historical artifacts kept at the castle.ASSOCIATEDPRESSInvestigatorsinspectruins
ofJapan’sshuriCastle
todeterminecauseoffire
MARI YAMAGUCHITOKYOOkinawaGovernor
DennyTamakisaidhis
heartwasbroken,
butexpressedhis
determinationto
reconstructthecastle.