18 FT.COM/MAGAZINEOCTOBER 19 /2 02019
Facing page(clockwise fromtopleft):
protestersmarch and makegestures
at the police last month; 15-year-old
student MokeCheung;anestimated
twomillionpeople marched on June
16 –one of thelargestprotestsin
HongKong’shistory;NoraLam, who
directedLost in theFumes,afilm
aboutthe activist EdwardLeung◀Forunion presidentKeithFong,Leung embod-
iestraditional Chinese virtuessuch as sacrificing
for thegreater good.“The senseIget is mostpeople
our age support independence butpeopleintheir
thirtiesand forties don’t. Thereare twooverwhelm-
ingemotionsamong ourgeneration–helplessness
and thissense of ‘ifweburn,youburn with us’,”
Fong tells me.In2 017 ,justover10per cent of Hong
Kongers supportedindependence, according to
asurveyconductedbytheChineseUniversity of
HongKong.Academicsestimate this numberwould
behigher ifanotherpollwereconductednow.
Athigh school, Fong’s history teachers told
him about the Tiananmen Squaremassacreand
as troops massedonthe mainlandborder of Hong
Kong this summer,itwas impossible not to draw
parallelsbetweenthen and now.“A ll the virtue
and history embodiedintraditional Chinese
culturehas beendestroyedbythe ChineseCom-
munist party,” he says withashrug. He hasbeen
arrestedtwice, including forpossession of offen-
sive weapons inAugust afterhepurchased10laser
pens,popular among protesters who use them to
disorientpoliceand deter passers-byfromtaking
photographs that might identify protesters.O
nOctober1, asBeijing stagedits
grandestevermilitary parade
to mark the 70th anniversary of
CommunistChina,Wuandhis
newlyformedteam of 20 front-
liners battledpolice in central
HongKong.Ahelicopter circledoverhead.Tear gas
filledthe air. Having losthis teammatesinthe chaos,
Wuhidbehindaconcreteblockbyaconstruction
site. Suddenly,anofficer racedtowards him,
smashingabaton on to the left side of his frame.“A t
that moment,Ithought to myself‘this is it,this is
the dayIam arrested’,” he recounts,afew days later.
Instead, he managedtohoist himself out of
danger,rollingfour timesbeforedragging his
achingbodyaway. Theprotesterbehind him was
arrested.Afew blocks further on,Wuhuddled
insideachurch,aspace off limits topolice with-
out warrants.Other protesters,dashing through a
middle-class neighbourhood,wereamazedwhen
residents openedtheir grilledgates, ushering them
inside.Aftertheychangedout of their blackoutfits,
middle-agedlocals offeredto stash their gear and
ventureout first to makesurethe coastwasclear.
Suchshows of solidarity have recurred through-
out the movement.Impromptu crowdfunding
campaigns have sprung up wheneveractivists see
aneed,with about $15mworth of donations raised
so far.After oneweekend of violence inAugust,
people donated$1m in an hour to takeout adver-
tisementspromoting the protesters’ causein
international newspapers.Aseparate fund helps
with legal fees and medical bills.
Never in HongKong’s historyhasaprotest
movement enjoyedsuch widespreadsupport from
different social identities and professional groups.
Popularmottos include “Don’t distanceyourself,
don’t snitch”and “Togetherweclimb the moun-
tain,eachinourownway”, conveying solidarity
betweenradical front-line protesters and mod-
erate,peaceful ones. The movement is largely
leaderlessbydesign, afterseveral Umbrella lead-
ersweresentencedtoprison.Fearful of China’s
rapidlyexpanding surveillance state, demonstra-
torsmostlymobiliseanonymouslyonline.Doctors,
nurses,accountants,lawyers,familymembers ofpolice, teachers and civil servantshaveall protested
against the government.
Thousands of high-schoolershavealsoorganised
since schoolresumedinSeptember,belting out
“Glory to HongKong”overthe national anthem
during school assemblies, boycotting class and
organising human chains.AtaSaturdayrally
arrangedbyandforstudents, protestsongs ripple
throughthehumidityasstudents wheel outLady
Liberty,ahulking statue withaschool backpack
wavingaflag thatreads “Liberate HongKong!
Revolution of Our Times!”
ForMokeCheung,15, it hasbeenabusyfew
months.Not onlydid he help organise the rally
but he also helpedcraft the election strategies of
pro-democracycandidatesinupcoming district
elections.“I’mnot reallypsychologicallytired but I
am physicallytired becauseI’mnot getting enough
sleep,” he says.His gruelling schedule startswith
gettingreadyfor school at 6am and ends at 2am,
afterhewatcheslivefeedsof thenightly protests
and holds meetingsonTelegram to preparefor the
next ones. He wasone of 120studentsathis school
whoparticipatedinaclass boycott until his teacher
calledhisfatherwho,vehementlyopposedtothe
pro-democracy movement,forcedhim toreturnto
class. “I try tostayatschool until 6pm or hide in
mybedroom to study, play computer games or sleep
just soIdon’t have to talk to my dad,”heexplains.
As the movementevolves, so toohas Cheung’s
attitude towardsEdwardLeung,the imprisoned
independence advocate whoseviolent actions he
didn’t initially agree with or understand. “The first
steponthe path towardsHongKongindependence
is having morelocalistlawmakers,” he says,argu-
ing that thedisqualification of electedlawmakers
with localist views was one of the crucial catalystsfortheunrest. “It feelslikenoone can trulyrepre-
sentyoungpeople’s views now.
“When the time is right to fight for independ-
ence,weshould go for it,but no one haspersuaded
me thatindependence is practicalorworkable
right now,”hesays.“It is much moreimportant
HongKongbecomesademocracythan China
becomesademocracy.”
This attitude, common among manyyoung
people in the territory,worriesPun Ngai, 49,a
professor at theUniversityofHongKong. Three
decadesago,she wasone of about 30 studentsfrom
HongKong whotravelledtoBeijinginsolidarity
with mainland Chinese students and was at Tian-
anmen Squareduring the crackdown. When the
colonial government sentaplanetotakeall its stu-
dents home, sherefusedtoboard. Instead, sheand
some friends spent months travellingbackhome
overland, hosted bysympathetic Chinese.
“Howcanyouchange HongKong without
changing China?Intermsoftheeconomy,political
influence,everythingisinterconnected,”shesays.
Atherrequest,her students have takenher to the
front-line protests.“Back in my daywhenwe were
students,our slogan was‘rootedinthe community,
facing China,opening ourselvestothe wholeworld’,”
sheexplains, in an office filledwithbooks on labour
movements in Chinaand elsewhere. “But now, my
students tell me, ‘You’reout of date Professor Pun,
go home, it’snot safe foryoutocomeout with us,
yourun tooslowly,”she chuckles.
The protests haven’tjustdivideddifferent
generations of activists. AsIreportedthis story,
Igrewincreasinglyconversant in the strategies
youngpeopleacrossHongKong havedeployedto
tackle conflicts with their parents about theprotests
in asociety whereitisn’t uncommon to live at home
until marriage.Screaming. Silence.Sharingheart-
warminganimal stickers in WhatsApp familychat
groupsinresponse torelativescalling protesters
“cockroaches” andothernames.Fighting“bullshit
with bullshit”when logic doesn’twork. Moving out.Loomin goverthecurrentunrestist hequestion:
what happens next? China promisedHongKong
ahigh degreeof autonomy until 2047but fears
aregrowing that the“one country,two systems”
framework will soonbecome“one country,one
system”. “2047isametaphor.2047maywell
happen in 2025or2 030 ,itcould happen thisyear
if the [Chinese military] marchedoverthe border,”
says SamsonYuen,apoliticalscientistatLingnan
University.AsChinese troops mass on theborder,
it ispossible thatBeijingwill deployits armyon the
streetsofHongKong.
Morelikely,the protestswilleventuallysimmer
down but the underlying discontent willcontinue to
pile up,waiting for another opportunity toexplode,
Yuen argues. “HongKong hasalong history of
protests,with each bigger than the previous▶‘ITISMUCH MORE
IMPORTANT
HONG KONG
BECOMES A
DEMOCRACY
THAN CHINA
BECOMES
ADEMOCRACY’
MokeCheung,schoolboy