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As you may have heard, a lot of people go together today in Hong Kong and decided to have themselves a protest. You see, when Hong Kong returned in China in 1997, there was this document called the "
Basic Law." This is kind of like Hong Kong's constitution and among the things it promises is democracy, but only in the fullness of time. Some people have decided that now is that time, but unfortunately for the would-be voters of Hong Kong, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party were not among those people. Last year said leaders proposed a law that would have outlawed subversive speech among others things, and all in the name of security. Five hundred thousand of the people of Hong Kong commemorated the sixth anniversary of returning to the mainland with a protest, in a city that has no history of political activism. The government was taken aback at this suddenly display of civic involvement and so spent the days and weeks before the seventh anniversary hinting at approval of the second annual pro-democracy march, as if hoping that would make people not go.
It failed.
Organizers claim that 530,000 Honkies, as they are known, decided to brave 95 degree (feels like 115 and the hottest day of the year to date) weather to show
Tung Chee-Hwa, the Beijing-appointed Chief Executive of Hong Kong, that they would like to vote. Police put the crowd at 200,000.
I went down to see what all the commotion was about, and it was an amazing experience. The procession began at 3 PM at Victoria Park and wound it's way down one of the main roads, Queensway, towards the governement offices. At around 3:30, I arrived at a pedestrian bridge linking the
Lippo Centre with the High Court Building. This is on Queensway, right next to the Pacific Place mall, a venerable bastion of elite commercialism. This was far and away the most people I have ever seen at once, dwarfing the previous record of 75,000 at an F.C. Barcelona game. After standing and watching for 15 minutes, I got it in my head that I wanted a pair of the RallyStix or ThunderStix or whatever they're called that many people were carrying and so set off in search of them. I proceeded to walk against the flow, the proverbial salmon, for over an hour, collecting pamphlets, flyers, leaflets, cards, stickers, lanyards, a poster, and an inflatable Tung Chee-Hwa head along the way. Shortly after 5:00 PM, having successfully negotiated my way through several hundred thousand white-clad Hong Kong denizens, I arrived at Victoria Park, where I found abandoned HitthemtogethertomakenoiseStix and added them to the collection.
At this point, it was about 5:15, and thousands were still milling about Victoria Park, as the police released them in successive waves a la the metering light in Prunedale, CA (which, as a certain Dale Hinckley informed me, is the only one in Monterey County). I chose to join them, and endured the stifling heat of hundreds of tightly packed sweaty bodies for 10 minutes or so, until I decided that I didn't wish to join the dozens being attended by first aid personnel. People on stretchers were a common sight today, though by no means as numerous as those sprawled in shady corners trying to stave off the dehyrdration and heat exhaustion to which others had succumbed. It must have been much, much worse last year when people were asked to wear black. This year, the organizers chose the more sun-friendly hue of white which, though less ominous, was impressive nonetheless. The route must have been around 4 miles long and was packed with people from start to finish, in a swath as wide as any good four-lane road. Along the way were numerous stages, each equipped with its own loudspeaker and pro-democratic organization, each leading the crowd in strange and unintelligible chants that sound ominously fascist on my recordings but sounded rather hopeful and positive in real life. The crowd, which rustled as any large group does between these stations, never failed to do its part rather vociferously in the call-and-response perpetuated by megaphones. I even saw one group which had radios taped such that they played into megaphones, allowing for a wider area to be influenced by the voice on stage.
This being Hong Kong, the entrepreneurial spirit was present in full-force. Beyond the requisite donation boxes underneath each overworked loudspeaker, hundreds of people sat on the sidewalk peddling water, tea, and sodas. Their presence was a blessing indeed to the thirsty masses. One bakery even had people bringing items out of the shop, across the sidewalk, and selling them over the police barricades. People would point or yell out the name of some cool and refreshing delicacy, and a pink-clad girl would rush to grab it and bring it back, collecting a handful of money in exchange.
Throughout all this, the police stood silently, looking perplexed and sweating profusely. I saw them helping many exhausted people, providing them water or leading them to a first aid table. I saw an officer lean across a barricade to grab a girl who fainted in his arms, and carry her 50 meters or so to a first aid station. I did not see any signs of violence, arrests, or repression. It seems the government bent over backwards to make this parade possible, hoping to calm the agitation and remove the harsh tone of last year, an effort which I believe largely to have been succesful. I hear a report there was one incident where protesters attempted to enter a building with a coffin or something of the sort and were forcibly repelled. I saw the police in a guardian role, preventing disaster but not causing it. Indeed, China has grown far in the past fifteen years, and there was not a single tank in evidence, but merely vans and motorcycles.
I chose air-conditioned public transport to whisk me halfway back to the beginning and cool me down. I emerged and walked back to the bridge at which I began, where I took more pictures, documenting how the passage of two hours had only served to thicken the crowd. This was around 5:30, at which point I'm sure there were still hundreds if not thousands waiting for their turn to begin the procession.
What makes this most remarkable is that people in Hong Kong very rarely protest publicly. The government is remarkably laissez-faire, with low taxes and few services, and the culture thrives on this. People tend to act in their own interest but show little concern with larger issues. Last year's protest was the first of any significance. Rather, people tend to internalize problems and work within the system in a way that is foreign to Americans but I suspect familiar to many Asians. Thus, to see so many of them out questioning the government that has brought them such material prosperity is striking indeed. Also notable was the extent to which people criticize the Beijing government. While last year was focused on Tung Chee-Hwa, this year reached beyond to the CCP, even including a
banner directly opposing Jiang Zemin.
All told, this was a very special experience. The abstract articles and blogs like this will inevitably fail to capture the power of so many people asking for something so simple: the right to choose their leaders. The people of Hong Kong are not asking for a revolution, or for a distinct change in their government. Rather, they're asking for a voice and the chance to determine their own society. I've always taken for granted that voting accompanies civilization and progress and it's odd to be here, in one of the most developed cities in the world, watching people ask for this right. These protests are perhaps their only avenue for demanding change and accountability, and for that, they are proper and noble.
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