Hong Kong No Longer Feels Free. But I’m Not Leaving
As I sat down to write this, news came of a Hong Kong government official’s warning that the pro-democracy primaries, intended to select and send the most popular candidates the the Legislative Council in September, might violate the new National Security Law.
I want to scream.
Perhaps I should have gotten used to it by now. After all, the Chinese and Hong Kong governments have shown they will use any means to clamp down on all dissenting voices.
I still remember the elation when a fresh-faced pro-democracy candidate won in my constituency during the District Council elections last September. As I watched one constituency after another flip from pro-government blue to pro-democracy yellow that night, I cried tears of joy. I’d voted in other elections, in Hong Kong and elsewhere, before – but I have never felt that so much was at stake.
We had already been protesting for six months by that point, and yet the demands of millions were repeatedly ignored, police brutality remained unaccounted for, large swathes of protestors had been arrested, and a prominent activist was banned from running one month prior to the elections. Voting seemed to be the only way to make our voices heard. Yet, there was also the fear it might be the last election we were allowed to vote in. That night was a rare moment of victory for the millions who have marched and held sit-downs to demand for greater accountability and freedoms.
I have stopped reading dystopian novels. No fiction could match the mix of anger, disgust and gloom I’m experiencing right now.
Hong Kong is still in a very different place than nine months ago. Press freedom is getting worse by the day, protests are banned, a rising number of pro-democracy legislators are arrested, restaurant owners are ordered to remove ‘Lennon walls’ – likely the most peaceful acts of resistance one can think of – from their own properties. I have stopped reading dystopian novels. No fiction could match the mix of anger,...
