Roaming

“I’m genuinely touched by the sudden influx of attention, but I want to humbly remind everyone that each protester you see in this video is now either in jail, in exile or in some form of hiding. Most can’t escape, and now that the decades-old Hong Kong democracy movement has been completely crushed, they’ll likely live the rest of their lives under Beijing’s authoritarian rule. The protesters knew it would probably end like this, but they did it anyways, hence the rallying cry of “攬炒”… “if we burn, you burn with us”.

Most of my friends now suffer from PTSD, depression or perpetual anxiety. Words and ideas that were once debated in public are now whispered in private - or not at all - out of fear that a neighbour or co-worker or family member overhears and decides to report you. I don’t think calling Hong Kong a police state is an exaggeration anymore, and it’s only the beginning.

Maybe it’s too late for Hong Kong, but you can still learn from what happened here. I hope you realise that you’re not alone, that your pain and yearning is shared by countless silent strangers, and that when enough people speak as one, you can move the needle of history. I’ve seen it happen.

Most of all, I hope you remember us.”

I cannot begin to describe the feelings I have seeing this post here. Grateful, but sadden.

The information here is correct, though the shut down of the Apple Daily, the pro-democary paper was already months ago.

One of our biggest concerns now is the National Security Law, which allows the government to basically arrest anyone and ban anything that speaks against them. Movies and documentaries about the protests have been banned in Hong Kong. (e.g. 少年'May You Stay Forever Young’ and 時代革命 ‘Revolution of our times’, which got the Best Documentary award in Taiwan’s 58th Golden Horse Awards. )

A lot of our protestors are jailed. Our pro-democratic socities have disassembled. Our democratic politicians are facing charges or have been jailed. Candidates for our upcoming election for the legislation council are all more or less pro-beijing, and even publishing a poll that shows people are choosing not to vote for anyone this year risks breaking the law.

The situation is pretty bleak, and a lot of us have plans to leave Hong Kong because of it. Especially teachers, who are either unwilling to teach students propaganda and only information about how great China is, or fear that they will say something anti-China and will be reported and have to go to jail.

People mostly avoid talking about politics now. Whereas once we all talked about it openly, you can feel that we are all censoring ourselves now. And even if they do, it is mostly behind closed doors or whispered between friends or using really watered down facing.

(and whereas once I would talk and post about all this in IG, which is popular among HKers, I do not dare to now. Tumblr still seems safe. Hardly anyone know about Tumblr in HK)