3 minute read
HONG KONG
from Jerk February 2020
words by Cara Pomerantz illustration by Nina Bridges
At first glance, Hong Kong seems like a typical crowded, bustling city. And it is, on parts of the islands. There are three major islands—Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and Lantau. The western Coast of Hong Kong Island is the well-known part—with Victoria Peak, the central business district with huge banks and energy companies, and the hot nightlife of bars, international students, and dance clubs.
I lived on Kowloon this past semester, in a district called Hung Hom. My favorite fact about our neighborhood is that it is said to have more dead people than living. This is to say, the area is known for its high volume of elderly residents, funeral homes, mausoleums, and funeral flower shops. For that reason, we were able to avoid the worst of the protests and unrest, until the very end of our stay. The culture in Asia has a large focus on uninterrupted rest for both the elderly and for the dead. So the protestors, who were mostly university students from local colleges (including CityU, the school partnered with Syracuse University), respected the area enough to keep their protests away from our neighborhood.
For the first half of the semester, the energy around the city seemed normal; we would see kids walking to school, people crowding the subways on their way to work—business as usual. People went about their days, with the occasional closure of the central subway station, or a warning to stay away from certain areas. However, as time went on, the adults and elderly citizens of Hong Kong became more and more vocal about their displeasure with the protests and the attitudes of the youth protesting. They were, as many expressed to us in class and on field trips, disappointed with the rebellious nature of students and younger generations, when they had worked hard and lived through a lot to give them a better life. This general unpleasantness and disdain for protesters, expressed through grumpiness, and in some cases, refusal of service in shops and restaurants, was pretty much the extent of our exposure to the unrest for the first part of the semester.
Eventually, as protests escalated and larger events happened, the protests became a more prevalent part of daily life in Hong Kong. There were weeks when mini buses, cabs, and other alternate forms of transportation became necessary, as the subway system began to close at eight or nine pm (effectively cutting off all travel between islands), and there were times when our classes and even our midterms were postponed because it was deemed unsafe to take the subway due to violent disruptions at stations. The last week we lived in Hong Kong, was the climax of the protests and unrest. A gloom settled over the city. The final few nights of the semester, the protesters had moved into our neighborhood, we could see tear gas and fires from our apartment windows. Going out to the markets and malls for last minute Christmas present shopping was depressing. So few people were out and about, and those who were, were quiet and sullen. Even
shopping at the biggest market in the city was upsetting—many of the ladies running the stalls were letting their merchandise, even the knockoff designer pieces, go at much lower prices than normal, while complaining to us that their business had become so bad because no one was in the mood to shop.
My last night spent in Hong Kong, the protests reached our neighborhood and I watched with my roommates from the window of our apartment. It was upsetting for us to watch for a multitude of reasons. We had become attached to the city of Hong Kong, and we were saddened to see its citizens so at odds with one another and the government. I want the city and the younger generations to have a chance to achieve true democracy and political freedom, but I also want the culture and energy of the city from before the protests began, to be preserved. For the sake of those who live there permanently under the fear that China’s government may crack down on them and change their way of life entirely. But all this didn’t scare us off, rather, it made us want to stay and fight for the culture we had grown to love. JM
