A City of Protests

By Mui So Yee

subsequently a job with high salary. Anyone living in Hong Kong can easily discern the extent to which Hongkongers care about money.

However, the protests have brought tremendous changes to the city. For one, law and order within society has been severely affected. While mass protests in June were very peaceful, within six months, police have arrested more than 4,000 people, and no more approval has been granted by the police for peaceful demonstrations. At the same time, police brutality has been a core grievance for protesters after the proposed bill was withdrawn. Police have been firing thousands of rounds of tear gas in many residential areas and recently in central business areas as well. As Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, according to an article published by Bloomberg on November 9, up to 88% of the population has been exposed to tear gas and have started to feel the effects of long-term tear gas exposure after police had fired as many as six thousand canisters at protesters. Protesters have also recently started firing petrol bombs, arrows and even catapults against police.

Since June this year, Hong Kong has been on the headlines of international news due to the ongoing protests, triggered initially by a proposed extradition bill. Like many other Hongkongers, I found it very difficult to digest what has been happening and comprehend the drastic changes over these few months. Prior to the protests, the political awareness of most Hongkongers was relatively low. As a city renowned for its competitiveness, its fast pace of living and its sky-high property prices, the main focus of many Hongkongers was on their jobs. For adults, working hours are notoriously long. For children, they are often subjected to the pressure of attaining a high level of achievement in academics and extracurricular activities, with the ultimate goal of getting into a reputable university and As such, Hong Kong’s economy has been critically hit. The city has been crippled for a few days in November. People could not work, schools were closed, roads were paralysed. Hong Kong was like a warzone. Businesses have been badly affected and there has been a significant drop in the number of tourists. It appears that protesters would rather sacrifice their future or even their lives for fighting for freedom and democracy, showing more concerns about their rights and justice over making money. This goes hand in hand with the significant increase in political awareness among Hongkongers. One million people participated in the mass protest on June 9 while two million showed up on June 16 regarding the proposed Extradition Bill. The scale of “The protests have brought tremendous changes to the city”

these demonstrations was unprecedentedly large. The sense of political awareness is particularly prevalent among younger members of the society, as surveys carried out by a team coordinated by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in June, July and August, found that among more than 6,000 participants, around half of the protesters are in their 20s. People between 30 and 49 made up another quarter of the protesters. With all these drastic changes in our beloved city, a lot of Hongkongers are experiencing an acute sense of helplessness and anxiety. On Sunday November 24, prodemocracy candidates won a landslide victory over the pro-government candidates in the district council elections. Almost three million people turned out to vote in these elections, which were framed as a de facto referendum on the protests. With more than 70% turnout, higher than any other elections in the city’s history, this demonstrates both Hongkongers’ commitment to democracy and that they are counting on this election to point a way out of this impasse. Hong Kong is still protesting and we still do not know where it may go. It seems to me that if there are any imminent threats to the values of freedom and human rights, Hongkongers would step up and fight for them regardless of the cost. “It seems to me that if there are any imminent threats to the values of freedom and human rights, Hongkongers would step up and fight for them regardless of the cost”