Umbrella Uprising: A Visual Documentation Of The 2019 Hong Kong Protests

All of us know, there was a social movement in the second half of 2019 in Hong Kong. This social movement is still going on even now though the scale is quiet down a little bit because of the pandemic and the recently imposed China law “National Security Law” from Beijing to oppress the discontent and opposition.

 

Why are the people in Hong Kong so radical as to oppose the government？

 

The start off of the movement was that the Hong Kong government wanted to pass the extradition law to include China. The legal system in Hong Kong is completely different from that in the mainland China. So even after 1997 hand over, Hong Kong remains a member in those countries practicing common law and we have extradition of the suspects between us. This does not include China. If the Hong Kong government passes the bill last year, that meant China courts can announce any body guilty and ask the Hong Kong Government to send them back to China. That makes no difference to applying China law to Hong Kong citizens. This will mean freedom of speech will come to an end and we cannot criticize the Hong Kong nor Beijing government. We had massive strikes of one million and then two millions people in the street to protest this in the first two weeks in June 2019. I was there at that time.

 

At the beginning, the government refused to back down. Social protests spread widely and quickly and young people, mostly students employ some radical means like blocking the roads. These strikes happened in Hong Kong starting summer holiday and were launched on daily basis.

 

The police started using more than necessary force to oppress the protestors. A lot of police brutality appeared in the camera every day. The police brutality like that on George Floyd happened in Hong Kong every day . There were a lot of other more serious cases. In July 21, 2019, the police had employed hundreds of triad society members to attack the protestors when they finished the protests back home.

 

From then, an outbreak of rage permeates the whole society. The society was demanding not just the withdrawal of the bill, but also the setting up of a lawful and independent inquiry committee to investigate the police brutality.

 

The government at this stage had backed down to withdraw the extradition bill. But the government was also firm to support the police and refused to investigate them. The withdrawal was too little and too late. Hong Kongers all believe that the police force was no longer the one we had before. It was already under the control by communist police. That is the only reason why they were behaving like this and the government cannot investigate it by a separate independent committee.

 

The whole situation is not solved up to now. The China government, instead of addressing the issue, try to silence the whole society. That is why they introduce the “National Security Law” in June 30, 2020. Under this new law, the government can appoint their own Judge for the case. They can even send the arrested back to China for secret trial. By this law, my comment is, they can put anyone in jail for life sentence by whatever reasons they want. It is totally an imposition and addition to the Basic Law. It is a 100% violation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed in 1984 and against the One Country Two Systems.

 

Hong Kong is a buffer between freedom and totalitarian rule. The world can see this.

 

I am proud to be a member of Hong Kongers. I am proud to see our young people are so brave enough to stand up and say no to the most powerful totalitarian regime in the world. In the last 12 months, we have more than 9000 young people arrested. 30~40% of them spent weeks in hospitals because of the police brutality. Most of them are students. Last summer, over hundreds of young people deaths happened in Hong Kong are filed as “unsuspected suicide”. The police force has used up 20000 teargas bullets in 2019. Yes, more than 20 thousands, in half year in 2019. It was 750 per week. These protestors are only using umbrella to protect themselves from the teargas bullets.

 

We are so glad that most western countries especially the UK are giving a helping hand to these people by accepting them as easy immigrants or political asylum.

 

I was thinking what I can/should do and to help them. What can I do to help Hong Kong, a lovely city which is now in danger.

 

Umbrella Uprising is a visual documentation of the 2019 Hong Kong protests. It is a collection of art pieces from the propaganda group. This group has around 6000 young people in Hong Kong and overseas. They are supporting the movement from all over the world. They show their creativity in posters, slogan and ideas. They contributed a lot to make the movement so creative and dynamic. They are also gathering support overseas by various activities including those two worldwide newspaper advertisements.

 

I asked one member in this group to help publish this book. He is my son. My lovely son Jeffrey has been working very hard for one year to compile this book. It is great. I am proud of his contribution. We had marked this moment in history and let the world understand what it is about, we can now tell the world why we Hong Kongers have to stage out this Umbrella Uprising.....