30th<\/sup> September, 2014\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Student Boycott<\/strong><\/p>\n When news of the week-long student boycott broke in early September, my initial reaction was one of guarded optimism. I was encouraged by the idea that this form of activism was finding (or forging) a platform in Hong Kong, but like many other people I spoke to\u00a0during\u00a0the time, I remained\u00a0unconvinced that uptake would be sufficient enough to really make a noticeable difference. And as the boycott drew closer, and talk of \u201ccatch-up classes,\u201d emailed readings and non-participation began to circulate, it seemed as if this reticence was pretty well founded. The peculiar intensity and results-driven environment\u00a0of Hong Kong\u2019s higher education system, I reasoned, would help\u00a0to undercut the movement just as it was beginning to find its feet.<\/p>\n And this is without taking account of the core message (or aim?) of the boycott itself: greater democracy for Hong Kong; a 2017 electoral system without loaded dice; an agentive rather than Hobson\u2019s choice. That such aims appear\u00a0lofty within the broader context of Hong Kong-China relations is undoubted, and a common (if myopic) critique of the movement focussed precisely on this\u00a0question of outcomes. What did the students hope to achieve through boycotting class? Where was it going to end? And if it wasn\u2019t going to achieve all that much, then why bother in the first place? The problem with this criticism, of course, is that it drastically undervalues the consciousness-raising work that even the most abortive of resistance movements can\u2014maybe\u2014help to produce (as has been played out to such staggering effect these past few days). But this does not mean to say that it did not (and does not still) have its adherents (as well as\u00a0its partial truths), and it certainly helped to contribute to what I saw a few weeks ago as the faint air of negativity and\/or cynicism surrounding the proposed strike.<\/p>\n It was not a great surprise to me, then, that as the boycott began on September 22nd, the University of Hong Kong\u2019s campus seemed relatively normal\u2014which means, in the context of this semester at least, that is was teeming with students, a fraction\u00a0of whom were wearing the yellow ribbon now so strongly associated with recent events. Whilst I occasionally read of students\u00a0in other universities across Hong Kong taking a more active and en masse approach to the boycott, I learned\u00a0from colleagues in HKU that class attendance figures were more or less\u00a0stable, and I\u2019m a little embarrassed\u00a0to say that as the week went on,\u00a0the boycott almost completely fell from\u00a0my thoughts.<\/p>\n Student\u00a0protest at Government HQ<\/strong><\/p>\n The extent of the protests at LegCo on the final day of the boycott (Saturday\u00a027th September) was therefore unexpected. Whilst nothing compared to the crowds\u00a0seen across Hong Kong in the\u00a0past few days, it was already possible to see in the assembled hundreds evidence of\u00a0the cooperation, efficacy and determination that have characterised the so-called \u201cUmbrella Revolution\u201d as a whole. Each time the police line retreated, the barriers (initially deployed by the authorities\u00a0to contain the crowd) were put to work\u00a0as networked barricades; once the order was given, the whole process took no longer than five minutes, and gradually the demonstration\u00a0space expanded to accommodate new arrivals.<\/p>\n When I arrived on the site, the \u201cstorming\u201d (as I\u2019ve sometimes seen it phrased) of the government HQ courtyard had already taken place, and the high-profile arrests already made. People were by and large settling in for a long night, and not without a good deal of trepidation. Already the iconic umbrellas were being deployed as possible shields for pepper-spray; protesters\u00a0often spoke warily of police advances; a legal-aid text number was written on people\u2019s arms in case of arrest; there were reminders also to conserve battery so as to avoid being out of contact.<\/p>\n After\u00a0I left the demonstration site, I heard from protesters still on location that Benny Tai, one of the key figures in the Occupy Central movement, had decided to launch the civil disobedience campaign initially intended for National Day on October 1st. And although this call was not received too favourably by many of the students, who accused Occupy of bandwagon opportunism, it was (partly) through this \u201chitching together\u201d that the consciousness-raising student boycott became what is now headline news around the world.<\/p>\n Occupy Central (Day 1)<\/strong><\/p>\n The real catalyst, though, came on the Sunday evening, with the police\u2019s use of pepper-spray, baton charges and tear gas. The question of provocation is of course particularly vexed here, especially given that police representatives have recently stated that the wearing of protective devices against such weaponry (and by \u201cdevices\u201d I mean something as simple as cling-film) can be cited\u00a0as evidence for the wish to engage, provocatively, with the police (\u201ccause, allow me to introduce you to effect \u2026\u201d). But Lewis Carroll nonsense-logic notwithstanding, it is safe to say that one can lay the charge of provocation rather squarely with the (overworked, exhausted, sometimes frantic) police force.<\/p>\n After the first few volleys of tear gas were\u00a0fired into the crowd, I did see\u00a0a handful of protesters pick up objects to throw at the police, but this retaliation was quickly suppressed\u00a0by fellow protesters. Since then, the only time I\u2019ve seen objects picked up from the ground, they\u2019ve either been placed into rubbish bags\u00a0or sorted for recycling. This is conscientious stuff.<\/p>\n In some part because of the police\u2019s\u00a0disproportionate and violent response\u2014which lasted well into the early hours of Sunday morning\u2014the demonstration began to split into discrete areas across the territory. Before long, new (and frequently attacked) occupied spaces had been established in Central, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui and Chinese University. At the increasingly besieged epicentre of the protests on Gloucester Road, gas-masked, shotgun-wielding police\u00a0tried their level best to remove an intransigent, cooperative and ever-resolute mass of protesters. It was never\u00a0going to be a fair fight \u2026 the police eventually retreated, and the occupied spaces were secured.<\/p>\n Occupy Central\/Umbrella Revolution (Day 2)<\/strong><\/p>\n If, though, the previous day\u2019s violence was marked by a determined and organised solidarity under pressure, then the following day was more a question of consolidating the occupied positions in the face of a curiously absent police force, who, it seems, in a move mirroring the recent Ferguson riots, decided on a softly softly approach following their attempts at removal by force. By the time dusk rolled around, the crowds had swelled to astonishing numbers, and without a police presence, the mood had turned from fear to one of (almost) celebration (who was it that was provocative again?).<\/p>\n Walking from LegCo to Causeway Bay, I was able to witness what a peculiar, uncanny city Hong Kong has now become. From the teeming crowds on Gloucester Road\u2014which now features a mocked up grave for C.Y. Leung, adorned with dead flowers and cigarette ends\u2014the city becomes \u201citself\u201d again by the time you reach\u00a0Wan Chai Arts Centre. Another 15 minutes down the road, however,\u00a0and you hear that now familiar hum of congregated folk, and encounter yet another city junction pedestrianised through force, a space made to speak the political will of its new inhabitants.<\/p>\n On our return home from Causeway Bay, my friends and I were (un)fortunate enough to be interrupted by two tourists looking for a place to drink (or, rather, to continue to drink). We told them that it might be difficult to find transport because of the protests (\u201cI know,\u201d said the girl. \u201cIt\u2019s getting really annoying\u201d\u2014I\u2019m fairly sure my eyes audibly rolled), and told them their best bet would be to walk 10 minutes down to Wan Chai. \u201cOh, I don\u2019t walk,\u201d said the girl \u2026 *roll* \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I don\u2019t walk.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cOh, I don\u2019t walk.\u201d It was a throwaway\u00a0sentence, really, perhaps even a very poorly constructed joke (it definitely wasn\u2019t\u2014she was a prize diltoid). But it led me to reflect on what it is that I see as so important about the protests currently spreading through Hong Kong. In the past, the majority of Hong Kong residents\u00a0expressed their own \u201cOh, I don\u2019t walk-ness\u201d through political apathy, through a blind retention of the status quo. But this has now changed, and changed for good. There is no \u201cdepoliticising\u201d these students now. I know of middle-aged Hong Kong residents who\u2019ve never protested\u00a0before (nor even really thought about it), who have decided to take part in these acts of civil disobedience. I\u2019ve seen old and young alike, facing down lines of police.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I don\u2019t walk\u201d has become a determination\u00a0to be active, to see Hong Kong differently, to engage space politically, through footfall, through critical mass.<\/p>\n Whether the \u201cUmbrella Revolution\u201d (or as I\u2019d prefer, the \u201cUmbrella Movement\u201d) is a success or not is still more than a little uncertain\u2014and if we\u2019re being totally honest, very unlikely. China is a fiery beast that takes none too kindly to jabs and scratches. I\u2019m fearful for the protesters as much as I am heartened by their resolve, by their enthusiasm to take part, to organise, antagonise. This is certainly no time for blunt sanguinity, but there is a communitarian energy and urgent vitality about Hong Kong at the moment that I\u2019ve never seen present before \u2026 and long may that energy\u00a0continue.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n All images courtesy of Aaron Anfinson.<\/em><\/p>\n Nick Webber is a teaching assistant in the School of English and the former editor of the Alumni Magazine. You can read more of his posts at http:\/\/lefolly.wordpress.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n By Nick Webber As we enter a second month of civil disobedience, this is an eyewitness account of the events of late September. Written just after the police fired dozens of tear gas rounds at students and protesters, it is an account of the events that have changed our city.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 30th September, 2014\u00a0 \u00a0 StudentContinue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13750"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16349,"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13750\/revisions\/16349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.english.hku.hk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Nov2014_2.jpg\" "\\"Nov2014_2\\"")
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<\/p>\nPublished on:\u00a0October 31, 2014 < Back<\/a> ><\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"