Rallying at Chinese University of Hong Kong on Monday, the beginning of a weeklong boycott of classes to protest Beijing's restrictions on choosing the city's next leader.
LAM YIK FEI / GETTY IMAGES
By MICHAEL FORSYTHE
SEPTEMBER 23, 2014
Angus Li, a 19-year-old sociology major at Hong Kong Baptist University, does more than take part in student demonstrations: He accessorizes for them.
Mr. Li was on the hilltop quad of Chinese University of Hong Kong on Monday with thousands of students from local universities, kicking off a weeklong student class boycott. At his side was a tote bag emblazoned with the face of the quintessential revolutionary, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Argentine Marxist. And on Mr. Li’s white T-shirt, in black Chinese characters, the sentence, “When dictatorship becomes a fact, revolution becomes a duty.”
That was a key slogan of the student-led “Sunflower Movement” in Taiwan earlier this year. Demonstrators in Taipei, protesting against a trade pact with China that they feared would further enmesh the island with the Communist mainland, hung the quote, similar to one penned by the French author Victor Hugo, in huge characters on Taiwan’s Parliament building, which they were occupying in a protest.
Students in Hong Kong are gearing up for their own civil disobedience, with plans to stage sit-in protests in the city’s Central business district in coming days and weeks, though these may take place on a holiday, causing minimal disruption. And like their Taiwanese counterparts, fear of the increasing influence of Beijing drives the Occupy Central movement, which is pushing for public nominations for candidates for Hong Kong’s highest office.
Hong Kong’s student rebels, highly educated and living in one of the world’s most affluent and open cities, are drawing inspiration from student movements across the planet.
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Other students passed out glossy programs for the event — much like the kind found at baseball games or Broadway shows — that included a spread about the 1968 student demonstrations in France. And Hugo’s “Les Misérables” also plays into the Occupy Central movement. The movement’s theme song — “Do You Hear the People Sing?” — is from the musical adaptation of Hugo’s classic novel and is sung in Cantonese by a little girl.
Mr. Li, sporting Wayfarer sunglasses, outlined his own plans for the protests. “What I expect here is to make some noise for some actions afterward, like Occupy Central,” he said.
But will Mr. Li take part in Occupy Central, risking arrest?
“I am not sure whether I’ll be sitting down there,” Mr. Li said. “I have no idea.”
“There are some contradictions in my mind,” he said, adding that he is feeling pressure from his family. His father told him not to make a “mess.”
Angus Li, 19, a student at Hong Kong Baptist University. His shirt reads: "When dictatorship is a reality, revolution is a duty."
MICHAEL FORSYTHE / THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/sinosphere/2014/09/23/hong-kong-protesters-take-inspiration-from-paris-to-taipei/
