Kacey

“After all the policemen left and only a handful of protesters stayed, pretending to be shoppers, I took my new 360-Camera and walked into the middle of the shopping centre and created an invisible umbrella. Can you see it? Can you still see it? Stay true to yourself. Don’t forget your calling. We will get there one day.”

“Today is the Umbrella Movement’s anniversary. Six years ago, I was sitting at this exact location doing an art project called “Art studies station”. I felt that a lot of protesters voices were not heard, so I created this project. Actually, it’s a counselling service in disguise: to let the protesters speak, but also to give me a chance to listen.”

“There are more than one hundred protest-related court-cases in Hong Kong today. Amazing. I saw on the news a young man was being charged for assaulting the police. I know he might be framed. I saw so many videos on YouTube and livefeed showing how the police framed the protesters. So I decided to go to the courthouse to show my support. Many people were expecting the young man to be sentenced today, but instead he got bailed. Maybe the judge found the case too weak. As the young man walked out the courthouse, our eyes met. He was wearing a facemask, he looked very pale and weak, his eyes disoriented. Going through the law is a disorienting process. The government tries to punish the protesters through executive detention. This young man was in custody already for five days. So, as he walked out of the courthouse I yelled, “Add oil! Support you!”. I felt very sad afterwards. Because I know this is just the beginning of a war for his personal freedom. Good luck to him.”

“I’m glad my wife supports my artistic activism. I know a lot of couples don’t have that kind of support at home. Political polarization has penetrated every aspect of life in Hong Kong, including living rooms and dining tables. This happened back in 2014 during the Umbrella Movement, the then chief executive Leung Chun-ying instigated all this hatred among the people. Turning husbands against their wives, parents against their own children. The Pro-Xi communist government was behind it (Reference to Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China – the Editor). My mom didn’t support my activism work. She represents the old value of her generation which only takes care of self-interest and obedience. She doesn’t understand, that it is the citizens’ duty to resist when facing injustice. She doesn’t even go to vote. So during family dinner gatherings, whenever they talk about politics, I just try to keep my mouth shut. To keep the peace. Bad politics have destroyed some of my relationship with my mom, but I’m not mad at her. I know that it is the system that is doing all the damage.”*

“The Hong Kong protesters like to use cute looking cartoon figures to spread their messages. One of the most famous figures is the pig. It is an optimistic figure that is sometimes full of emotions. It quickly became a meme in animations and spread like wildfire in Hong Kong. Another popular figure is Pepe the Frog. It was originally by the artist Matt Furie from the US back in 2005. Pepe the Frog is also an optimistic character that likes to say stuff like ‘It feels good, man’. A happy-go-lucky type of figure. But as it got popular in the US, the alt-right movement picked up on this symbol and highjacked it. So quickly, Pepe became associated with white supremacy. Without knowing much about Pepes sad kidnapping history, the Hong Kong protesters reappropriated Pepe the Frog for the Anti-Extradition-LawThe extradition law was intended to the Hong Kong authorities to extradite criminal suspects to mainland China. But after the mass protests in 2014, the Hong Kong government withdrew their plans. Movement back in 2019. Of course, this created a controversy. So one of the protesters wrote to Matt Furie and asked him for answers. Matt replied: ‘This is great news! Pepe for the people!’”*

“On the surface, my story was about the pandemic and the feeling of loneliness and helplessness and trying to get away. But deep inside, the hidden script is really about my feelings about the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Movement. During that year, there were so many news stories about dead bodies being found on the sea, and some of the protesters were killed and shot – and their names keep popping up in my mind like a dark shadow. I can not wave it away. So I wanted to do something to commemorate these people, those protesters, who went away. I think the only way to set us free is to become them. That is to say, to continue to live in their manner, in their spirit. This way we can really become free. Not to forget them, but be like them. To resist.”*

“I used to be the coach of a war game team. This is the kind of sports where everybody wears camouflage and carries airsoft guns to shoot each other in the jungle. Of course, laugh about it in the graveyard, too. I’ve done this for twenty years and my team got a high record. We’ve won multiple open war game competitions in Hong Kong in the past. The team’s captain and my teammates used to be very close – we used to go through life and death situations together. So that experience bonded us. But as the situation in Hong Kong worsened politically, polarization tore us apart. When some of the members wanted to talk about pro-democracy issues in the forum, the captain tried to put a stop to it. He thought this would maintain the peace. The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei once said, ‘Everything is art, everything is politics’. That’s so true. Everything is somehow related to political issues, and of course our captain did not understand this. So, as political tension mounted in our team, members found themselves in political opposition to each other, and the captain’s order was continuously ignored. One day, my captain exploded and left without saying goodbye. I have not seen him since then, and I do not feel bad about it. Since I think we have fundamental differences in our intrinsic values – he thinks putting everyone in silent mode and making them obedient will maintain the peace. But I think he may have forgotten that confronting injustice is the real test of a man.”*

“This is the tombstone of Yeung Ku-wan. He was one of the founders of the Furen Literary Society, which was a cover-up-group for a resisting the Qing government in 1890. He was eventually assassinated by agents sent by the Qing government. He died at the age of 39 years in 1901. What’s interesting is that he was buried here in an unmarked grave for 110 years. The British were worried that the Qing dynasty would continue assassinating everybody visiting his grave, so the tombstone remained blank, only marked by a number: 6348. The broken columns in Yeung Ku-wans tombstone symbolise that he died before realising his aspirations. Imagine one hundred years later, maybe Hong Kong is finally liberated, its glory shines again once more. But the protestors and revolutionaries are already long gone. The unsung hero of the future. Heroes with no names, no faces. But that does not matter. It is never personal, but something much bigger than ourselves. Our culture, our language, our land, our home, our memory, our Hong Kong. Be that unsung hero, be that hero of no face and no name.”*