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Protest Thoughts Open Call

in the December of 2019,

we posted an open call on instagram asking people to share their thoughts and feelings about the protest, which we thought we were going to soon compile into some sort of zine.

After collecting people's submissions, with which we're super super grateful for, we didn't quite know what to do with it because there was a looot of information on the internet.

Today, in the midst of coronavirus, when the protests have taken a new form but is still alive and strong, we've finally put all the works we've gotten so far on this continuous, vertical (sometimes horizontal), online/digital zine.

Hope you are well. 

- May 2020

english title
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list of submissions
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click for direct access!

scroll down to begin 😊

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Kevin Lo (老元傑) - photo

by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo (老元傑), in snowy Montreal

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The poster is printed on an old letterpress with giant woodtype letters. It was important for me to make this poster by hand, with my own labour. I needed some sort of visceral experience to deal with the emotions I have around what is happening in Hong Kong.

 

As a radical social justice activist, it has been hard to find space to talk about this. Standing for Hong Kong is often reductively understood as being pro-west or pro-capitalist in these circles, which I am definitely not. I am for the people, and against authoritarianism. For the struggle for dignity in all its terrible beauty. Ga Yau!

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by anonymous

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anonymous - poem + photo
too naive - meme #1

by too naive

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Heung Gong Yun - google form response

by Heung Gong Yun in Boston, MA

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wygnast - video piece + performance art

by wygnast 

in vancouver, canada

This is a letter to my grandparents who have all passed and explores the guilt that I have felt being an incompetent grandchild because I was unconventional and different and also for being faraway. It also explores the helplessness of being a outsider watching from lands away. 

The piece explores a few different perspectives including this feeling of longing and loss after HK was returned to China, feelings of helplessness from watching the events unfold from faraway, a snapshot of what's actually happening from an insider and a memorial of those who have been lost in these events.

Sius - google form response

by Sius, in Bangor, Maine, USA

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來生不做衝衝子 - textual journal entry

by 來生不做衝衝子 in HK/LA/CGN

           十一月份從印度回到科隆,十二月份印度當局以暴力鎮壓大學生和平集會。雖然與香港政事的logical mileage有點遠,可是因為那十來天在印度與當地學生、老師每天緊密相處的日子,印象太過深刻。深刻的尤其是日積體驗到階級觀念的根深蒂固。首先要全國性消除制度上的束縛已經很難,其次是即使當權者願意配合,要讓全國人民明白到世上不只一種宇宙觀,並期待他們以新的準則和方式生活是何其浩大的工程。在今天的印度,若是你投胎成為了一個最基層印度教家庭的女性,你的人生會在西方角度顯得特別不堪,而且可能憑一輩子,你都不會看到整個系統完整被擅改,或者即使看到,你也沒有辦法identify。一位來自印度東北的設計老師說道:It’s been improving. The government is actually doing a lot to narrow the gaps and eradicate the caste system but I don’t see how this problem will ever be fully resolved. The religious aspect is too deep-rooted. 十二月份的和平集會正是與宗教維穩有關,而宗教和宇宙觀是當地捍衛國家核心價值的最大支柱。

 

           可能是逗留的時間並不長,或是那些日子在大學象牙塔內過得特別輕鬆愉快,整個過程只記得我們一群德國學生無時無刻替當地收到階級和性別觀念有形無形地欺壓的學生抱不平,生來便面對這些問題,並且非常好客的他們在外來客面前對政權的投訴確是少之又少。因為如此,這次透過ig看到他們對政府在鎮壓手段上的不滿更是讓我見證到官民之間表面上的和諧關係是如此脆弱。無論是印度還是香港,並不是學生不知感恩,或被寵壞至於霸道、叛逆,絕大部分學生示威一開始都是一小撮人以和平和愛為出發點的集結,導致更多學生反抗的trigger乃是居高臨下的前輩們強烈鎮壓後,對年輕一代的道德標準和道德定義,以及他們公義的實踐所表示的不理解、自負及漠視。不能說上一代不重視道德,而是他們的道德觀念著重於缺乏浮動性與多義性的既定標準以及傳統美德,這些一直以來為社會帶來穩定和經濟效益的事物,過去被多次驗證成效,安放在神台上,彷如科學理論般不能動搖。另外就是透過君臣父子一類型有助鞏固階級規劃的傳統觀念,長期維繫、整統著社會性的「合作運動」(所以我覺得想得出「不合作運動」的那個人很有才華)。在建制底下,若是這些標準的重要性倖存,社會穩定性卻已受到損害,那要改變的斷不會是那些準則,而是準則以外的所有東西,包括人的思想和心理,務要讓它們和原有標準再度呈現高效率狀態。這更反映在近年世界傾右政權所宣傳的“make XXX great again”和中老年人民族懷舊文化意識的強化。

 

           在印度我又學到另一神邏 — 就是ragging — 這概念應該很容易被我們消化。Ragging是senior對junior的校園欺凌,但這欺凌帶有關愛成分,senior可以去差遣和欺負junior,但權力附屬義務和責任,當senior享有至上的地位,他也得幫助junior去解難,並維護他們免受別的senior欺負。說起來有點像人在江湖身不由己的古惑仔,可能這是在政治與法治體系較為不完善的社會中管用的低成本人治手法。我對印度校園ragging文化中的關愛特別感興趣,它讓我想起六月時林奠對著無線觀眾哭訴自己對香港的愛與犧牲,多麼噁心。極權主義換個名稱後變成帶有關愛的家長式管治,把自己設在家長般無容置疑的地位,既享有權力,又能對愛的形象賦予幻想,就去每月領著40萬還敢自稱香港母親,且不懂為著自己領著工錢而做不好的工作感到羞恥,可見這個senior ragging的技巧學得並不夠高。

 

           我們可以輕鬆拆穿林奠的ragging技巧而她讓上一代還蒙在鼓裡,和不同年代人士接受的資訊有莫大關係,這個相信我不用多說。華人社會主張修身齊家治國平天下,從內而外,家庭飾演細胞小組的角色,家長式管治的排練自然由真正的家長開始,延伸至社會。只是這個年代的許多家長有雙重人格:一方面擺脫不掉傳統的父權人格,另一方面渴望像西方家長一樣和子女成為好朋友;一方面執著小孩對長輩的服從與尊重,另一方面把教導小孩的「天職」外判給家傭、老師、互聯網,導致家庭式管治從內而外崩壞並失效。中共有先見之明,(要知道中國有多少留守兒童)從傳媒、互聯網和學校開始教化學童,到現在官方的普及價值觀已經是無堅不摧了。這時候香港政府才想亡羊補牢,堅持家長才是標準,小孩錯了,再用所有小孩都能看穿的手腳改變圍繞著官方標準以外的所有事情,包括網絡監控、藍色媒體、把「偏離正軌」的小孩定義成outcast,再移離視線範圍,這樣的「補救」行為不是本末倒置,兼完全缺乏創意、想像力以及膽色嗎?我想月薪40萬顯然只屬作為塊壘的補償費和心理輔導費而已。

 

           上星期看到印度同學的ig story,轉發一封簡短的信以Dear Prime Minister開首,內容是在政府鎮壓和平示威後,非常溫婉地勸諫總理體恤大學生及停止施暴。他們的有禮和學生的那種謙卑和低姿態,雖然能激起旁人的萬分憐愛,但更多是讓人看得痛心。不知換個角色學生殺了人之後,會否有人溫柔勸勉:Dear Student, 去道個歉,下次不要再這樣了。六月到現在,彷如有些人比其他人更被認可是人,更有資格施行暴力,或更值得被憐恤。大部分人類每天賣力工作以維持生命,不比旁人多做或少做,為什麼有些人by default就能獲得更多的尊重,而這尊重的決定機制不曾受質疑?本科的時候讀到Yippie的manifesto,覺得很好玩,但那個時候就只知道好玩,因為以那個年代而論,Yippie顯然代表一小撮美國中高產大學生對資本主義社會的仇恨和較為不假思索且帶有浪漫色彩的反叛精神。而今天從六月開始各國有系統而具逼切性的示威活動,再加上年輕環保activists如Greta這些人物的出現,我知道全球學生衝著上一代知識分子的一場意識形態革命,長久醖釀著的momentum已經不能再被忽視了。這鼓動力要持續擴大,我們要做的是針對既定的標準和系統,每一條都有謹慎三思,加以討論,不一定要認真得丟掉幽默感,但是懶惰就必然會輸。到全球各國有足夠地球人對政治及至平常事物有足夠的批判意識時,世界就是我們的了。

too naive - meme #2
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by too naive

anonymous - google form response

by anonymous

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​一個生活在台灣愛自由和香港的香港人 - letter
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from 101 in Hong Kong

呢首歌令我感到好有歸屬感

101 - song on spotify
anonymous - google form response

by anonymous

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Freedom-Hi! Exhibition Vancouver - written messages

by visitors from the Freedom-Hi! Exhibition (organized by ZineCoop) in Vancouver

anonymous - drawing/illustration

by anonymous

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from X in Hong Kong,

X - google form response
義士 - google form response

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Cherie Chan - photos

by Cherie Chan in New York,

photos taken from the 2019 July 7 Kowloon march,

before it got messy.

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grief & anger - photo + website layout

Fuck

The

Police.

grief and anger

by "grief & anger"

Rest

In

Power.

Cherie Chan - paragraphs from thesis draft

I'm always drawn into visual culture emerging with social media and social movement. When I wrote my thesis proposal in May, I wouldn't imagine the scale of the protest in Hong Kong could escalate to this point. I originally would want to focus on media objects including posters, zines, art works circulated on social media. But then I further expanded my thesis to focus on the aesthetic dimension of social movements in Hong Kong in the post-Umbrella era, with special attention to the intersectionality between politics, aesthetics, social media, and social movement. I hope my writing can contribute a bit to the theoretical contemplation in the academic world and the public debates, for all of us to make sense of political struggles in modern democracy. 

by Cherie Chan, MA Film and Media Studies at the School of the Arts at Columbia University

from Hungry Lion, and  😂 in Hong Kong,

《黑暗終必過去》 by HKACM 香港基督徒音樂事工協會

 

曲:古丹青       詞:朱浩廉

編:古丹青       監:何威廉

 

1. 世間昏暗,願有點燭光,燃亮心底盼望;

無盡旅途,仍信會有終點,再艱苦也能擋。

縱使飄泊,但有主應許,疲乏者得靠岸;

始終相信,神祢永遠掌管,讓我輕看禍困不安。

 

副:黑暗終必過去,消散似風吹,

罪惡張狂顛覆錯對,祢未允許!

抬頭彷彿充斥烏雲,天空在流淚,

我都相信平安是藏於祢的手裡。

(我總相信平安在乎主!)

 

2. 永久不變,耀眼的真光,原是一生盼望;

渴想得見,神國這裡彰顯,此刻心裡沒有驚慌。

Hungry Lion and  😂 - song on Youtube
anonymous - drawing/illustration

by anonymous

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FuckChina - google form response

by FuckChina in USA

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