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The Hong Kong Protests

Before the Covid-19 virus filled news headlines and was China's main concern, there were the protests in Hong Kong.

A touch late to be sharing these, but nonetheless, here are two insightfully written articles from the New Yorker, and a well produced podcast from this American Life.

Umbrellas Up This American Life, October 18, 2019.
This American Life, my favourite podcast, goes to the front lines of protests in Hong Kong to hear from protest participants, their families, and opposers.

Bravery and Nihilism on the Streets of Hong Kong New Yorker, August 31, 2019
Contains this amazing paragraph:

Here is the thing about the Hong Kong protesters that’s hardest to convey: to spend time with them is to immerse oneself in a world that is dreamlike, a collective exercise that is almost delusional—that would, indeed, be delusional, except for the fact that the participants are themselves aware that they are suspending disbelief. To many of them, the mainland looms as a place that is both unthinkably powerful and morally inferior; a vast, drab landscape of casual brutality. And yet, despite the fear and loathing, China remains both Hong Kong’s origin and its destiny.

Hong Kong's Protests and the Fight for the City's Soul  New Yorker, December 9, 2019

A common thread that runs through all three pieces:

1. The protesters are most aggrieved by police brutality, and said brutality escalated tensions and reactions.
2. The protests / protesters have an internal logic of its / their own.
3. The protesters realise their actions are, in the grand scheme of things, futile in changing the inevitable course of Hong Kong's future, i.e. assimilation / submergence into mainland China and its legal political and social mores.
4. The political upheaval is tearing families apart, and lays bare the intergenerational differences between younger and older Hong Kongers.

It's possible these are talking points American media frames its presentation of the protests, and actual Hong Kongers may be concerned with other/more issues, but I found the coverage compelling all the same.  What is little discussed, and perhaps what is now compounded by the virus's outbreak, is the sheer economic costs of the protests; if you have insightful coverage, do share by commenting.

Stay safe, everyone!