At Hong Kong Protests, Art That Imitates Life

Instagram-ready works of art and graphic design — sometimes whimsical, mostly anonymous — are defining features of the city’s antigovernment demonstrations.
By Mike Ives
Photographs by Lam Yik Fei

HONG KONG — Soon after a woman in Hong Kong was hit in the eye at a protest, her likeness began circulating as a meme on internet forums where many demonstrators blamed her injury on the police. 

Within a couple of weeks, protesters had raised over $25,000 online to build a 13-foot statue of her.
They called it Lady Liberty Hong Kong, a nod to the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
Street art and graphic design are defining features of the pro-democracy demonstrations that have roiled the semiautonomous Chinese territory since June. 

Artists often work quickly and anonymously, and present their oeuvres either in Reddit-like internet forums or public places with heavy foot traffic.
Much of the art channels pop-cultural aesthetics taken from Marvel Comics and Japanese anime. 

And in a financial hub where legions of young people are glued to Instagram, even the street art seems designed to go viral online.
Some protest artworks depict the movement’s heroes — including Lady Liberty Hong Kong and a demonstrator in a yellow raincoat who fell from a building in June — in somber, reverential terms. Others are whimsical sendups of Chinese officials, including Carrie Lam, the city’s embattled leader.
These pop art-style posters of Lam, below, were designed to be stepped on as pedestrians cross a bridge leading to a train station in the city’s Tsing Yi district.

The poster below, on a wall in the Ma On Shan district in northeastern Hong Kong, likens front line protesters to the protagonists of a battle scene in a famous Eugène Delacroix's oil painting Liberty Leading the People, 1830.

In the foreground, a protester wearing a helmet waves a black flag that shows a dead Bauhinia, Hong Kong’s official flower.

The posters in the image below are plastered on the ceiling of a pedestrian underpass in the Kwai Fong district in northern Hong Kong. 

They depict a protester named Chan Yi-chun, who was arrested last month during clashes with the police.

The center drawing below shows Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, wiping away tears while simultaneously aiming a gun resting on her lap. 

The poster illustrates a popular sentiment in the antigovernment camp: that while Lam has presented herself publicly as empathetic, she has privately encouraged police violence against demonstrators.

Many protest artworks, like the one below in the Tai Po district, depict subjects in face masks, which demonstrators use to conceal their identities. 

When Lam invoked emergency powers in early October to ban face coverings during protests, she set off further demonstrations.

The image below shows one of the many so-called Lennon Walls that began springing up across town in June. 

The walls are named for one in Prague on which young people in the 1980s posted messages airing their grievances against the Communist regime that ruled Czechoslovakia.

The drawing in red below, of the woman who was injured in the eye during a protest in August, was on display during a rally later that month at Hong Kong’s international airport.

One of the largest Lennon Walls in Hong Kong sits near a complex of government buildings that includes the city’s legislature. 

A small group of hard-core protesters stormed and vandalized the legislative chamber on July 1, the anniversary of the former British colony’s handover to Chinese control in 1997.

Some critics of the Chinese government have mocked Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, by saying that he resembles Winnie the Pooh, the cartoon bear. 

The street collage below was photographed on Oct. 1, hours after Xi presided over a military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of Communist rule in China.

Protesters have also papered some sidewalks with black-and-white pictures of Xi himself. 

The idea was for passers-by to step on his face, symbolically erasing his presence.

In Taiwan, Hong Kongers Call for Attention

Hong Kongers in Taipei lead a call for Taiwanese to pay attention and be wary.

By James X. Morris

"We're brothers and sisters. If Hong Kong is done then Taiwan is next." One purpose for Sunday's demonstration is to bring greater awareness of the civil turmoil in Hong Kong to the Taiwanese. Demonstrators believe greater visibility in Taiwan can help their cause.

This past Sunday, Hong Kong protesters brought their message to the streets of Taipei as a group of demonstrators appeared in the city’s popular Ximending shopping district with signs in Chinese reading: “Restore Hong Kong, Revolution in Our Time.”
The demonstrators stood in the plaza outside the Ximen MRT station explaining the situation in Hong Kong, which has developed out of protest against the now-withdrawn Extradition Bill proposed between Hong Kong and China in the spring. 

Unrest in recent months has devolved into scenes of police brutality and white terror in the city. While another round of protests were unfolding in Hong Kong, protesters in Taipei were demonstrating to appeal to the Taiwanese, explain their demands in response to violent overreach, and express their desire to see a democratic and civil society in their home city.
Over the summer, it has been common to see the occasional demonstration of solidarity with Hong Kong’s protesters. 

Sunday’s protest was different in a significant way, however: it was led by protesters from Hong Kong.

Crowds gather in Taipei’s popular Shimending shopping district to listen to the protestors at Sunday’s demonstration. 

The Hong Kongers were in Taipei for various reasons. 

Some were students. 

Others were in the city for business. 

Some traveled specifically for the demonstration, while others indicated they were in self-imposed exile, worried they cannot return to Hong Kong. 

Many were dressed in black t-shirts, face masks, respirators, and the yellow safety helmets now so strongly linked with imagery coming out of the ongoing civil turmoil gripping Hong Kong.
“This doesn’t look normal. But everyone’s dressed like this in Hong Kong now,” said one of the demonstrators present.
The Hong Kongers were joined by Taiwanese and Westerners for a 30-minute flash mob demonstration which was organized the night before using social media and apps such as Telegram.
From Taiwan, Hong Kong can feel both very near and very distant at the same time. 

Though only a little more than one hour apart by airplane, their distinct histories have been mixed up in various colonial influences over the past two centuries. 

Prior to 2014, Taiwan and Hong Kong saw each other more as competitors, being two of the four Asian Tigers of the 1980s. 

Things changed beginning in the summer of 2014 when both societies experienced a realignment of political consciousness after both experienced massive near-simultaneous grassroots occupation movements against Chinese interference in local affairs.
In Taiwan, the 2014 Sunflower Movement was a massive months-long sit-in occupation of the island’s legislature and central governmental district in opposition to policies widely panned as selling out Taiwan’s economic autonomy to China. 

Several months later in Hong Kong, the Umbrella Movement developed as a response to Chinese interference in the city’s ability to freely choose its own elected officials and an erosion of its Basic Law “mini Constitution.” 

In both cases, the masses perceived China’s growing influence over local policy as a threat to their own autonomy. 

An ideological bridge had been built, one which the Hong Kongers were crossing last weekend.

The Lennon Wall in the underground walkway near National Taiwan University in Gongguan, Taipei.

Although there have been several solidarity demonstrations for Hong Kong in Taipei over the summer, the event on Sunday took a different tone as seasoned Hong Kong protesters brought a warning to the Taiwanese.
“If Hong Kong is done, Taiwan is next,” said one Hong Kong protester who has been in exile in Taipei for two months. 

They fled the city after participating in the occupation of the Legislative Council in early July, and fear being arrested if they return.
They believe the Taiwanese will pay attention.
“Everyone is talking to Hong Kong people. They know that [the] Hong Kong Police Department is very violent and they know that today Hong Kong also has [a] protest.”
The flash mob assembled rapidly, with some arriving with bags full of gear. 

Demonstrators indicated they organized organically using social media, following the “be like water” protest philosophy of the protesters in Hong Kong, a term adopted from the city’s most famous son, Bruce Lee. 

Some protesters were more vocal than others, leading the group’s chants, demands, and songs.
One demonstrator laughed, explaining “some are more like water than others.”
Chants of “Free Hong Kong” were joined by “Free China.” 

Demonstrators sang “Do you hear the people sing?” from Les Miserables, and a new song, “Glory to Hong Kong,” which has become a popular anthem among the protesters.

Notes left on the Lennon Wall in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. 

There are many signs the Taiwanese have been paying close attention to developments in Hong Kong. 

The growth of Lennon Walls in Taiwan since the summer indicates many Taiwanese are receptive to the Hong Kong protesters’ messages. 

Lennon Walls are displays of support for the protesters on public wall space, often featuring personal messages of encouragement, protest materials, and artwork. 

One of the largest such walls is in an underground passageway near the entrance to National Taiwan University in Taipei. 

In Hsinchu City, Mayor Lin Chih-chien signed his city’s wall and the City Council voted to make it a permanent display. 

Smaller walls have been appearing on university campuses across the island.
Can Taipei expect to see more protests like Sunday’s? 

It may not be easy, one demonstrator says, due to an “inadequate vision” and not enough Hong Kongers in Taiwan. 

Some Hong Kongers have indicated there are residency and visa issues to contend with too.
It does appear however, that whether directly or indirectly, the Taiwanese understand the message loud and clear.

World's Most Creative Revolutionaries

100 days in: How Hong Kongers sustain protests with creativity

AFP
This picture taken on June 22, 2019 shows a man taking photographs of artwork and messages in support of protesters opposed to a China extradition law posted on the ‘Lennon Wall’ outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong. 

HONG KONG, Sept 16 — With Hong Kong shaken by 100 days of huge pro-democracy protests, activists have adopted a host of creative ways to fuel their movement away from the barricades.
From laser pen light shows, to flashmob singalongs and human chains, we look at some of the inventive methods embraced by a movement that shows no signs of abating.

1. Flashmob singalongs
Music has long played a prominent role in Hong Kong’s years of democracy rallies.
The tune that received the most traction early on in this summer’s protests was the catchy Christian hymn Sing Hallelujah to the Lord as well as Do you hear the people sing? from the musical Les Miserables.
But in the last fortnight a new anthem has been embraced with gusto.
“Glory to Hong Kong” was written by an anonymous composer and has gone viral, its defiant lyrics repeatedly belted out at protests, nightly flashmob concerts in city malls and even football matches.

2. Laser shows
Laser pointers were initially used by frontline protesters to indicate police positions, distract officers and stop people from taking photos or videos.
But they were adopted en masse after a student leader with 10 laser pens in his bag was arrested for possession of an offensive weapon.
Since then demonstrators have held “lightshows” outside of police stations and at most public gatherings, lending the protests a somewhat surreal disco-vibe once the sun sets.

3. Human chains
Human chains were first adopted in late August on the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way, when more than a million people linked arms in huge anti-Soviet Union demonstrations.
The symbol caught on. 

Tens of thousands have taken part in human chains across the city in recent weeks, some formed on top of famous hills such as the Peak and Lion Rock. 

Secondary school students have also formed them each morning before classes.

4. Crowd-funding
Several online crowd-funding campaigns have been hugely successful.This picture taken on September 10, 2019 shows mooncakes, adorned with a popular slogan from recent pro-democracy protests, being prepared for the annual mid-autumn festival at a bakery in Hong Kong. 

Two campaigns raised over HK$21 million (RM11.3 million) to place adverts in major international newspapers.
“By placing ads internationally, we can break through the filter of the media and show the world the truth underneath the government propaganda,” a campaign co-organiser, who gave his name as Taylor, told AFP.
Other campaigns have raised money to build a four-metre-tall statue called “Lady Liberty Hong Kong” and to provide defence funds for the some 1,400 people arrested.

5. Lennon Walls
Plastered in colourful sticky-notes, posters and slogans, “Lennon Walls” have sprung up in more than a hundred locations across the city, often in pedestrian tunnels or near subway stations.
The first Hong Kong wall appeared during huge pro-democracy protests in 2014 and was a local take on a public graffiti wall in Prague that appeared after the 1980 murder of John Lennon.
When crowds of government supporters tore down a Lennon Wall outside the city’s parliament early on in this summer’s protests, democracy activists simply created new ones in their local neighbourhoods. 

Walls are still being torn down by opponents but they reappear within hours.

6. 10pm chanting
Hong Kongers have taken to shouting protest slogans from their apartments each night at 10pm, inspired by cacerolazos, a form of protest that emerged in authoritarian Chile during the 1970s and has since been adopted by multiple dissent movements.
In a city renowned for the highest concentration of skyscrapers in the world, the chanting is particularly effective, with popular slogans such as “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution now” and “No rioters, only tyranny” bouncing off buildings and echoing through neighbourhoods.

7. Mooncakes
Traditionally given during the mid-autumn festival, these dense pastries have been given a protest makeover. 

One bakery has sold tens of thousands of cakes which sport popular protest slogans on their crusts.

8. Protest art
Painting, calligraphy, comic strips, sculptures — Hong Kongers have been working around the clock to provide an artistic backdrop to their protests.
Much of the art is distributed in a highly modern fashion — shared on online forums or pinged to people’s phones using Bluetooth and Airdrop.
It is not unusual for someone’s phone to receive multiple digital flyers and posters each day, especially on the subway.
Soon the same artworks are printed and placed on the city’s Lennon Walls, which have become a constantly evolving canvas of dissent.

9. Flags
Small groups of protesters have waved the flags of Britain, colonial era Hong Kong and the United States.
But by far the most common flag is the “wilted bauhinia” — a twist on Hong Kong’s official flag, a white bauhinia flower on a red backdrop.
The new flag has turned the backdrop black, to reflect the mood of the streets, and the bauhinia flower is wilted and blood-stained.
Australian-based Chinese dissident artist Badiucao, who draws daily cartoons for the protest movement, has also created a flag of rainbow-coloured squares, meant to symbolise the Lennon Walls.
Another popular emblem directed at Beijing is dubbed “Chinazi” — a red flag with yellow stars in the shape of a swastika.

10. ‘Be water’
Inventiveness has been a core principle of the protests themselves with the phrase “Be water” commonly chanted.
The slogan references a philosophy of unpredictability espoused by local kung fu legend Bruce Lee and encourages protesters to keep mobile in a bid to stretch police resources and avoid mass arrests.
Protesters have also found creative ways to hold rallies that are banned, portraying them instead as opportunities to go window shopping, hold picnics or gather for religious meetings.