Draw, Create, Express yourselves freely!
Tim Mei Art Village is located in Admiralty on Tim Mei Avenue, next to ‘Democracy University Library’
Regular art meet-ups are scheduled every Sunday at 3pm, where everyone can express themselves through different types of art.
There are no charges for this, so please bring along any art supplies you may have, they will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your support!
Intent on causing trouble and strife with the protestors this man was eventually lead away by the police. As he was being lead away, he reached out and grabbed the breast of a young female demonstrator right infront of the eyes of the policeman force walking him away.
The policeman did nothing as the girl screamed, Having seen the sexual assault I shouted and harangued PTU Inspector Ng until she eventually deigned to investigate before releasing him. They did not arrest the man even with witnesses to the attack.
To avoid having to arrest the man, the police put heavy pressure on me not to make a statement, saying it would take 7 or 8 hours minimum at the station to make a witness statement. That there were no CID available to investigate the case, so they couldn’t arrest the man…
I was and still am, fully willing to make a statement about the assault – yet the police appear to have pressured the young lady into not filing a complaint, so they let the man go.
CY Leung – would you accept this man grabbing your daughter’s breast… didn’t think so. So why should another father have to? End selective policing now!
Video of the man, just before the assault
http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/Umbrella-Movement-1-March-2015/47769167_vjZGZd#!i=3905047531&k=dsXpZxd
In recent months the police have been arresting and charging yellow ribbons for allegedly using the internet for ‘organising an illegal assembly. In screen shots of a facebook chat Wong Sau Yin CEO of Goldmine Properties in Yuen Long is seen offering $5000 cash for beating up ‘yellow ribbons’ heads until they bleed. Where is the police announcement that he has been arrested and charged?
The LoveTuenMun facebook page shared the screen shots of Wong Sau Yin, CEO of Goldentime Property Agency Ltd, private chat. The leaked chat is full of threatening content. Wong also admits to cooperating with some organizations in Guangzhou and to have hired thugs ready to beat the protesters’ brains out in any upcoming Yuen Long protest (probably on 1 March, 2015).
In a conversation with the admin from LoveTuenMun page, Wong requested to have these prints screens of his conversations deleted. The page admin demanded a public apology be made, but Mr Wong said he is ‘protected’ and rejected the idea. He confessed to be working with communists, being sent to do the brainwashing in Hong Kong.
The CCP must be loving this… using money (greed) to turn Hongkonger against Hongkonger while they suck the life and profits from our home.
http://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2015/Street-Eats-Mong-Kok-20/47615540_5N7f9J#!i=3889376520&k=Xn2PSdn
The only thing bigger than street hawkers this Lunar New Year has been Regina Ip being knocked for a six by a Kirin. Given this, we all have high hopes for the year of the goat and its new, feisty attitude of butting things it doesn’t like out of the way.
In regards to the hawkers, it doesn’t matter whether you agree with HK Indigenous’ actions to help relieve the impact of hawkers or not. That is not why they spent four nights cleaning the streets, Their goal was to get you talking about local issues. Or, how do local people solve local problems? Or Hong Kong people making decisions about Hong Kong’s future, just like the Basic Law once promised us, so long ago. This is their ultimate purpose. Media and online forums have been alight with the pros and cons of hawkers in the districts. Hundreds of people have come out to defend them and the Government has wasted vast quantities of money mobilising the FEHD and police to generally do nothing other than look like wannabe Mainland Chengguan and Gong An. (An ominous sign for the future.)
Regardless, of what the solution to hawkers is, the HK Indigenous operation, just like its smuggler campaign, was a huge media success. A handful of motivated young people entirely dictated what the media should be talking about this Lunar New Year, no easy feat. They don’t presuppose for a minute that they have the solutions, their goal is to empower local people to take their communities back. In order to do this they need to tackle problems that are both contentious and difficult to solve. In their choice of operations, they’re not looking for consensus and praise, rather debate and ultimately local empowerment.
They are the beginning of a grassroots revolution within Hong Kong, concentrating on local identity and local empowerment of civil society. It’s a direct push back from the top-down style government so favoured on the Mainland and now being rammed down our throats by CY’s oppressive and clumsy administration. It’s a backlash against the idea that, Hong Kong is part of the Mainland, therefore we need to start acting like Mainlanders. Instead, HK Indigenous and groups like them are directly tackling difficult issues to highlight that geographically, it may be correct, that we are part of Mainland China, but culturally we are very different and the qualities that distinguish this are worth retaining, defending and even fighting for.
The hawker issue will rumble on. The smugglers issue hasn’t gone away, and will be back very soon. No doubt these groups will propel other issues to the forefront very soon. The cumulative effect is that daily Hong Kong’s identity becomes more pronounced as its people get more courage to stand up for what they believe to be right.
Still struggling to understand what was happening at the Kweilin Street Lunar Markets last night?
Firstly, HK Indigenous issued a formal proposal to the FEHD on how they would help improve the hygiene and safety of the traditional market. (See full proposal at bottom of this post)
Despite this, the FEHD started clamping down on the hawkers in the afternoon. Many hawkers relocated to Mongkok to avoid fines and trouble.
HK Indigenous turned up with rubbish bins, brooms, fire extinguishers and volunteers to help maintain the night market for the local community.
In response the Government mobilised many police officers and FEHD, which all but killed the Lunar New Year Market for the night, as per the Governments design.
Proving that this Government will mobilise huge volumes of expensive manpower and allocate huge amounts of taxpayer’s money in order to suppress local people, but wont entertain sensible proposals to preserve or maintain local culture.
This action by HK Indigenous will happen for the next three nights. Please show your support.
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FEHD Proposal
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就桂林夜市一事，我們向食環署寫了一份建議書，內容包括有關改善衛生，人流及交通之方法，希望他們能參考建議書之內容，通融保留富有本地特色的桂林夜市。
We have submitted a proposal to the FEHD about measures to improve hygiene, pedestrian and traffic management. We sincerely hope the department could take reference of the proposal and accommodate for this local night market of indigenous blend of food and culture.
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食物環境衛生署：
『桂林夜市』建議書
To the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department:
Proposal on the temporary Kweilin Night Market
背景
桂林街（Kweilin Street）是香港深水埗區一條街道，其道路與北河街大致平行。近年起於農曆新年(從年三十晚至年初三期間)，桂林街聚集不少本地居民擺設地攤及熟食檔，繁華鼎盛，因而被稱為「桂林夜市」。可是，2014年民建聯向貴署提交一份建議書要求貴署嚴打夜市，導致極具本土特色的『桂林夜市』成為絕響。有見及此，本組織(本土民主前線) 就衛生、道路安全及保存集體回憶三方面提交此建議書，致力追求讓本土特色得以保存時，對其他市民日常生活的影響減至最低。
Background
Kweilin Street in Shum Shui Po is well known for the night market held during lunar new year eve and the first three days of it. People from the Neighbourhood gather there to set up bazaars and food stalls. The prosperous night market is thus born. However, the intervention from the Pro-Establishment Camp is threatening this indigenous tradition. In the light of preserving the night market, Hong Kong Indigenous are proposing means to minimize the side effect of the night market.
衛生
鑒於往年桂林夜市的衛生問題都令各界引起關注，垃圾堆積問題嚴重。為改善衛生問題，本組織將於年三十晚至年初三期間放置十個臨時垃圾箱，並安排義工充當衛生大使，清理囤積的垃圾，垃圾會由義工運送至元州街垃圾收集站(元州街59-63號)；另將有多名義工負責道路清潔(如掃地)，盡可能做到垃圾分類，以便減少堆填區日積月累之負擔。義工們會勸籲市民不要隨地亂拋垃圾，籍此提升港人之公德心。
Hygiene
To cope with the environmental issues produced by the stacking of refuse, we would arrange to set up ten temporary trash bin. Together with our volunteers, we would like to send the trash directly to the refuse collection point nearby. We also assign helpers to keep the road clean and sort the waste for recycling. On top of that, we would remind the crowd not to leave refuse on the street.
道路安全
據往年所見，很多地攤和熟食檔都放置於行車通道，規劃散亂，容易造成交通阻塞及易生意外，汽車駛進來的時候亦花很長時間開通道路，故此道路安全值得高度關注。本組織建議行車通道和行人通道都需預留足夠空間，以免人多擠逼產生碰撞。可於地面劃出地攤及熟食區，清晰地指引桂林夜市之檔主如何擺放，互相作出協調。本組織亦安排多名義工專門負責道路協調，疏導人流及車輛。當有汽車通過桂林街的時候，義工會安排檔主及市民在安全情況下有秩序地讓出車路，務求令人流及交通暢順。本組織亦備有滅火筒，如遇火種，可即時使用滅火筒進行撲救，減少意外發生。
Road Safety
We are aware of the need of a clear passage for emergency and traffic. We would improve by drawing clear guidelines for stalls and food trolleys and enforce them with the help of volunteers. Our road safety helpers are in charge of coordinating traffic, pedestrian and stalls. Fire extinguishers are prepared for emergency use.
保存集體回憶
香港發展急促，日新月異。社會進步帶來了不少方便及新穎感，但與此同時港人之集體回憶正逐漸被蠶蝕。就如已被商業化的各個小社區，裡裡外外都成為名店、金鋪、藥房等供應遊客購物的店鋪，真正屬於香港人的消費和娛樂的地方已所剩無幾。為保存港人之集體回憶，本組織強烈建議保留桂林夜市。
As a preservation of memories
The development of Hong Kong has washed away most of our local memories. The old local stores were tore down and replaced by chain stores. We feel the need to save some indigenous value for the Hong Kong local. The Kweilin Night Market is highly recommended to be preserved.
總結
桂林夜市只是農曆新年期間，持續數個晚上的平民活動，其存在價值在於擁有極濃厚香港本地特色，包括文化和美食，可惜慘遭無情打壓，俗語有云：法律不外乎人情，本組織還望貴署參考此建議書就衛生，交通和保留集體回憶三方面之具體建議，通融保留桂林夜市。
Summary
Kweilin Night Market is a neighbourhood activity held during a few nights of Lunar New Year. Yet it bears a strong indigenous value, with a mix of local culture and culinary. Even it is under repression now, we have to urge the FEHD to make an exception and preserve the Kwelin Night Market.
本土民主前線
2015年2月17日
Hong Kong Indigenous
17/2/2015
Images courtesy of their respective owners
HK Indigenous is one of several new political groups that has evolved from the experiences learned during the initial months of the Umbrella Movement. They “want to break away from the pseudo democratic roadmap and put direct pressure on the government with the right means of protest. We have to alert the government that the indigenous value of Hong Kong cannot be washed away or sold.”
This is the HK Indigenous Charter in English if you didn’t know what they are about:
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Hong Kong Indigenous: Upholding Indigenous Virtue Against Suppression
18 years have passed since the handover of Hong Kong. “One Country, Two System” is just a scam under the Communist Party rule. Day after day we local Hong Kong people lose our rights and indigenous values to the Chinese Communist Party, while the pan-democratic legislators indulge in their own ‘China Dream.’
Hong Kong people are fed up with this. We rallied against the National Education Reform and the North East New Territories Development. We took part in the Umbrella Revolution. We are doing more and more to get this message across to the government – we are not going to back away or accept our fate lying down. The pseudo democrats time after time created fake protests which achieved nothing but keeping the peace for the authorities. Hong Kong people are being betrayed and kept away from true democracy, as well as being hindered in developing our own indigenous virtue.
We are a group of nameless Hong Kong people who are on the frontline of protests. Since the old resistance methods have failed against the authorities, we have no choice but to stand out and break the stalemate.
Hong Kong Indigenous was founded after we learned from the lessons from the Umbrella Revolution. We want to break away from the pseudo democratic roadmap and put direct pressure on the government with the right means of protest. We have to alert the government that the indigenous value of Hong Kong cannot be washed away or sold. Thus we are upholding indigenous virtues, as we the people own this city.
We are Hong Kong people. We have the spirit to overcome whatever challenges are thrown at us. We have overcome 1967, 1989, 1997, SARS and avian flu. What is there to fear?
Hong Kong Indigenous leads the way in the new era of protest, where we would not be fooled by pan-democrats or ignored by the government.
If you are proud of the values that Hong Kong People have created during our rich history, then please join us or support us in this fight.
Together we are strong and can’t be defeated.
As a westerner living in Hong Kong one of the first things you notice about the Hong Kong Cantonese is that they spend a lot of time shouting at each other. Often, what you think is a conflict is actually just two friends engaging in friendly banter about horses or Korean soap operas. That said, you don’t have to have lived here too long before you will encounter a real confrontation. Whatever the reason for the conflict, these situations quickly escalate into loud slanging matches, punctuated with elaborate verbal abuse and theatrical posturing. These conflicts almost never end in violence. Almost every westerner who witnesses these events for the first time thinks, “There’s no way I would let anyone shout at me like that, I would punch them in the face.”
And on the whole it’s true, westerners are much quicker to fight than Cantonese. Maybe it’s something to do with the Cantonese language being very colloquial and street-wise, who knows? But Cantonese really do enjoy verbally abusing each other where other nationalities would already be rolling in the dirt and fighting.
The Occupy protests amplified this penchant for verbal abuse into a mass movement. Battles over Lung Wo Road regularly saw more than 2000 people chanting abuse to the police but staying incredibly peaceful physically. I personally took a major role in convincing a few people not to load house bricks onto the road, so as to prevent the crowd from bloodbathing the police, who were at this point so cocky that they were running around beating people with no shields or helmets. Good sense won over, in that the Cantonese are really good at verbally abusing each other and don’t need actual violence to articulate and vent their views. Unfortunately this good sense hasn’t seeped down into the police who believe they have the right to Route One to violence because they are being shouted at by the protesters. In this, the police are stepping outside of the Cantonese social norm, in that tens of thousands of times a day, Cantonese hurl verbal rocks at each other, but 99% have the self restraint to not lash out into actual physical violence.
These days in heated confrontations with protesters the HKPF always bemoan, “We’re not doing anything international police wouldn’t do in a similar situation,” but the critical point they miss, is the Cantonese aren’t acting like international rioters. They’re acting like Cantonese. They know the rules of the game, which the police have forgotten, or choose to ignore. Instead They somehow feel they are apart from local culture and are justified in using violence because they’re police and should automatically deserve respect without earning it. This attitude is destroying Cantonese culture by introducing quick, physical violence as a way of resolving conflict. The Blue Ribbons have taken to this new way of conflict resolution like ducks to water. This represents a significant slide in the cultural values of the Hong Kong society and the police created it on October 3rd when they turned a blind eye to the triads causing chaos in Mongkok.
So, the reality is the Occupy Movement has been high on verbal violence and infinitesimally low on actual violence because the Cantonese culture regularly substitutes verbal violence for real violence to resolve conflict and express frustration.
With this in mind, we can see that the current redirection of the democracy movement from protests on the streets outside Legco to Direct Action in the districts has also manifested this engrained habit. Instead, the targets of verbal abuse has changed from the Government and the Police to smugglers and parallel traders.
I stood outside the 3BX Bus line in Tuen Mun for many hours on Sunday and the level of verbal violence that was being hurled was fairly substantial. Certainly, it is not something I would do, but I’m not Cantonese. Those hurling the abuse are not stupid and they are also not racists. I grew up in 1970/80s Birmingham, England, I know what racism is, and what was on display in Tuen Mun last Sunday was certainly not racism.
Instead it is a form of verbal violence against actions that people see as objectionable. If we’d have been in Europe, the protesters would have burnt the bus stop, the bus and probably routed the police out of town. But like I said, this is not the Cantonese style, Cantonese love shouting shit at each other and especially at things they don’t like.
Certainly, from a superficial level, watching the verbal barrage is not pretty and could be misconstrued as hateful racism, but if you are there you can quickly see that it is very specifically directed at a certain type of person carrying out a certain type of action. It is not based on anything the person can’t rectify very quickly. If a Mainlander was in the crowd, they would not be targeted carte blanche for their race or heritage. This is not to say, if they tried to defend the actions they wouldn’t receive a volley of abuse, but they could take part or silently observe without any fear of attack from the rabid crowd. This shows it’s much more sophisticated than racism. Try sticking a silent, black person in a group of European Neo Nazi racists and see if you get the same result.
This is the critical difference between the anti-Mainland sentiment in Hong Kong and say classic white, black racism in Europe or America. They are coming from completely different foundations. One is a temporary form of protest, or a new form of expression at the dissatisfaction towards our malign government. The other is coming from hatred based on ignorance, is long lasting and often incurable.
Given this, at this point, I have no fear that the democracy movement has been hijacked by racism, certainly a tiny minority may misunderstand what is going on. Definitely our malign government will try and exploit it for its own advantage, but the protestors are smart and savvy. They will use this current tactic while it is useful and discard it once it becomes a burden.
It may not be pretty, but revolutions never are. Some might argue that flirting with racism is playing with fire, but the protesters would argue back,
“We’re already fighting the Volcano.”
Why, when we have a malign government that failed to be moved by 79 days of Occupy have many highly motivated young people turned to combating smugglers?
Isn’t all this New Territories shenanigans just a side show to the main event which is political reform? Wouldn’t their efforts be best served outside Legco facing down the government they hate so much?
The answer to this question is a resounding NO!
Why?
Because all rules of the game have changed. In the eyes of the young people who make up these Direct Action Groups the Pan Democrats have been dallying with the government for 30 years and achieved all but nothing. For them, it’s an entirely new game and they are taking politics right back to the roots. Local politics for local people solving local issues. They are the masters of their own destiny now. Not distant politicians with political agendas that have been forged over decades. They know no-one is coming to save them. They know the force that they are fighting has enormous influence and resources, but they also know that real power lies within in the hearts and minds of the people.
Over the past few months these groups have been working to capture the hearts and minds of the residents of Sheung Shui and Tuen Mun. The currency they are dealing with is called empowerment. A community empowered to take charge of its destiny is a powerful force for change.
Admittedly, there are many in these areas that are still slow to catch up with their message and struggle to separate these groups out from Occupy, but the tide is turning. The people in these long suffering districts are slowly realising that they have the power to take their districts back. Certainly, they may not agree fully with the Direct Action Groups hardcore tactics, but they fully support their message.
These groups have taken it upon themselves to be the hammer that breaks down the door of local issues. They openly accept that the police are authorised, from the very top, to use whatever force is necessary to meet them, for they understand clearly that the harder the police hit them, the louder their message is amplified.
In the current climate, provoking the police is not difficult at all. Just being there is enough for the police to come out fighting and the trap is sprung. The media predictably jump all over it and their goal is achieved. For the Direct Action Groups the Tuen Mun operation was a complete success. Every news media organisation in Hong Kong now has the plight of these affected communities front and centre. This is all thanks to a small group of politically astute, hardcore protesters, non of whom are much older than 27. Using a delicate blend of cooperation and confrontation they have bought a festering, hidden sore of Hong Kong life into the spotlight and laid it bare for everyone to see and solve. The locals thank them for it.
But let’s be clear here, these maybe raw, high stakes protests, but they are in no way coarse or uncontrolled. It’s a highly calculated balancing act between knowing when to push and knowing when to yield. This they learnt in the cauldron of the Mongkok Occupy. On Sunday, they played the police like an old fiddle.
Just being there was enough to make the police go into hyper aggression mode once again. This doesn’t mean to say that they relish conflict, nor does it mean to say that every time a person is pepper sprayed or arrested the group members aren’t beside themselves with anger and anguish.
Instead, it’s an acute awareness that the police have long since set themselves up as a political arm of the government, therefore they are a legitimate political force to be manipulated at will. An amplifier as it were, which the groups turn on or off depending upon the timings for their message. No doubt the police will now be bringing all the sophisticated powers they have to monitor these new groups and curb them at every turn.
Just take a while to digest that. Civic groups set up specifically to encourage and support local issues and problems are now the focus of the police, as if they were terrorists or triads. Can there be any doubt that Hong Kong is being lead down the wrong path by malignant people?
This kind of Direct Action like we have witnessed in Tuen Mun and Tai Po, may not be your cup of tea. They are certainly not the main road to universal suffrage, but they are an essential part of it. While some say that Occupy lost public support, they have begun to win it back where it counts, in the districts.
You may never fully understand them but don’t shun them. Take the time to understand. Open your eyes to what’s going on around you, take you head out of the sand and take an interest in the place you call home. Whatever your view, remember their goal is the same – an open corruption free Hong Kong where everyone can enjoy societies benefits not just the privileged few.
The wide range of protest is a hopeful sign that a genuine shift in society is taking place.
www.facebook.com/hkindigenous
https://hkindig.wordpress.com/
Addendum: Tuen Mun resident Fran Wong posted this comment on facebook:
Fran Wong Thanks for your in-depth report. As a Tuen Mun resident, I fully support this action and thank the Direction Action groups for organizing this. Unfortunately, there are alot of local residents who still have some misconception or doubts about these local groups, and some even consider them as triads and radical losers in the society. The most disappointing is that alot of local mainstream media rarely report the conflicts between these local groups and the blue-ribbon groups, or any injustices took place in the local districts in the previous weeks. But from all the videos which went viral, it’s crystal clear that the government/ the police are targeting these local groups.
I have lived in Tuen Mun since I was born. Lots of the residents here could tolerate the long traveling time to the city centre, the frequent traffic jams on Tuen Mun Highways, and the juvenile problems in the early 90s. Yet, the ‘multi-entry permit’ has brought a great deal of disturbance to this residential area. What has the government done all these years? Nothing. Now, the situation has only become bad to worse. So, you’re right! Looking at all the problems in HK, when no one is coming to save us, we have to empower ourselves. Indeed, I was amazed to see the flexible tactics these local groups adopted on Sunday. But it was also sad and worrying to see the young kids being arrested and beaten up by the police. I hope the young kids will try to keep themselves safe.
I truly appreciate what the local groups did on Sunday. They helped to unite the Tuen Mun residents to voice out and stand up. So, like what you said, we gotta explain, explain and explain to clear those so-obsessed- with-being-peaceful-rational-and-non-violent people’s misconception about these local Direction Action groups.
Thanks for reporting the truth to HK people. Your articles report a great deal of information which the local mainstream media rarely covers.
