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What the Fight for Hong Kong Is Really About
Writer and activist Wilfred Chan on what the movement teaches us about authoritarianism, nationality, and liberation
Thousands have been arrested since protests began last summer against a proposed bill, since withdrawn, permitting Hong Kongers to be extradited to mainland China. The PRC-friendly Hong Kong government, led by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, has failed to quell the ongoing unrest. Steadily increasing street violence and arrests culminated in the terrifying 12-day siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which ended on November 29. The six-month anniversary march that followed on December 8 drew somewhere between 183,000 and 800,000 people, depending on whether you believe the police or the organizers. And a far-flung diaspora of Hong Kongers has been dedicated to amplifying the story worldwide.
To gain a deeper understanding of what’s been going on — and what the future of activism in the former British colony may hold — GEN called up writer and activist Wilfred Chan. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Seattle, Chan lives and works in New York, where he’s been analyzing the ongoing protests; he is a founding member of the Lausan Collective, a forum for writers, researchers, activists, and artists of Hong Kong and its diaspora.
Chan returned to Hong Kong for four years after college, working from 2013–2016 as a journalist for CNN and co-founding Still / Loud, a magazine about Hong Kong music, art, and culture. His Twitter feed remains a major source of insight about what’s going on back home.
We began by talking about what he learned from working at CNN during an earlier round of protests.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
GEN: You’ve been observing and writing about Hong Kong’s political uprisings since the 2014 Umbrella Movement.
Wilfred Chan: That really helped me make the connection to how media is constantly processing and shaping the world around it, in these sometimes scary ways. I learned at CNN how eagerly people would answer my calls when I said I was calling from the network. They were hungry for the…
