Thanks man for the concern. I'm about to share what my thoughts and feelings are of the past 24 hours. It's going to be very long-winded so if you guys don't mind you can read it. Just be warned.
Although I'm not in HK, honestly I wish I am so I can participate. I participated the rally in Vancouver today, and I kinda got sick cause I didn't wear enough, so right now I'm so tired(physically and mentally), that you don't see me firing off a post at all explaining what's happening. I'm simply too tired, and somewhat also disappointed that in SDF people don't really care too much or sometimes don't have the patience to hear us out.
But thanks for your asking and concern though.
Honestly at this time, I'm very tired mentally and physically. It's a very critical moment in HK and also what defines me. To a lot of people they may not get it, or get why we're creating all this big fuss. The truth is that it matters to us so much, that even high school students and university students are taking the streets. We truly care, which is why we're out there being pepper-sprayed over and over again. I wanted to be there because it's our future we're fighting for; a true democracy. Real history, real future, and how we want things. HK doesn't seek independence. We seek stability and harmony as much as those who's against OC or those who supports Beijing. The problem is, we no longer trust Beijing. Beijing's appointed CE had ruined everything for both sides. If CY had been a capable head of government, there won't be so much problems in HK today, or most of the issues that's surfaced in HK the past several years would have been handled properly that led to satisfaction with the government and not create today's scenario where the people are saying "we don't want you guys to pick for us anymore." Think about it, if someone's telling you not to pick his lunch, this probably means you're not ordering what he wants.
Anyway, honestly I can tell you the past 24 hours I haven't slept well at all. I felt terrible. The students are out there for the second time(first time being the nationalistic education protest) because they genuinely believed with their hearts for the cause. However, they are just students, and they're being treated like riot protestors. I felt the pain, and as Facebook groups updated probably over 50 times these past 24 hours of severe handling of the protestors. My friend, who's got friends at ground zero, kept telling me how bad it was. I could feel her pain from her messages. Students even put up their hands after being told to stop rattling the fences to demonstrate they are unarmed and peaceful, but only to be pepper sprayed. Students are being dragged. One was filmed being thrown against the corner of a wall. The PTU had been dispatched. The police simply wanted to end this whole thing. The handling certainly is still soft compared to how law enforcements around the world conducted their crowd control, but in a city like HK where the police had never been rough to its citizens that way, and where the police was some held with huge pride and esteem for not only being professional but also neutral and not rough to the citizens, had all been wiped again. For the longest time I had been a firm believer in the police and I would assess critically of the actions of both sides and often would condemn Scholarism's members for being disrespectful to the police. However what had been happening the past 24 hours had destroyed my faith in my city's police as fair, just, and for the people, and love the people. That, combined with knowing that while I'm living my life comfortably here in Vancouver while students are going through past 24 hours without sleep yet constant physical and mental abuse and screaming from being dragged around yet staying and holding on and not dispersing for the sake of what they believed in, brings unspeakable pain for me.
Today I went to the rally in Vancouver, and if you guys go on Facebook, there are now tons and tons of groups popping up of communities from different cities around the world organizing themselves up to support what's happening in HK. A lot of my friends are expressing the same feelings. A friend who I've known since college and went to Japan to do her graduate school at Waseda told me the same pain I felt. She said unfortunately she couldn't attend any because she couldn't find other HKers like herself in Japan, and so I helped her by spreading her post which calls for other HK friends in Japan to rally up. I then look back and thought, years ago we both are in the same class and that's how we met. We both had been always interested in politics, Chinese history, etc, and hence we took that course on contemporary China and met each other(I was already a SDF member by then). Eventually we went separate ways, and whereas she's got a more successful route towards politics, I had a slower path which developed my own eventual approach and attitudes towards engaging the world. Regardless, while we both went different paths, today we are reunited and connected again through our common concern for the city that we loved and felt proud of. Regardless, we are now reconnected in pains of our pessimism towards HK's future, and what's happening as we speak, and how the police are treating the students, and how HK government is no longer accountable to its people, particularly the most fragile group, the students.
A lot more had happened since. People created a petition around 24 hours ago to plead with White House to say something, and already it's nearing 85,000 signatures (100,000 required to get a White House response). Facebook groups and rallies are being organized this week. A video showing people around the world supporting HK is on Facebook. WSJ published an article saying how UK had betrayed HK. There are still tons of people in the streets. People had been supporting students with water(for also rinsing their eyes from pepper sprays), speakers, etc, had been seized and blockaded. The HKPF was determined to choke out the demonstration. Occupy Central reinitiated their movements(they are separate from the students) few hours ago.
It's a critical time in HK. Our generation had been condemned by older generations of HKers for many reasons and saying we ain't like what they used to be (or the famous "kids these days"), however today seeing how even students younger than myself are in the streets for what they believe, on one hand I'm glad or feel good to know that our generations isn't hopeless yet as we have the spirits to fight for what we believe in. On the other hand we are not only fighting for our future, but bearing full burden and currently being stepped on it for it as well speak. And for me, as a HK-Chinese who grew up in Canada, with Canadian citizenship, who learned and accepted all the values of freedom and fighting for what I believe is right, who had the privilege of higher education and living in the privileges that Canada provides and its democracy, and being taught to engage the world, this is the absolute least that I can do.
And today at the rally, for the first time, I approached the front, held the loudspeaker to my mouth, and expressed how I felt. For the first time I was truly doing a public speech. All my past experiences had been confined with classrooms or these forms of settings, but today I was speaking to express my thoughts, on why I participated. And before I attended this event, I was being bombarded by my parents on their pro-Beijing thoughts. They simply didn't understand how everyone else was feeling. It's a very lonely feeling when you're away from what's happening, but you feel strong enough to share it, and to the only people you could, your family, and they aren't opening their ears to truly hear how you're feeling, not to mention undermine it. After I went home, I checked my Facebook and saw a lot of likes by friends who saw my check-in at the event today. Only at that moment did I know, I'm not alone. They're all feeling the same way I do.
If you've made it all the way down here, thanks for reading all of this.
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Newest update: it seemed like several of the roads in Central are now completely unusable as people had taken to the streets completely. All of this is just the beginning.
