焦虑地望着家乡

2019年夏天香港抗议活动的图片. (Studio Incendo |维基共享资源)

对太阳城网赌平台的大部分人来说, the recent siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University by police pursuing pro-democracy protesters was a compelling news story glimpsed via TV, 互联网, 或者印刷媒体.

但“A”，一个在卑诗大学学习的香港人，做的不仅仅是观察.

警方加强了对校园的控制, some Hongkongers sought to slip in and bring to safety those trapped inside. 在救援队伍中有A的朋友, who kept in contact by encrypted phone apps to help them avoid getting captured, 或者更糟.

“我试图让他们知道警察可能从哪里来, 最好的逃生路线是什么——有什么有用的信息吗,A说。, whose name is withheld here out of his concern for family members and friends.

媒体报道了这次对峙, 持续了近两周, showed protesters escaping the campus by sewer tunnels or shimmying down ropes to board waiting motorbikes. 目前还没有确切的成功越狱人数. A说他的朋友们能够安全进出.

香港民主运动不可思议的重生, five years after the “Umbrella Revolution” starkly revealed the territory’s tensions with mainland China—which administers the region—has been one of the year’s most gripping international developments. A has not lived full time in Hong Kong for several years—he has dual citizenship in the European country where he attended school—but he maintains strong ties there, 尤其是因为他的家人. 他通过社交媒体和其他方式保持联系, 尽他所能跟踪新闻, and maintains hope that Hong Kong can retain its legal and economic systems. 他说，另一种选择太可怕了，难以想象.

“If the movement stops, there is no second chance,A说。, interviewed late last month. “如果我们输了，中国政府可以也会限制我们的自由. So for Hong Kong, and the young generation in particular, this is a fight for survival.”

A’s historical impression of Hong Kong during its 156 years as a British colony is of a place rife with racial inequality and corruption, 但从20世纪70年代开始，情况有所改善, when Murray MacLehose became governor and enacted a wide range of reforms. 他对香港的记忆非常深刻, bustling city where pedestrians are impelled to move quickly across busy streets, 它众多的购物中心总是人满为患. But hundreds of thousands emigrated after the Sino-British agreement paving the way for China to assume authority over Hong Kong in 1997, 同时保证其政府和经济制度50年.

A cites the Tiananmen Square massacre as a key flashpoint in Hongkongers’ concerns about life under Chinese administration: Many people, 包括他的家人, began obtaining dual-citizenship status in the United Kingdom and United States, 以及加拿大, 澳大利亚, 还有其他国家.

2014年民主抗议活动开始时，A在国外, as Hongkongers expressed displeasure over electoral reforms they saw as allowing China to pre-screen candidates for the territory’s chief executive position. “中国不会允许普选，”他解释说. “They said, ‘We’ll let you vote, but we’ll choose the candidates you can vote for.’”

Protesters—many of whom carried umbrellas as protection from pepper spray and tear gas from police—occupied three districts, 其中一栋是政府总部, 但未能迫使中国做出让步.

“I knew many friends who were at the occupation for a day or two; everybody seemed to know someone who had taken part,A说。. 当运动失败时, 有很多绝望和失去的希望, 你会听到很多人谈论移民.”

The protests that began back in June—over a proposal to extradite suspected criminals to the mainland, which opponents claim would result in suppression of activists and journalists—were a pleasant surprise for A. He believes the extradition bill was not so much the cause of the backlash but rather “the trigger” that rejuvenated the nascent pro-democracy elements in Hong Kong.

The scope of the protesters’ demands broadened beyond withdrawal of the extradition bill (which occurred in September) to include universal suffrage for the election of Hong Kong’s legislative council and chief executive, 对涉嫌警察暴行的调查, 释放被捕的抗议者, and a retraction of the official characterization of the protests as “riots.” The so-called “Five Demands” became the cornerstone of the democracy movement.

While Hongkongers studying abroad have not personally experienced the turmoil back home, 他们有自己的顾虑. 据美联社报道，在美国的香港人.S. 大学报告了紧张局势, 甚至冲突, with students from mainland China who view the pro-democracy movement as a threat to Chinese territorial integrity and rule of law.  

A, 谁会毫不掩饰自己是香港人, 他说，他在BC没有和中国学生发生过任何冲突. But shortly after arriving in Boston in August he took part in a pro-Hong Kong march that was met by Chinese counter-protesters shouting “Hong Kong will always be a part of China.根据A, a middle-aged Chinese man approached one marcher with the apparent intent of physically attacking him; police intervened shortly thereafter (A did not witness whether an attack actually took place).

亲民主运动最近受到美国官员的欢迎.S. sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights abuses in Hong Kong, and the overwhelming triumph of pro-democracy candidates in the Hong Kong district council elections. But these events by themselves are widely viewed as unlikely to push China to change its hardline approach.  

Universal suffrage is more crucial for Hong Kong than ever, A believes. “China has already started taking away our freedom and trying to replace our rule of law by rule of man. It is now necessary for us to get democracy immediately as a tool to protect our freedom and the rule of law. 如果我们现在不赢, Hong Kong will become a place where political dissidents are no longer safe to live in, 就像中国一样. 没有法治, who knows what the police and the Chinese government will do to people who get arrested in the mass prosecution that comes after the failure of the movement?

“所以除了为民主而战，保护我们的自由, 这场运动也是为生存而战.”

——肖恩·史密斯，大学传媒