Face of a revolution or a riot?
The winds of change are often seen as a welcome break from the existing state of affairs. It’s been over seven months now that the winds of change have been blowing hard across the face of each and every Hong Konger.
But they are perhaps not as pleasant or as welcome anymore as they were in the initial weeks or weekends, to be precise.
From what had begun as a constructive pro-democracy revolution in April, the so-called movement in Hong Kong has gained momentum but somehow devolved into something that is often chaotic, disruptive and, at times, even destructive.
In 30 weeks since April 3, when the Carrie Lam administration announced plans to introduce an extradition bill, life in Hong Kong - especially on weekends - has slipped from heady revolution to
absolute chaos.
The summer now seems a distant past, when on weekends, Hong Kong would make headlines for mature and peaceful rallies that sent the right signals all the way up to Beijing.
For the average Hong Konger,
peaceful gatherings are now a thing of the past. Weekends in the city - a semi-autonomous territory of China - are now often about flash mobs dashing down streets, masked men hurling petrol bombs towards riot police, gangs torching things on their way, and well-armed groups freely using makeshift weapons as they get drawn into bloody clashes with cops.
The movement made perfect sense to those who believed it was necessary to force Lam not to cross the line. She eventually had to pull the plug on the controversial extradition bill on October 23. Despite that, protests continue.
The Hong Kong of today is perhaps not what many Hong Kongers would like it to be tomorrow. Perhaps not everyone would want status quo to continue - this rioting, the barricades, the lockdown, the clashes, the transport standstill and tense weekends.
Time will tell if Hong Kong will reclaim those weekends when people would unwind or if the ‘new normal’ will persist.