ARTIST KEEPS ‘ UMBRELLA’ PROTEST ALIVE
Hong Kong: The sprawling protest camps at the heart of Hong Kong’s 2014 pro- democracy “Umbrella Movement” have long gone — but artist Alexandra Wong is determined to keep the memory alive. Every week the 60- year- old returns to a spot on the driveway outside the city’s government headquarters, creating political murals from brightlycoloured tape laid on the tarmac. She will be there again on Wednesday, the second anniversary of the start of the pro- democracy rallies, which called on Beijing to allow fully free leadership elections in the semi- autonomous city. The anniversary comes as some former protesters backing independence from China prepare to take office after winning recent elections as fears grow of Beijing closing its grip on the city. Wong’s creations echo the spontaneous artworks that sprung up throughout the protests. They mainly depict flowers and umbrellas in the bright yellow that came to symbolise the movement. Caricatures, cartoons, sculptures and origami decorated the rally camps, which took over highways and commercial areas in the former British colony. Wong was a mainstay of the huge camp in Admiralty, next to the government offices. She says going back there is her way of keeping up pressure on the authorities. “I want to use art to express my desire for Hong Kong to have true universal suffrage and to show that the fight is not over,” Wong told AFP, while creating the words “Safeguard our HK” with yellow duct tape. “There are a lot of high officials getting out of their cars here, so this place is very important. Sometimes I think the chief executive ( Hong Kong’s leader) passes by as well, so I must persist,” she said. The rallies failed to win concessions from Beijing and spawned a new movement pushing for selfdetermination and independence as an option for Hong Kong. Wong says she supports that message and while her one- woman mission may seem more straightforward than winning elections, it has taken its toll. Hong Kong- born, she crosses the border from her home in the southern mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen every week. Occasionally, she says, mainland border officials stop her and look through her bag of art tools, but ultimately let her through. She says she does not use a phone for fear of hacking.