Hong Kong protesters go into creative overdrive
Arts have become a weapon in the battle to hold public attention
IT IS COLLABORATIVE IN A WAY THAT WAS UNIMAGINABLE IN 2014, REFLECTING THE DECENTRALISED NATURE OF THE MOVEMENT
Tear gas canisters billow at her feet. Her right hand holds an umbrella, the other a large black flag bearing the slogan “Free Hong Kong, revolution now” while a gas mask and goggles protect her from the smoke.
“Lady Liberty Hong Kong”, the 4m-high statue created by an anonymous group formed on the internet, serves not only as a symbol of Hong Kong’s antigovernment protests, but also the upswell of creativity in a city best known for finance and skyscrapers.
She started out as an idea on the Reddit-like forum LIHKG to build a statue that could draw attention to the movement. Hundreds volunteered their time and a crowdfunding campaign was launched. People ranging from welders to 3D printing experts to fashion designers (who sewed her fully functional backpack) built “Lady Liberty” in a week from a design chosen by the group.
“Lady Liberty” is modelled on a young first-aider who sustained an eye injury from a suspected police projectile at a protest in August. The helmet, safety goggles and respirator she wears echo the uniform of front-line protesters and have become common motifs in much of the protest art produced since July when demonstrations became violent.
“What you can see in the statue are mundane daily objects for a lot of people. You probably won’t understand why it’s the symbol of a major movement for democracy,” says Flash, spokesperson for “Lady
Liberty” standing next to the piece at its temporary home at the University of Hong Kong. A team of hikers have since moved her to stand atop Lion Rock, a hill that has come to represent the city’s fortitude. Protests have gripped Hong Kong for more than four months. Demonstrations have expanded into calls for greater democracy in the former British colony and an inquiry into the police’s use of force. And the masks have taken on greater significance since early October when face coverings at protests were banned.
From Action Man-sized models of protesters, complete with leg hair and their own plastic barricades, to the flurry of posters produced to advertise each march made by a group of self-called Otaku, or geeks, Hong Kong’s graphic designers and musicians have gone into creative overdrive to express their discontent. Such a largescale explosion of public art was last seen five years ago when the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement turned major roads into buzzing community art projects.
But 2019’s art has turned towards more combative themes, such as celebrating the bravery of front-line protesters in their gas masks with distinctive pink filters, says Sampson Wong, an academic and artist. It is also more collaborative in a way that was unimaginable in 2014, reflecting the decentralised nature of the movement.
Wong collected more than 1,000 works from the 2014 protest camps to create Umbrella Movement Visual Archive. While those works were mostly focused on peace and love, in line with Hong Kong’s adherence to peaceful protests, the pieces produced in 2019 depict demonstrators in gallant battle poses or batting away teargas canisters with tennis rackets.
Hongkongers cannot vote for the city’s leader, but they use their freedom of speech to express their frustrations in a creative way, Wong says. Any public blunder made by an official quickly goes viral, and graphic designers create posters that are shared online and pasted up about the city in a matter of hours.
Beyond the use of images to advertise marches, the upswell in art and music has also played an important role in sustaining the months-long campaign.
“People are consciously turning works of art into the act of moving the movement forward,” Wong says.
“Every two to three weeks it faces a bottleneck, so every two
to three weeks new and creative actions are needed to regain attention.”
Glory to Hong Kong, a song written by a musician who goes by the name Thomas dgx yhl, exemplifies this, Wong says. Since its release on LIHKG, it has been sung flash mob-style, accompanied by brass bands in luxury shopping malls.
Thomas wrote the song as the pop hits previously adopted by protesters, such as Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies by Hong Kong rock band
Beyond and Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les
Misérables, which were popular during the Umbrella Movement, felt “soft and not solid”.
“The main difference is that those karaoke songs can’t boost your morale, they can’t build your identity, they can’t unite the people,” he explains.
Many of the artists and musicians remain anonymous as they believe the protesters’ demands are more important than personal glory, and fear retaliation from the government or attacks from pro-Beijing thugs.
S, a conductor with a nonprofit orchestra, brought together 150 musicians and a video crew of nine to produce an orchestral version of Glory to
Hong Kong that has since racked up 2.6-million views on YouTube. Those taking part were eager to contribute their skills to the movement, S says.
The atmospheric video shows musicians in the full gear of front-line protesters as tear gas-like smoke wafts over them in a bid to show that, even in a studio, the musicians feel their freedom of expression is being curtailed. “The message that we want to send out is: what else can artists, musicians, rational peaceful people do?” he says.
For some, the protests have meant less time to create. Cantopop star Denise Ho was a vocal supporter of the 2014 Umbrella Movement and has become a de facto international spokesperson for the latest Hong Kong protesters. Ho testified before the UN in Geneva and in front of US Congress alongside activist Joshua Wong.
Unfortunately for “Lady Liberty”, she appears to have become victim to opponents of the movement a day after reaching her new hilltop home. Photographs showed the statue lying on the edge of a cliff and splashed with red paint. /©