Student activism
The news that an 18-year-old, secondary school student (Tsang Chi-kin) was shot, during the Oct. 1 National Day protests in Hong Kong, was a wake-up call for me.
Suddenly a distant conflict somewhere overseas felt so close, and the faceless protesters seemed like anybody I could bump into on the streets. The contrast between my mundane life and the life or death drama of Tsang, despite our same age, is striking.
Student-involved or even student-led political activism is not limited to Hong Kong, but a global phenomenon.
In 2018, American high school students, most notably from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School, led protests against gun violence; only a few months ago, a 16-year-old Greta Thunberg inspired a global campaign of school strikes against climate change.
It seems like students all over the world are capable and willing to voice their opinions and stand for what they believe is right. After thinking about students being politically active, however, I started to wonder: “Why am I not active?”
It is not as if I have no opinions at all or am not interested. I keep up with the news and sometimes develop my own opinions. However, I do not have a single memory of me or anybody in my immediate surroundings, who participate in protests or do anything to make social change.
When I ask people around me about getting involved, the usual response is, “Why do you care?” Most of my friends shrug it off, while my parents ask me whether I finished studying for the upcoming school test. Young people seem either too busy with their own lives or not interested to care, and parents are worried about their children’s grades and future career prospects.
The most problematic thing I noticed, that I am also guilty of, is that whenever we hear about student-led protests or activism, we automatically wonder how the students fare in school. Are these protesting students able to study and get good grades?
It might not be the case for everybody, but it feels that the Korean society we live in would rather see students obediently study than to protest for a cause. Which got me thinking, when did voicing one’s opinion become a second thought?
It would be absurd to expect every teenager to become a political activist, but it would be equally absurd to frown upon them when they do speak up. Democracy in South Korea was forged partially with the help of brave university and even high school students speaking up against the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 80s.
However, for student activism to be fully embraced within our society, it is paramount for us — the students — to change ourselves first. It is easy to blindly advocate for an idea after just reading about it off the internet, but in order for us to be taken seriously, there should be much bigger efforts made.