Review: Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong

This book is part history, part memoir

There are several books about the 2019 protests and Louisa Lim's Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong combines numerous threads that are subtly woven through the chapters and then magically come together into a striking record. 

One thread is Lim's family history and childhood in Hong Kong, another is her interest in a crazy artist nicknamed the King of Kowloon who painted childlike graffiti all over the city, and the last thread about Hong Kong's history and how the once barren rock transformed into an international metropolis thanks to British policies and the sheer hard labour of the Chinese, mostly refugees.

Throughout its entire history, Hong Kong's people were never given a say of their fate. In the negotiations leading up to the signing of the 1984 Joint Declaration by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, there was another group tangentially involved -- the Unofficials.

Author and journalist Louisa Lim

They were a small group of local elites who tried to advise the British to not trust the Chinese, but they were completely sidestepped and felt betrayed. 

The proof is in a series of confidential interviews these Unofficials gave to Hong Kong political scientist Steve Tsang in the 1980s and 1990s with the promise they would be kept secret until 30 years later, which is now.

Lim read every single page and distills how the Unofficials felt at the time, betrayed by the British despite their loyalty, and trying to keep a brave face in front of the public as all their negotiations were to be top secret -- not even their wives or friends were to know what was discussed.

And it is interesting to note how these Unofficials' fears of what would happen to Hong Kong have come true, how the vagueness of the Basic Law would lead to Beijing interpreting it, and not give Hongkongers the rights they were promised, which have led us to where we are today.

Another fascinating read is when she recalls the time she was a reporter at TVB during the 1997 handover. The TV station had planned programming to the minute for up until the handover ceremonies were held, but then were completely lost the following days afterwards as to what they should focus on, much like the city trying to feel its way with the Basic Law as its new constitution.

She also interviews the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, now decades later on looking back on what happened to the city. His response was far from the polished politician he usually is.

Tsang with his numerous graffiti writings

The book then moves fast forward to 2014 and the Umbrella Movement, how it was such an extraordinary protest at the time for the city, but also marked the beginning of the authorities using lawfare -- weaponising the law against defendants like Benny Tai Yiu-ting and Joshua Wong Chi-fung.

Lim notes how the movement, which paralysed the city for 79 days, ended so abruptly that protesters found it difficult to process and figure out what to do next.

That came five years later in the 2019 extradition protests that exploded into months of protests on the streets. Lim shuttled back and forth between Melbourne and Hong Kong to cover the protests periodically. Not only was she trying to cover them as a journalist, Lim was trying to process it all as a Hongkonger -- what was happening to her city?

It's something many of us were grappling with as we watched the street battles, the violent clashes, the blank-faced government officials and the determined protesters day after day. 

Meanwhile Lim also weaves into the book her obsession with Tsang Tsou-choi, a poorly-educated man who believed Kowloon belonged to his ancestors and thus him, and began protesting by painting crude Chinese calligraphy on government property. In a way it was also his way of marking his territory.

She recalls how he was written off as a madman and then suddenly became a superstar, his work even exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and auctioned off by Sotheby's the following year. 

The early extradition protests in June 2019

To Lim in a quirky way he represented Hongkongers fighting for their rights, and how he is an important part of the city's art development and culture.

Sadly she notes how Beijing has a strong hand over Hong Kong in the last few years, observing how the government labelled the protesters as "rioters", thus changing the narrative, and brutal police tactics seemed to have repeated how protests in Chengdu were shut down in 1989.

And she mourns how press freedom ended the day Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was arrested, followed by the swift demise of his paper, Apple Daily.

"A million copies were printed for this city of 7.5 million. They sold out. The next day the newspaper's entire archive vanished from the internet. As Beijing imposed its narrative control by force, it was simply too dangerous for other versions of the past to exist," she writes.

Indelible City is an incredible book, deftly weaving these threads together to create a page turner for anyone who is interested in Hong Kong and its history. 

Many times I found myself nodding my head in agreement or thrilled to read someone else had come to a similar observation or conclusion as me. I was not the only one.