10 Years Ago Umbrellas Became a Symbol

The Umbrella Movement began 10 years ago today

It's so hard to believe it's been 10 years since the Umbrella Movement kicked off in Admiralty, when Hongkongers were politically awakened and began vocally demanding universal suffrage. They began taking part in civil disobedience and saw that it could be a beautiful, happy, almost utopian thing for 79 days when they occupied parts of the city.

I still vividly remember being in the crowd trying to get closer to Tamar where student activists like Joshua Wong Chi-fung were surrounded by police in Civic Square. We chanted they should be let go. People carried umbrellas, some even wearing swimming goggles, as there were rumours that tear gas might be used.

My friend YTSL had just returned from Japan and she managed to find me in the crowd. After a while we felt the stalemate with the police wasn't going anywhere so we went to get a bite to eat at Dan Ryan's in Pacific Place.

Police fired 87 canisters of tear gas in Admiralty

At the time I didn't use Twitter much, but while we were eating I decided to check it and saw that tear gas had indeed been fired on civilians. In the end Hong Kong Police fired 87 canisters of tear gas on the mostly unprepared crowd, who only had umbrellas to defend themselves. 

By the time we returned to Admiralty, people were walking along the highway, dazed at what had happened. They began occupying the area, sitting on the asphalt, preventing cars, buses and trucks from proceeding. Those who saw the footage on television rushed down to the area, incensed that the police had fired tear gas on fellow residents.

This caught University of Hong Kong professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting off guard. He and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming and sociologist Chan Kin-man had planned an occupation of the city as a form of civil disobedience to show Beijing that Hongkongers were not happy that they were not allowed to directly vote for the chief executive, and that the candidates would be pre-approved by China.

The trio hastily declared that Occupy Central was happening now, but the occupiers were more interested in what the youngsters, Wong, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Alex Chow Yong-kang and Lester Shum had to say. 

The umbrella became a symbol of the movement

Perhaps the highlight was watching the televised debate between these kids and government officials. The students metaphorically ran circles around the adults, it was amusing to watch. 

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying refused to deal with them -- he left that to his subordinate Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. He claimed at the time external forces had influenced people to protest, but even 10 years later he has produced no evidence of the sort.

Even more memorable was the incredible output of art, from people writing their wishes for Hong Kong on multicoloured sticky paper to amateur artists drawing their interpretations of the Umbrella Movement, to a large statue of "umbrella man", to people teaching others how to make small yellow umbrellas out of paper. 

Hanging out there was surreal -- where vehicles used to rush by, we sat there, ate our dinners, walked around and then went home, while others even slept there overnight. There were water bottles available, people came around with garbage collection, and there were study halls for students and tutors available to help.

It was a romantic time that was suddenly crushed on December 15 that year when the police came in, arrested anyone left occupying the streets, and violently took down tents and umbrellas away. 

I thought this kind of occupation would never happen again.

I was wrong.

Wind-Swept Parade of HK Athletes

HK fans wave to their Olympic athletes on the parade route

The other day fans got to cheer Hong Kong athletes who competed in the Olympics in Paris in a whirlwind parade across town.

It started at 10.15am in Sha Tin and then they were at the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower by 11am, followed by Central Pier by 11.35 and Tamar Park 10 minutes later.

Fok hastily fixing his hair with a comb

The athletes, accompanied by Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, president of the Hong Kong Sports Federation and Olympic Committee sat on the open top deck of a double-decker bus.

How did they get from Sha Tin to Tsim Sha Tsui so fast?

It was quite the roller coaster ride.

Footage of the top deck shows the bus barreling at full speed along the highway as Fok, sitting in the front row, has his comb-over hair flying all over. It's quite the sight.

Once they arrive, he quickly whips out his comb to comb down his hair. Lucky for him he came prepared!

Of all the Olympic athletes who won medals, the ones from Hong Kong gained the most monetarily.

Kong (front) and Haughey waving flags

Gold medallists were awarded HK$6 million (US$768,000), silver US$384,000, and US$192,000 for bronze. Singapore was close behind with US$745,000 for gold, US$373,000 for silver, and US$186,000 for winning a bronze.

Hong Kong had its best ever Olympics with fencer Cheung Ka-long defending his title with a second gold, and fellow fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai winning gold in the women's epee individual event, and swimmer Siobhan Haughey clinching a bronze in the women's 200-metre freestyle. 

First Impressions of Hong Kong Two Years Later

Nice to be back walking along the promenade again

Woke up at 4am this morning with jet lag and couldn't get back to sleep until around 6am for another two hours. It took me a while to get organised but I finally got out the door and on a whim took the tram going west from Sai Wan Ho.

The streets were much quieter because it was Good Friday, and many people have left for the long weekend. By the time the tram reached Causeway Bay it was 11.15am and I realised Din Tai Fung was there. Vancouver is set to have one towards the end of this year, so I decided to have my dumpling fix.

Xiaolongbao looks a bit smaller at Din Tai Fung

When I got there the shutter was still down, but staff were busy in the kitchen wrapping dumplings. The restaurant actually opened before 11.30am and there were only a handful of us waiting to get the first seats.

As I perused the menu I was shocked that the prices had gone up, and not only that when the food arrived, the dumplings and other dishes looked smaller. Shrinkflation, folks. The food was still good, but for one person it cost HK$230 for pork dumplings, vegetarian dumplings and an appetiser of seaweed and beansprouts with a generous drizzle of sesame oil.

Nearby was Sogo and even though it was lunchtime it was not packed with shoppers despite encouraging its members to collect five times the points on certain products. I managed to score 20 percent off on swimming caps because I bought two.

The next stop was to see Bakehouse, a popular bakery that had opened there after I left. It was completely packed with a queue of people waiting patiently to snap up sourdough egg tarts, pastries, cookies and coffee. Amazing.

Bakehouse doing a bustling business

I then headed to Sheung Wan to buy ferry tickets to Macau in a few days. There were massive lines at TurboJet (the red ferry), while the one for Cotai (blue) was not too bad. Service was brisk with three people servicing counters for tickets to Macau as well as China. 

There weren't as many mainlanders in the city, though today is Friday. My friend and I saw a group of young people wearing the same cap with a small Winnie the Pooh stuffie on it! How ironic.

She took me to a bookshop called Mount Zero in Tai Ping Shan that will be closing at the end of the month. It has been accused by the authorities for several minor violations, including illegally occupying a space outside the shop. It's a tiny place and there were lots of people standing in front or trying to get inside to take a look. 

After that we made our trek east, walking through Central, then Admiralty towards Tamar where there were a lot of people waiting to look at... glowing eggs. It's an exhibition put on by Team Lab from Japan. There are giant eggs that you can touch and apparently make sounds and these things go all the way down the grass at Tamar into the water too. We had to fight the crowds to get to the waterfront.

Mount Zero bookstore closing soon

Almost two hours later we made it to Fortress Hill and enjoyed a Japanese meal that included grilled fugu or puffer fish, and yakitori skewers of beef, chicken, mushrooms, scallops, shishito peppers, and sweet potato, and boiled edamame washed down with sake.

Hopefully that long walk will keep jet lag at bay!

Ducking Away Already?

Gone too soon? The double ducks are ducking to the exits

The double duck show is over!

They were eagerly anticipated as Hongkongers flocked to them at Tamar on June 10, but just over a week later they're ducking away with a quickie tour around Victoria Harbour before leaving.

Before the launch, Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman said: "I hope it will bring as much pleasure as it did in the past and in a world where we suffered from a pandemic, wars, and political situation, I think it's the right moment to bring back the double luck."

One poor duckie deflated on the first day

However, on the first day one of them deflated -- organisers say they did it -- apparently because the hot temperatures stretched the duck's material too much.

And now with thunderstorms, and lots and lots of rain (red rain warning), perhaps saying, "like water off a duck's back" doesn't apply to rubber ducks?

Or maybe it was the person who was riding on a junk in the harbour and then jumped into the water to get up close and personal with the feathery friend that got organisers quacking up a fuss? 

In any event, so much for double the fun with double ducks...

One wonders how much the Hong Kong government, or rather its taxpayers shelled out for a publicity stunt that fowl-ed up so quickly...