When a ray of light becomes a crime

Author: Vivian TAM Wai-Wan

2021/06/05

Vivian Tam majored in cinema studies and psychology in North America. After returning to Hong Kong her university research focus was “Chow Yun-fat in the eyes of the Hong Kong people”. [Note: Chow is a Hong Kong film star.] Thereafter she turned a journalist alternating between a newspaper journalist and a TV journalist. She is currently teaching in a university and has heaps of strange ideas. She still believes in the magical power of writing.

Mr Hui is 30 year old and trendily dressed. His hair is perfectly styled and he wears a few earrings on his left ear. Last night he wore a brand new white shirt with a slim black tie.

At 8pm he got a white candle and a black paper cup as a windshield from a volunteer in the commercial district of Causeway Bay. He held the lit up candle and slowly walked towards Victoria Park. He was stopped by a police right across the road opposite the park. At this point, half of the candle was burnt and the paper cup filled with candle tears.

At the tensest moment there were over ten policemen surrounding him. He was wedged between the external wall of a shop and a wall of police. A police ordered him to extinguish the candle and he asked why. The police said by lighting a candle he might commit the offence of unlawful assembly.

He used his hand to fan the candle to no avail. The policeman then allowed him to take off his face mask and blow off the candle. After all these sagas, he reluctantly did as told. Mr Hui was also body searched and asked to produce his identity card. He said “I do not have any criminal record. That was the first time I was body searched and it is for the June 4th vigil. This first time is worthwhile. It is a tribute to the sacrifice of those on the fourth of June.”

The trendy young man has a great physique and a tattoo on his left wrist. He admitted he seldom participated in past June 4th vigils. However this time he had a strong urge as he had not had a chance to partake in any assembly or protest for more than a year. Just discharged by the police, he accepted to be interviewed. He was holding a candle with his left hand, visibly trembling. His forehead was dripping with sweat.

Mr Hui said that he felt bad when he was intercepted. “You can sense the whole society is filled with fear and anxiety. They want to oppress us. Society has gone seriously wrong. Everything is heading the wrong way.” This muscular young man could not hide his shock and horror when intercepted. “It has never come to my mind that it would take so much courage to light a candle.”

The premonition was there. The year before, the Hong Kong government banned the June 4th candlelight vigil in Victoria Park for the first time after 30 years. Nonetheless, many managed to get into the park. Afterwards the police arrested and detained the well-known leading activists. This year (2021), the Hong Kong government again used the “pandemic” as the reason for banning public gatherings. Penalties for breaching public health laws mainly involve fines. So on top of that the police also mentioned in their banners and broadcast that breachers would be arrested for unlawful assembly under the Public Order Ordinance which carries a sentence of imprisonment.

This was the first year that the park was empty on the 32nd anniversary of the June 4th vigil. The soccer fields were filled with flood lights. There were uniformed police officers everywhere – in every corner of the park, around Victoria Park in Causeway Bay and throughout Hong Kong. Seven thousand police were deployed. In Causeway Bay, there was literally a police officer every ten steps. Some got near to the closed gates and took photos of the empty fields.

For the first time in 32 years, soccer fields in Victoria Park were empty. A sea of lit candles could no longer be seen. There were only police officers.

The government warned beforehand that anyone dressed in black to Victoria Park last night with a lit candle may be arrested. The legal net was cast wide and far. The public woke up this morning to find barrister and vice chairperson of Hong Kong Alliance, Tonyee CHOW Hang-Tung, arrested for having stated publicly that she would go to Victoria Park as an individual and light up a candle to pay her tribute. A few days earlier, Hong Kong Alliance’s June 4th Museum was closed down because the government alleged the venue did not have a valid entertainment licence for exhibition.

Two ladies, aged 30, in black dresses, walked along the perimeter outside Victoria Park holding candles. One of them said, “we are here to see how scared they (the government) are.”

Throughout the evening, people used different ways to express their resolve to resist and commemorate. Those who wanted to make a statement came dressed in black holding a bunch of white flowers. After dusk, those holding lit candles could only loiter outside the park. Some arranged lit candles on the ground to form the letters “64”. Once done, they left in a hurry. This was not the place to stay.

A large area in Victoria Park was cordoned off by the police with tapes and metal barricades. There were still civilians in the park using recreational facilities such as tennis courts, lawn bowling courts and swimming pools, and children having fun in the playground. When one saw a jogger holding a lit up handphone or a LED candle, then one knew they were there for the same cause.

In a tucked away corner by a public toilet, a 58 year old woman who called herself “Siu Wan (or Arale in Japanese)”, wearing a patterned black shirt, was reading a comic book. Around 7pm when it was getting dark, she placed a small LED candle on her chair. Initially she tried to cover the candle up with various objects. Later when fewer policemen passed by, she gathered her courage to display the candle more openly.

Siu Wan explained to me her “detailed whole day plan”: around 2pm she took a cross-harbour tunnel bus from Kowloon, where she lives. “I was lucky enough to set off early. Later the police set up a lot of checkpoints at various cross-harbour tunnels resulting in huge traffic jams.” She first went to the Central Library and borrowed a comic book about Chinese Medicine. Then she walked around Victoria Park in loops. “I noted down the locations of toilets and exits so I can escape in case something happens.”

She also picked a seat under a canopy so that she could stay even if it rained. “I sincerely hope it will rain, so that there will be fewer policemen.” Why did she need to plan in detail just to come and light up a candle in Victoria Park? “I borrowed a book and pretended I was sitting there reading. I used my smartphone torch for reading. [Sigh!] These days I feel nervous even when dressed in black.”

Siu Wan said when the June 4th Massacre (1989) unfolded, she was young. It left scars on her. She still remembers the assembly in Hong Kong battering a level 8 typhoon that year. She still keeps related TV news reports in video tapes which she treasures. “The ban this year has prompted me to come out. Also many of the leading activisits of Hong Kong Alliance have been arrested. This hurts deeply. This breaks the hearts of my generation.”

Siu Wan was wearing a sterling silver holy cross. She is a devoted Christian. She once visited mainland China and realized that Christian churches there have to lie low. They have to be careful with what they say or there could be consequences. Siu Wan sighed, “these days it feels as if Hong Kong is the same as the mainland. Everything has to be done discreetly. I do this on my own in a very low key way.” She told her relatives about her trip to the park and regularly called them to inform that she was safe. “Wow! Can you see a ‘whole squad of militia’ at the Victoria Park gates?”

In the past Hong Kong Alliance was mocked for their “Great China Complex” which means Hongkong people and mainland Chinese people are brothers and Hongkong people have a responsibility to “build a democratic China”. Siu Wan shared her appreciation of deceased leader SZETO Wah for his love for the motherland and described herself as a natural patriot who always cares for the “motherland”. “I am a Chinese, I also want China to be prosperous and strong. Not just economically strong, but also all its citizens have the ability to tell right from wrong and have conscience.”

When she showed up, Siu Wan knows every time that could be the last. “I had planned to visit the June 4th Museum on June 4th. With just one or two days away, it is now a missed opportunity. The government has shut down the museum with a bizarre reason. Therefore I must come out today. God knows whether I will be allowed to sit here next year.”

Uncle WONG, aged 76, made a Namaste gesture outside Victoria Park. He paid his tribute by bowing towards the soccer fields. He also has a “Great China Complex”.

Uncle Wong views mainlanders and Hongkongers as “both Chinese”. He said, “I thought Hongkongers have supported the demand for a redress of the June 4th Massacre for so many years; mainland Chinese should in turn give their support when people in Hong Kong need it.” In 2019, he contacted a few mainlanders and felt bitter when he learned that they did not support the Anti-Extradition-Bill Movement.

Uncle Wong sighed, “I attended the vigil for nearly 30 times. Other than the three years when I was busy, I came every year. I clearly remember in 2013 it was raining cats and dogs. A lady in her eighties offered to share her umbrella with me but I said there was no need.” He insists to commemorate June 4th every year. He said he attended every vigil with a heavy heart, “I feel like crying but will not.”

Uncle Wong was angry about the arrest of Tonyee CHOW early this morning. “She has very high qualifications. This is a shame.” Chow studied geophysics in Cambridge University and is now a barrister. As to the government’s ban of public assemblies due to the pandemic, Uncle Wong said, “I seldom swear but cannot help. This government is unashamed! The so called health precautions are all excuses. I am not optimistic. Hong Kong Alliance will be outlawed sooner or later. Hong Kong is over. In future we can only commemorate in our hearts.” When asked if he is afraid, he said no. “My son told me not to go to Causeway Bay but I insisted.”

So where was the red line that evening? Lighting up a candle? Turning on a smartphone torch, or holding an electronic candle? My observations were police patrol was not as strict outside Victoria Park. People dressed in black with lit candles could still walk along the streets provided they refrained from chanting slogans or stayed put. However if you were there after 8pm or entered Victoria Park and stayed on the thoroughfare in the park, there were harsher restrictions.

Middle-aged Siu Wan lit her electronic candle in a dark corner in the park and police constables passing by did not interrupt her. However a man in sportswear, jogging and holding an electronic candle, was intercepted by a policeman asking him to switch off the candle. The constable was rude, accusing joggers using jogging to cover up their intention to attend the vigil. “You have run many laps already. Do you still want to keep going?”

There were also a middle-aged couple racewalking outside around the edge of the park with their smartphone torches lit. The wife murmured as she racewalked, “[Sigh] No freedom … freedom is gone … How can a vigil which I attended for over 30 years come to this? How can Hong Kong come to this? Is it even a no no to light a torch?” She attempted to reason with the police. She recalled the policeman’s words that it was okay to pay tribute elsewhere. However using a torch in Victoria Park would attract others to come and it became an assembly. “Then we have to do something.”

At 9:30pm, near the entrance to Victoria Park’s swimming pools, a policeman in white shirt clearly stated where the red lines were drawn. He broadcast to passing citizens: “This is a warning from the police. If you have your smartphone torches or electronic candles lit, please switch them off. By such acts, you are ‘inciting others to participate in an unlawful assembly’. You will be arrested.”

Throughout the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement, that switching on a smartphone torch becomes a crime was unheard of.  

Police constables shouted from a distance at the passing crowd, “Hey you! You! The man in white shirt! You have your smartphone torch on! Turn it off right now! You! You! You in a group of ten have your torches on! I can see you!” Even foreigners were not allowed to have smartphone torches turned on. Quite a few who tried to reason with the police were pushed to one side and had their bags checked and ID card inspected.

Those smartphone torches, tinier than finger nails, twinkled in the dark night of Causeway Bay. Without any need for words, they resonated a common understanding. In the evening of 4th June 2021, these tiny twinkling lights from smartphone torches were tributes from Hong Kong people to those who lost their lives in Beijing 32 years ago. These days Hong Kong people showed their greatest courage by going out to the streets, dressed in black and turning on a tiny smartphone torch to shine on their perseverance and conscience.

Source: Facebook page of the author Vivian TAM Wai-Wan

https://www.facebook.com/wwviviantam/posts/4134986463256414/