2 thoughts on “Each One, Teach One: Pro-Democracy Protests in Hong Kong”
I’ve been following the Hong Kong protests, so it was refreshing to see a project on it!
I think this project does a great job of illustrating the many faces of oppression. On the one hand, Hong Kong citizens enjoy more liberties than citizens of mainland China. Example: when I visited China a few years back, I first went to Hong Kong, and like a good American, stuffed my face at the end of a long day of sightseeing and flipped on the hotel room television. Nothing good on, mostly boring. However, when I went to China a few days later (and repeated this process, of course), I noticed something striking. Four days after seeing a news story in Hong Kong, I saw it on (mainland) Chinese television – it was labeled as “breaking news just in” (a total lie), and it was *edited* – certain aspects of the Hong Kong broadcast had been removed and the story thus framed by the broadcast was notably different.
So, one could argue that Hong Kong is more “free” than mainland China. Yet, they are experiencing similar problems to the West, in the sense that elected officials overwhelmingly represent the privileged majority of their society. Personally, I think it could be problematic when people go in and say stuff like “oh, we should just let them (whatever country) do things their way” without stopping to notice that one country/region’s way of “doing things” may be considerably impacted by other colonial forces – in this case, the British Empire’s effect on Hong Kong.
^ re-reading this, I think I should clarify. In no way was I suggesting that you are saying/implying “oh we should just let them do things their own way.” I appreciated and agree with your input on the topic. My statement was directed toward individuals who oppose the actions of Hong Kong, or use that line as an excuse to not investigate the issue but act like they know it (like internet trolls).
I’ve been following the Hong Kong protests, so it was refreshing to see a project on it!
I think this project does a great job of illustrating the many faces of oppression. On the one hand, Hong Kong citizens enjoy more liberties than citizens of mainland China. Example: when I visited China a few years back, I first went to Hong Kong, and like a good American, stuffed my face at the end of a long day of sightseeing and flipped on the hotel room television. Nothing good on, mostly boring. However, when I went to China a few days later (and repeated this process, of course), I noticed something striking. Four days after seeing a news story in Hong Kong, I saw it on (mainland) Chinese television – it was labeled as “breaking news just in” (a total lie), and it was *edited* – certain aspects of the Hong Kong broadcast had been removed and the story thus framed by the broadcast was notably different.
So, one could argue that Hong Kong is more “free” than mainland China. Yet, they are experiencing similar problems to the West, in the sense that elected officials overwhelmingly represent the privileged majority of their society. Personally, I think it could be problematic when people go in and say stuff like “oh, we should just let them (whatever country) do things their way” without stopping to notice that one country/region’s way of “doing things” may be considerably impacted by other colonial forces – in this case, the British Empire’s effect on Hong Kong.
^ re-reading this, I think I should clarify. In no way was I suggesting that you are saying/implying “oh we should just let them do things their own way.” I appreciated and agree with your input on the topic. My statement was directed toward individuals who oppose the actions of Hong Kong, or use that line as an excuse to not investigate the issue but act like they know it (like internet trolls).