Exonians Discuss the Democratic Protests in Hong Kong
Since Monday, September 22, tens of thousands of Hong Kong students have participated in boycotts across the city to peacefully protest for democracy. Their protests have blocked off some of the main districts in Hong Kong, preventing many adults and students from getting to their jobs or school and thus causing chaos in both Hong Kong and China. While the United States is far away from the protests, the event has had far-reaching effects that have extended to the rest of the world, including the Exeter bubble.
Since 1997, Hong Kong has been defined by its one country, two systems political process which allows the city to maintain its own political process while being a territorial part of China. There have been complaints in Hong Kong about the lacking freedom to vote, as out of 3.5 million registered voters, Hong Kong’s chief executive could only be elected by a committee comprised of 1200 members. After recent efforts by the Mainland Chinese government to assert control over the island, Hong Kong citizens are protesting for the right to nominate and directly elect the head of the Hong Kong government, known as the chief executive.
As police attempted to break up the peaceful protests through tear gas and other forms of violence, the strength of the protests began to increase.
As police attempted to break up the peaceful protests through tear gas and other forms of violence, the strength of the protests began to increase. Prep Prady Dayal, who is from Hong Kong, explained some of the effects the protests have had on the people of Hong Kong.
“The side effects of the protests are mostly negative. People may have trouble getting to work, although the protesters do let businessmen and women go through unharmed and leave shops to run their business, schools on the Hong Kong island have been suspended till a day or two ago and finally the police are overworked and under rested trying to control the protests,” he said.
Although the protests thus far have been unsuccessful, Tiffany May ‘13, who is from Hong Kong, believes the event has already played an important role in influencing both Hong Kong and the rest of the world.
“By challenging the status quo using non-violent means, the protesters have demonstrated an invigorated civic consciousness that is vital for our long-term future,” she said. “Even if the political structure does not produce meaningful change in the near future, this movement has established high standards for peaceful protest. More importantly, my generation has been awakened by a new sense of civic consciousness.”
A large part of the protest was organized by high school and college students who were already concerned of their countries’ future. Although May believes this is an important milestone for her generation, Lower Michelle Lee, also from Hong Kong, disagrees. She believes the students are too young and underinformed to lead an event that could change the lives of millions of people.
“The person mostly in charge of this is a 17 year old student,” she said. “Like the majority of the protestors, he is high-school age and seems a little bit too young to be leading a changing movement in Hong Kong. These students keep on fighting for a lot of things they don’t really know about. Image high-school people like us fighting for democracy. It is not really going to work.”
Students in Hong Kong aren’t the only young people getting involved in the event. Across the United States, both high school and college students are leading their own events to raise awareness by encouraging other students “Many universities around the world wore yellow on October 1 (the National Day of the People's Republic of China),” May explained.
“I came together with a few individuals to raise awareness at Columbia's campus. We handed out rigorously-researched leaflets and yellow ribbons to students throughout the day, talking to passersby who had questions about the protest,” May said.
Despite other schools taking an important role in the protest, there has been minimal talk about the event at Exeter. History Instructor Amy Schwartz believes the community should become more involved since the Exeter community is so diverse and many students and faculty are being directly affected by the event. “[Encouraging] involvement is always good,” she said.
“We have a lot of Hong Kongers in our culture—current students, alums and families. I think reading and following the news is the best way to be active. As for pressuring the CCP, nothing seems to work, so I’m really not sure what to suggest.” Dayal agreed with Schwartz and also had a few suggestions to increase Exonians’ involvement and knowledge of the protests.
“I encourage the Exeter community to be more active, especially through raising awareness. This could take place by handing out yellow ribbons, the symbol of these protests on a certain day when people are relatively free, for example on a Wednesday in Grill. We could also discuss this issue in classes and clubs that are relevant, for example MUN or political clubs. Bringing in an Assembly speaker who's well-versed on the issue could be interesting as well.” On the other hand, a large portion of the Exeter community are not informed, making it difficult for Exeter to become more involved. “It’s hard to bring awareness without actually knowing what is going on,” Lee explained. Even if people here just carry on and don’t do anything, I am fine with that because most people here aren’t very informed on the topic anyways and wouldn’t really know what to do.”
Yet all it takes is one video to both inform and inspire students to get involved. Prep Wendi Yan suggested one that could be played for the community to help Exeter reach outside of its “bubble.”
“There is a TED talk by Martin Jacques talking about how China differs from western countries in general,” she said. “If a video like it was played to the community, I think it would help westerners understand Chinese policies and encourage them to become more involved in the event.”