Erstellt am: 29. 9. 2014 - 19:14 Uhr
On the Outside looking in
Text: Matthew Ho
Matthew Ho
Matthew is a born and raised Hong Konger, who after a brief stint studying in London, finds himself rather enjoying being a journalist back home!
Protests in Hong Kong
Turbulent times in Hong Kong
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters continue to block the mains streets in Hong Kong, despite police efforts to disperse them by using tear gas.
On the Outside looking in
A citizen journalist makes his way to the edge of police surrounded Admiralty and Central, the heart of the recent protests in Hong Kong, speaking to people he sees on the same path.
What does Beijing think?
Tens of thousands of protesters continue to bring parts of the territory to a standstill. The crowds are expected to grow ahead of Chinese National Day on Wednesday.
Protests in Hong Kong
School children have joined the student protests in Hong Kong, demanding greater democracy for the territory. Journalist and Hong Kong citizen, Matthew Ho, explains why this is such a crucial issue.
28/9, 10pm
It was a bit bizarre walking down Connaught Road, without a single car in sight.
Normally the busiest and most jampacked of motorways in Hong Kong, it was no less true now – except tonight, it was people filling it to the brim. We passed by families and couples, schoolchildren and older folks alike. One group was seated in a circle on the ground sharing food and drinks, some leaning to a side joking with their mates. But for the tarmac beneath their feet, and the glow of the street lamps above, you could almost believe they were here for a picnic.
Well, except for the goggles, the masks, and the cling film wrapped on their faces. It was almost comic the way it looked, with the creases and the stretches and the way it pressed on someone's face, like so many packets of shrink-wrapped meat you'd find in any supermarket.
Until of course you reminded yourself why everyone was doing it.
EPA
It started off with the pepper spraying, not two days ago. Standard procedure for crowd control, some would say. Another story entirely if you had it sprayed face on, two inches away from your eyes, while police in full riot gear closed in upon you on all sides with batons and shields moments away from pushing you to the ground.
They did it to students. It was only the night before, that unarmed secondary school students gathered in peaceful protest, bore the full weight of the Hong Kong police force as they cleared them off the streets. The students were labelled "extremists", "disrupters of social harmony", and in one particularly hilarious account, "agitators trained by the US military". Their average age couldn't have been more than 17. Their leader, Joshua Wong certainly wasn't, and with that rather frail frame of his you couldn't really picture him having had much physical training ever.
They arrested him anyway.
EPA
When more people turned up to support him, they unleashed the tear gas.
So now we find ourselves here, in the middle of a road blockaded from traffic, marching towards Central and Admiralty, the financial and political heart of our city. We made a brief stop at the Academy of Performing Arts, which for all the world looked less like a place for the theatre than a barely controlled chaos, of helpers handing out supplies and protesters helping out in turn.
I spoke to one of them, a teenager giving out water bottles. As a student of the Academy, he made pains to emphasize their neutrality – no participation in the protests themselves – but behind the words you could sense the outrage that brought him here, not 20 minutes away from where dozens of tear gas canisters were fired. It was definitely an outrage many shared, and must be what brought so many tens of thousands onto the streets tonight.
EPA
A little further along we found an emergency medical station. Dressed in their now slightly dirty and scruffy scrubs, after what must have been a whole day of patching up protesters, the nurses and doctors within looked like they could do with a bit of rest themselves. Listening to them speak was a lesson in humility and dedication. They spoke of victims suffering from tear gas burns, how it got into their eyes; how they had been coming in for hours on end as the police fired round after round.
EPA
Police lights up ahead now, a line of riot police not ten paces away. The acrid smell of lingering tear gas began to sting in our eyes. This was where the crowd was thickest, and a spot of massive police concentration. But it wasn't the only one. It was one of many tonight in this city, in Wanchai and Admiralty and Causeway Bay and Central, where ordinary citizens, families, art students, doctors, nurses are choosing to make a stand.
A cheer rises from the crowd, and I feel myself swept up in the fervour of the crowd. A policeman is carrying a black banner, warning of imminent police action if we don't disperse. The crowd is defiant, and the cheers only grow louder.
This night will not be the last.