Well, well, well, look at the modern news cycle go, moving at the speed of light! What’s the rush, news? Trying to outrun your own consequences? The faster the news gets silenced in Hong Kong, the less time there is for criticism to spread like wildfire. We guess that’s one way to handle things, but it’s not really helping anyone, is it?
We used to work in Hong Kong’s newsrooms when things were loud and rowdy. Now, most journalists are as silent as a church mouse trying to sneak past a cat. Some are in jail, some are in hiding, and some have given up altogether since no one wants to publish them. After the national security law was put in place in 2020, at least 12 news outlets said à bientôt, including Apple Daily, the popular, pro-democracy newspaper. Jimmy Lai, its founder, could be spending the rest of his life in prison on national security charges. Six of its executives have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, a vague charge introduced with the new security law. Some of the closed-down outlets got rid of their archives too. The history being erased before our very eyes is not exactly something to LOL about.
Those still publishing are now under the magnifying glass. One political cartoonist, a well-known name in Hong Kong, is getting roasted by top officials, including one who gave him a scolding for “serious deviation from the truth.” This reminds us of George Orwell’s quote that “every joke is a tiny revolution.” But in this day and age, the only way to be safe is to stay silent.
The amnesiac playbook has a new rule: teach “patriotic education” by force-feeding it to everyone. New school textbooks now claim that Hong Kong was never a British colony, even though it was until China took it over in 1997. Beijing doesn’t want to recognize the treaties that gave Hong Kong to Britain. But what about all those roads and parks that still have British colonial figures’ names on them? Are those just figments of our imagination too?
History is identity, and if you mess with Hong Kongers’ experiences, you’re messing with their identity. Britain didn’t give Hong Kong full participatory democracy, but it did give them a taste for civic values, a free press, and a desire to make their own political choices. That’s what led to the mass protests in 2019. By trying to rewrite history, the government is taking away the foundation of Hong Kong’s legacy. Instead, they’re painting Hong Kongers as hapless victims of an occupying power instead of the gatekeepers of their own destiny. Hilarious, isn’t it? Not.
Serious News: nytimes
