5. Protest Space

Solidarity Rally for Hong Kong at the Vancouver Art Gallery
September 27, 2014

Needless to say, I have been more than preoccupied with the events in Hong Kong for the last two weeks. It is both inspiring and eye-opening to see the persistence, courage, and creativity of the protestors, many of whom are young students with little experience of large scale protests. If the Occupy Central movement was flailing before, the students' non-violent, umbrella-wielding response to the police's tear gas and pepper spray on September 26 single-handedly revived the movement and shaped it into what it is today. As global solidarity rallies spring up in support of Hong Kong protestors, it is no surprise that Vancouver joins in, as the city has over 80,000 residents with roots in Hong Kong. It is also no surprise that a couple of these rallies are held in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, which seems to have become the de facto "people's square" or protest space in the city. On any give day, the art gallery is surrounded by a variety of groups each pleading for their causes. The space has also been home to larger-scale gatherings from Occupy Vancouver to the annual Cannabis Day. Every city needs it protest square. Even in Singapore, where a gathering of more than five people in a public space is considered "unlawful," the government permits the Speaker's Corner in Hong Lim Park to be used by citizens as a "venting" space. As Beijing ominously declared Occupy Central - or now more often called the Umbrella Movement - an "illegal assembly," one of the many reasons there is such passion on the street still is precisely the need to protect the very possibility of staging such protests on the streets. Should "Occupy Central" one day sound as impossible as "Occupy Tiananmen Square" then we will have lost everything. That's why: 香港， 加油！