These Guys are Inspiring! The People Behind Hong Kongs Protests? Christians! A Christian minister, a law professor, and a 17-year-old high school student are among the figures behind a movement that has captivated the world. As the leaders are devout Christians, Occupy Central has a distinct religious vibe... It was unclear what action the demonstrators would take next. There were no immediate speeches or official statements from the protesters, who chanted Jiayou! Jiayou! — or Keep it up! — while waving their cellphones with the LED flashlights sparkling in the dark. The Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), founded in 1958 and made up of student unions from eight schools, is known for cultivating social activists from different generations. The HKFS has helped orchestrate Hong Kongs class boycott, which on Sept. 22 included striking students converging upon the Chinese University of Hong Kong wearing matching white T-shirts. The HKFS helped engage the support of university professors, some of whom have recorded their lectures to help boycotting students keep up with classes; other professors turned out to support the students Occupy Central with Love and Peace is a pro-democracy civil disobedience movement founded as a response to what some in Hong Kong see as Beijings gradual encroachment upon the citys political freedoms. Chan Kin-man, a devout Christian & sociologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is one of Occupy Centrals co-organizers. Chan formerly served as director of the universitys Chinese studies center, but stepped down from that role in early August to prevent his involvement with Occupy Central from affecting the programs reputation. ...to give in to their demands...civil disobedience is acceptable biblically only...when peoples rights to religion and to live are under threat. Benny Tai, Benny Yiu Ting is an expert, researcher, author in the field(s) of Law & religion, ... an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, first proposed nonviolent civil disobedience in a January 2013 article he wrote for the Hong Kong Economic Journal, and since then he has been an outspoken leader of Occupy Central. In the early morning hours of Sept. 27, after the protesters led by Scholarism (profiled below) and the Hong Kong Federation of Students clashed with police, Tai announced the official start of Occupy Centrals civil disobedience. Tai, along with Occupy Central co-organizers, has called upon Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, the head of Hong Kongs government whos known to be accommodating toward Beijing, to resign. “The police have used disproportionate force to stop the legitimate actions of the students and that should be condemned,” said Benny Tai. Chu Yiu-ming, a church minister and veteran human rights activist, is an Occupy Central co-organizer. Now 70 years old, Chu grew up in mainland China and lived through the Cultural Revolution, a traumatic period of Communist Party-led turmoil from 1966 to 1976; he is known for helping several Tiananmen Square protesters flee China in 1989 in an operation called Yellowbird. Involved with Occupy Central since 2013, Chu assumed the position of leader of Occupy Central in January 2014. Chu has stated that although he is really afraid of the Communist Party, he believes that if we bow to fate, we will lose everything. Joshua Wong, was a student at the United Christian College (Kowloon East), and as a 17-year-old high school student, has faced down Beijing before -- and emerged in one piece. The teenager founded the student movement Scholarism in 2012 in response to the Hong Kong governments bid to introduce patriotic education to Hong Kongs schools through a Beijing-style curriculum that some residents feared would brainwash the citys students. After a month of protests, during the movements peak more than 120,000 people gathered at the government headquarters, with three of the movements members going on a hunger strike. (The proposal was later shelved.) Wong has been the target of pro-Beijing media outlet attacks, most recently on Sept. 25 when Hong Kongs Wen Wei Po, a paper known to be sympathetic to Beijing, accused him of ties to the United States. Hong Kong police arrested Wong on Friday, Sept. 26, after he led a charge for protesters to climb over the fence of a government building, and released him two days later without charge. Alex Chow, is a Graduate Student in the School of Theology, he has given public presentations on Chinese Culture including posting Research Centre Lectures ‘Christianity as a Chinese Religion’ – Public Lecture ‘The Shaping of Christianity in China’ – Call for Papers. He is secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), which has organized the class boycott in which institutions across Hong Kong are currently participating. In a Sept. 15 interview with Harbour Times, a Hong Kong-based bilingual newspaper, the 24-year-old Chow stated that he had been followed and his phone tapped. They are not reporters, but are public security from China, he told the Times, but he said he wouldnt be deterred by these threats. Majoring in comparative literature and sociology at the University of Hong Kong, Chow had little experience organizing social movements before the class boycott. Lester Shum, a government and public administration student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has held the post of deputy secretary-general of HKFS since April. Like Chow, Shum is a novice at leading student movements. In an interview in September with the pro-democracy Hong Kong-based Next Magazine, Shum said his political awakening came from a popular Internet forum called Hong Kong Golden. Both Shum and Chow were detained by police for more than 30 hours, and Shum said that police officers refused to let him take medicine despite a fever. We are not afraid of riot police, we are not afraid of tear gas, we are not afraid of pepper spray... We will not give up! We will persevere until the end! Lester Shum, shouted to a crowd at Admiralty, near Hong Kongs waterfront. In 57 years in Hong Kong, I have never seen anything like this, Andrew Leung, a lifetime resident of the city, told VICE News. He retired from his electrical engineering job four months ago only to recently find himself coughing amid clouds of tear gas, surrounded by protesters a fourth his age. Of course, we must prepare for the worst — that the People Liberation Army might take action. We cannot say this will not happen. As the leaders are devout Christians, Occupy Central has a distinct religious vibe, as the name suggests. The movement kicked off in March 2013, when the three leaders held a press conference to announce the manifesto at a church in Kowloon, a densely populated area at the heart of Hong Kong. The protests have been dubbed the Umbrella Revolution by some because the crowds have used umbrellas to block the sun and to deflect police pepper spray. Are you affected by the protests? Get in contact by emailing [email protected]. Or by filling in the form below. Send your pictures and videos to [email protected] or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here. https://youtube/watch… foreignpolicy/…/people_behind_hong_kong_prot…
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 19:14:20 +0000
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