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LIFE & ARTS Post-it note protests Photos by Laurel Chor Photos by Laurel Hong Kong’s Lennon Walls offer bright messages of resistance against Beijing’s tightening grip LAUREL CHOR Contributing writer ll over Hong Kong, a colorful form of peaceful protest has A been blossoming. People have been writing their thoughts, demands and encouragement onto Post-it notes, and sticking them onto walls in public spaces, creating an eye-catching and instantly recognizable mosaic. They’ve bloomed on walls of footbridges and pedestrian tunnels, and on the sides of government buildings and highway pillars, with some torn down as quickly as they flowered, and others having lasted since early June. These temporary installations are called Lennon Walls, taking their name from the graffiti-covered, peace- themed wall in Prague first painted with a picture of the late musician John Lennon in 1980. The first Hong Kong Lennon Wall appeared on the sides of the legislature in 2014, during the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement, when major streets were occupied in the heart of the city for 79 days. Five years later, they have again become a powerful symbol in the former British colony, which has been rocked by almost two months of increasingly Ms. Ho (first name withheld), 14, said she was putting violent demonstrations. up a made-up character representing “dirty cops” The protests were sparked by a on the outskirts of the wall in Tai Po. “I want people proposed bill that would allow anyone to know that the cops are like this, that they don’t care about people, and don’t help people, and hit us.” in Hong Kong to be extradited back to mainland China, while the police 54 Nikkei Asian Review Aug. 12-25, 2019 Read more at asia.nikkei.com 55 LIFE & ARTS have continued to stoke public anger. The Hong Kong police force has been criticized for an excessive use of force and, more recently, has been accused of working with the triads, Hong Kong’s organized crime syndicates. The major marches -- two of which have been attended by more than 1 million people, according to organizers -- attract a broad spectrum of Hong Kong citizens. But the street protests are usually attended by younger people and they often end in clashes with the police, who have regularly used tear gas and rubber bullets. The Lennon Walls provide a gentle alternative for those who may not be willing or able to attend the protests, and who choose to express their views anonymously and quietly. A small group of anonymous volunteers has embarked on a project called “Lennon Wall Hong Kong” to document the walls on social media, mapping them and collecting images not only from Hong Kong, but around the world. Supporters of the movement abroad have sent photos showing small Wallace (last name withheld) Lennon Walls that have sprung up all wrote a note supporting Hong Kongers and criticizing the police over the world, including Paris, Helsinki, for their lack of response during Brisbane and California. triad attacks: “I’ve lived in Hong “There is a poetry in a Lennon Wall Kong for 51 years,” he said. “I’ve that captures what has happened in never heard of police stations Hong Kong and what makes Hong Kong shutting their gates!” people special,” said a project volunteer, who declined to be identified and who spoke via Instagram’s messaging feature. “There is no leader that controls a Lennon Wall. There is no fixed process. Like a garden, each one grows organically. And every single person can contribute. Everyone is helpful.” Crystal, who declined to give her last name, is unemployed and has been People walk past a woman as she writes a note for a Lennon spending a lot of time as a volunteer at Wall on a pedestrian overpass the largest of the city’s Lennon Walls. in Tsuen Wan. The Tai Po edition is an impressive public display of creative expression Far right: A man looks that has completely covered the walls at a Lennon Wall on the side of a highway pillar on Hill Road of a pedestrian tunnel hundreds of feet in Sai Ying Pun. long. Like at other walls, there are supply 56 Nikkei Asian Review Aug. 12-25, 2019 Read more at asia.nikkei.com 57 LIFE & ARTS for it to spring up again the next day. In late July, I saw a police officer tear down a wall in Yuen Long after protests against the triad attacks turned violent. Blue, a 21-year-old university student who withheld her last name, said she was taking photos of the large Lennon Wall in a pedestrian tunnel in Tsim Sha Tsui because the walls are “an important part of Hong Kong’s history” and she knew they “wouldn’t last forever.” She hopes the Lennon Walls will raise awareness among foreigners visiting Hong Kong, calling them a form of “soft power.” “This is a tourist spot, and a lot of people pass through it, so whether people agree with us or not, they will want to read it,” she said. “Hopefully we can turn them to our side or make them Top: A Lennon Wall has taken stations with free Post-its, tape and pens sympathetic to us.” over the pedestrian overpass for the taking. Stage manager Joyce, 27, who asked by a train station in Tsuen Wan. “I want to do my part and help protect not to give her last name, was walking everyone’s painstaking efforts. Even if past the Tsim Sha Tsui wall when she Below: A 5-year-old boy writes a note supporting Hong Kongers it could get cleared at any moment, decided to do her part. She removed with the help of his mother, that’s OK,” she said, explaining that she the posters covering signs intended to Victoria (last name withheld). helps to tidy up and manage donated give directions to pedestrians, and stuck She says she wants to start supplies. “I just want to come and them elsewhere on the wall. teaching him at a young age help, and do what I can for Tai Po and Joyce said that the walls give her so that he can “distinguish between right and wrong.” Hong Kong.” hope about the movement. “Sometimes Some walls have been torn down or I feel really tired, and I think that I am splashed with ink by those who disagree not doing enough,” she said, her voice with the protests. During a pro-police full of emotion. “But when you walk past rally, people aggressively tore down the a wall, you realize there are actually a lot walls on the sides of the legislature, only of people with you.” 58 Nikkei Asian Review Aug. 12-25, 2019 LIFE & ARTS “The City I Live In” -- Tammy Ho, July 27, 2019 On weekends, people walk the streets in the fierce sun on the brink of fainting -- grey sweat comes down to their ankles when a river of heads chants add oil. At least one in seven people choose to boldly speak a forbidden language of signs, posters, and videos; of hope, metaphors, malls, and proliferating Courtesy of Taylor Ng at Chick Chack Studio Courtesy of Taylor Lennon Walls. The city I live in is no longer only office buildings with glass fronts or identical shops that sell identical Courtesy of Badiucao and Edward Luper Courtesy of Badiucao and Edward things. It is a city of diverse limbs that each know their direction -- The special “extradition” issue of Voice & Verse Poetry wherever they are needed, they go. Magazine received submissions from a lot of young new writers, said editor Tammy Ho. Perry Dino works on an oil painting on June 12 shortly before being engulfed Ho, a professor of English literature, has called for public movement, particularly in raising awareness among those who in tear gas. “It’s invaluable,” said the artist. “Not many paintings have tear submissions of Chinese and English poems by anyone, were once indifferent to politics. “Every passerby, young and gas as a raw material.” anywhere, who has found his or her voice in the movement. old, can easily understand the message,” said Lo. “These In late July, a special “extradition” issue for the magazine images are much more contagious than news and texts.” was published, featuring poems from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Still, not all creators want their names to appear in these Singapore, Malaysia, London and elsewhere. “galleries” at a time when people in the Asian financial hub Perry has been “To our surprise, we have received a lot of submissions by are under increasing pressure from employers to steer clear of painting images young, beginner writers this time,” Ho said. “This is something politics. A 25-year-old graphic designer, who would give her Painting with of Hong Kong’s that they feel strongly about so they are emboldened to write.” name only as Wing, is one of the many anonymous contributors protest movements Just as ancient Chinese poetry was often used as a medium to the protest artwork that has spread across the city. since 2012. His tear gas work is not for sale, for subtle, sometimes sarcastic, commentary on the politics She and hundreds of other members of Telegram, an however, because of the day, poetry today can double as an unofficial record of anonymous messaging app widely used by protesters, have How pop-up art and poetry are keeping he does not want it current events, “like photographs,” according to Ho. spent their days and nights creating promotional materials and to “fall into the “Poems have the unique ability to propel readers to think propaganda for the stream of protest events that have taken Hong Kong’s protest movement alive wrong hands.” differently,” Ho said.

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