Berliner Boersenzeitung - Hong Kong novelists seek freedom in exile after democracy crackdown

EUR -
AED 4.260528
AFN 80.036262
ALL 97.724905
AMD 445.558355
ANG 2.075953
AOA 1063.669332
ARS 1461.423778
AUD 1.781414
AWG 2.087901
AZN 1.979362
BAM 1.943002
BBD 2.343663
BDT 141.031083
BGN 1.955111
BHD 0.437258
BIF 3294.243502
BMD 1.159945
BND 1.487105
BOB 8.021168
BRL 6.444535
BSD 1.160755
BTN 99.584078
BWP 15.608195
BYN 3.79868
BYR 22734.919946
BZD 2.331543
CAD 1.59191
CDF 3347.600914
CHF 0.929667
CLF 0.029241
CLP 1122.095865
CNY 8.320275
CNH 8.333595
COP 4678.057762
CRC 585.443909
CUC 1.159945
CUP 30.73854
CVE 110.83295
CZK 24.662861
DJF 206.14515
DKK 7.462507
DOP 69.927313
DZD 150.932673
EGP 57.296987
ERN 17.399173
ETB 158.390219
FJD 2.616147
FKP 0.863417
GBP 0.866665
GEL 3.143138
GGP 0.863417
GHS 12.064494
GIP 0.863417
GMD 82.922522
GNF 10040.483472
GTQ 8.908324
GYD 242.749014
HKD 9.105364
HNL 30.5645
HRK 7.533029
HTG 152.40616
HUF 400.658311
IDR 18874.159357
ILS 3.899507
IMP 0.863417
INR 99.740877
IQD 1519.527813
IRR 48862.678998
ISK 142.684286
JEP 0.863417
JMD 185.498196
JOD 0.82237
JPY 172.713531
KES 150.217787
KGS 101.433238
KHR 4662.978331
KMF 492.541611
KPW 1043.977797
KRW 1608.275523
KWD 0.354861
KYD 0.967329
KZT 610.479013
LAK 25014.211594
LBP 103873.06534
LKR 349.468189
LRD 233.149388
LSL 20.798255
LTL 3.425015
LVL 0.701639
LYD 6.27543
MAD 10.510844
MDL 19.616792
MGA 5138.555999
MKD 61.157181
MMK 2435.516155
MNT 4158.225341
MOP 9.385481
MRU 46.072966
MUR 52.620916
MVR 17.860143
MWK 2014.241346
MXN 21.836717
MYR 4.921064
MZN 74.189837
NAD 20.797881
NGN 1773.683331
NIO 42.628076
NOK 11.897763
NPR 159.334526
NZD 1.950569
OMR 0.445992
PAB 1.160755
PEN 4.130575
PGK 4.794342
PHP 65.920106
PKR 330.17837
PLN 4.264364
PYG 8987.80086
QAR 4.222888
RON 5.076959
RSD 117.131097
RUB 90.538385
RWF 1666.260842
SAR 4.350531
SBD 9.650231
SCR 16.407482
SDG 696.551697
SEK 11.278249
SGD 1.490759
SHP 0.911535
SLE 26.04089
SLL 24323.469058
SOS 662.910339
SRD 43.456756
STD 24008.517411
SVC 10.156106
SYP 15081.429774
SZL 20.797942
THB 37.788099
TJS 11.09671
TMT 4.071407
TND 3.364418
TOP 2.716705
TRY 46.602845
TTD 7.880097
TWD 34.108298
TZS 3030.351722
UAH 48.539787
UGX 4160.595778
USD 1.159945
UYU 47.308398
UZS 14841.495131
VES 134.205421
VND 30318.059698
VUV 138.617077
WST 3.183141
XAF 651.664738
XAG 0.030762
XAU 0.000349
XCD 3.134809
XDR 0.81075
XOF 651.888921
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.952061
ZAR 20.80651
ZMK 10440.898559
ZMW 26.493498
ZWL 373.501783
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Hong Kong novelists seek freedom in exile after democracy crackdown
Hong Kong novelists seek freedom in exile after democracy crackdown / Photo: Philip FONG - AFP/File

Hong Kong novelists seek freedom in exile after democracy crackdown

When Hong Kong author Kay So left her home city in 2020, she had in her luggage two short stories she had written about the huge, at times violent democracy protests that upended the city in 2019.

Text size:

It was then three months after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the financial hub to quell political dissent after the protests were quashed.

So knew it would be improbable for her writing project to grow into a book in Hong Kong, so she moved to self-ruled Taiwan to study creative writing.

"I don't want to do creative work in a place... where I have to self-censor. The freedom to write is an important freedom," the 30-year-old told AFP on the phone from Taiwan, where she now lives.

She has since completed a collection of eight short stories written in Chinese that draw inspiration from the protests, entitled "Gazing Into a Fire".

It was published in Taiwan in May -- a month before the fifth anniversary of when a million Hong Kongers took to the streets to oppose a bill to extradite criminal suspects to China's opaque system.

The former British colony -- handed back to China in 1997 -- saw the march morph into a larger movement for more autonomy from Beijing for seven heady months before authorities crushed it.

More than 10,000 people were arrested and over 2,900 prosecuted for participating in the protests.

Since then, protests and anti-government opposition -- which used to make Hong Kong distinct from other Chinese cities -- have all but disappeared, while democracy activists have either been jailed, moved away or muted.

But the movement appears to live on in the pages of several fiction titles published in recent years by Hong Kong authors -- many of them choosing to live and write abroad.

So said her book was dedicated to the democracy movement of 2019, which she called "the most compelling and influential episode" in her life.

"Many people are still serving time in prison or waiting for trial," she said.

"I would like to speak to people who still care... so they would know right here there is a writer who also still cares."

- 'Can't let go' -

Under the Beijing-made security law, media outlets regarded as critical to the government have been prosecuted as "seditious publications", while some independent bookstores -- seen as a leftover bastion of liberal circles -- have faced increased government inspections.

Hong Kong also enacted a second law in March that includes a widened definition of "sedition", which foreign governments like the United States say will curb further freedoms in the city -- effectively silencing an already muted opposition bloc.

But the Hong Kong painted in the pages of So's stories remains in a state of roiling agitation.

A mother tries to send her jailed son his favourite dish; a student struggles with her professor over politics; a daughter writes a letter to her late father accused of being an anti-government suicide bomber.

"I found that I was trapped, I had to keep writing about the movement," So said.

Award-winning novelist Leung Lee-chi, also based in Taiwan, professed the same urgency.

"I can't let go of Hong Kong," she told AFP.

Leung has produced a trilogy since she moved to the island in 2021 -- "Everyday Movement" about those caught in the protests, "Survivor's Notes" exploring what led to the movement, and the latest on the post-protest diaspora titled "The Melancholy of Trees".

"After a political turmoil, literature can help us rediscover ourselves in the sweeping waves," Leung said.

- 'Sustaining the freedom' -

Those who have chosen to continue working creatively in the city must look for "space within its framework", said a Hong Kong-based novelist.

"That's what I believe literature should do," he said, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions as he has published stories about the 2019 protests.

The memory of the protests remains "a constantly inflamed wound" for many Hong Kongers, he said.

"There is basically no space, no soil for people to discuss, to narrate, to express... but it's not non-existent," he said.

Pointing to the pending court cases against democracy activists and recent arrests under Hong Kong's security laws, he said writing has become his way to connect with people and maintain the spirit of freedom.

"If we persist in... exercising it in our daily life, we are inheriting and sustaining the freedom."

(A.Berg--BBZ)