In Hong Kong, the silence is much quicker. The silencing of dissenting voices and editing of the past has taken place at breakneck speed, reflecting the blink-and-you-miss modern news cycle. This has its own logic; The quicker the veil of silence covers Hong Kong, the less time there will be for criticism to take root and the quicker the next phase of transition — whatever it may be — can be accomplished. The production cancellation cycle accelerates.
I worked in Hong Kong’s once rowdy newsrooms and covered its lively protest protests. Now most of the Hong Kong journalists I know have been silent. Some are in prison, some are in exile, and some are no longer writing, as there are no longer publications that can publish them. After a harshness national security law to be imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, at least 12 news outlets closed, including the popular, pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily. its founder, Jimmy Laicould face life in prison for national security charges, and its six executives have pleaded guilty conspiracy to collude with a foreign power, a vague allegation introduce with the new security law. Some stores are closed pull their archives from the internet. This is how history is erased, both virtual and literal.
Those who continue to publish are under scrutiny. One of Hong Kong’s most famous political cartoonists, Wang Qiguan, better known by the pseudonym Zunzi, has been many times criticize by top officials, including one who punished him for “serious deviation from the truth.” His plight recalls George Orwell’s remark that “every joke is a little revolution.” In this climate, the only guarantee of safety is silence.
The play about dementia involves spreading ideology through “patriotic education”. New school textbooks say that Hong Kong, which was returned to China by Britain in 1997, was never a British colonybecause Beijing I do not recognize 19th-century treaties ceded Hong Kong to Britain, although some roads and parks are – to this day – still named after British colonial figures.
History is identity, and to challenge this fundamental tenet in the Hong Kong experience is to attack their identity. Britain has not established full electoral democracy in Hong Kong, but it has left a stubborn respect for civic values, freedom of the press and a desire to participate in politics. what prompted the massive protests in 2019. The act of rewriting history has blown away the foundation of that legacy, seeing Hong Kongers as victims of an occupying force rather than agents of fate. theirs.
