Due to the hoisting of Typhoon 8 signal, all my meetings today are cancelled. Which means you guys can get the extra strong dose of Glutter!!! I probably should do my laundry, but I will get to that!
Here are some thoughts on today’s reading of SCMP.
6:50:26 PM comment [ 2]
If I was the leader of China
A Mr. David Tsui Kai-Tsin from Tuen Muen wrote in the Letters Section of SCMP today “Many people believe that Chief Executive Tung Chee-Wah is the culprit for their financial predicament… By getting rid of him and adopting democracy, they would turn the situation around. Such thinking is naïve and shallow.”
If economic policy doesn’t have anything to do with the economy, I don’t know what I was learning in college. But that’s a side bar. For the record, I don’t want democracy so I can have a good job. I want it because I think self autonomy is something to strive for and I can speak for the “many people” I know. I guess him and I hang in different crowds.
And then he goes on to say, “If I were the leader of China, I would help push for universal suffrage in Hong Kong so that the Central Government will not be blamed by its citizens for their future financial suffering”
That’s very nice. But he’s not. And he can never be, even if everyone thought he was the greatest guy in the universe, coz you know, we can’t vote and nor can the people in China. It would be a shame to have a leader who gave people democracy on the grounds of removing the blame of economic hardship to the world economy. Then again, with that sort of logic, MR. Tsui would fit right in with our current batch of legislators. Hey David! Ever considering running for the next Legco? Even if you don’t win you get to meet many like minded people and can possibly expand one’s social life, and from the sound of it, he doesn’t like the people he knows. Coz when one says “many people” it’s usually
refers to those around them, and not “imaginary” people they don’t know.
Since we are on the topic: I was wondering what I would do if I was the leader of the world. I would for one make sure everyone has enough to eat, so those kids in India who were licking their fingers while searching in a pile of trampled dirt for food won’t have to do that. Then I would make sure everyone can get an education so they can read and write. Lastly I would make sure there was decent universal healthcare. Oh and that women won’t get stoned to death or drowned in rivers for doing something that their society deems as “immoral.” Make sure governments around the world adhere to basic human rights? I am really on a roll now. While I am in LaLa land, I would destroy the Canto Pop industry and replace it with people who love music so I can listen to the radio any time of day, whenever I want and don’t have to cringe. Oh wait. The ICAC is half way there. They just arrested a bunch of corrupt record and media execs for manipulating the charts and music awards. You think HK will have some decent music from now on? Okay, I did say I was in Lala land.
6:45:58 PM
China thinks sites like mine are “poisonous weeds” and how I got China.com banned in China
20 journalists and civil rights campaigners have been detained in China on charges such as “Using the Internet to subvert State Power.” Which translate to “Saying not so nice things about the government” or even “Saying some stuff that China doesn’t want the world to know.” Which could be as simple as SARS related news. Luckily Article 23 hasn’t passed yet, so I am safe. All I can say is if it happens, I hope I can at least be in a cell with other amusing bloggers, or the Catholic contingence, or Democratic Party members rather than the dowdy Falun Gong members. We’re all going in, sooner or later. That’s for sure.
Yeah, and the fun part of all this is. It won’t be the first time China put me down for Internet Related offences. Remember how in 1998 china.com and hongkong.com was blocked in China for a week or so because “Politically insensitive producers were putting unacceptable news on the front page?” That was me and my friend. Following that we created a textbook example of “everyday resistance” of dispossess people, and started putting up stuff like, “Photo of Boy enjoying a sunny day.” “Mrs. Tung cuts ribbon for opening of supermarket,” on the news. After that I quit. There were other reasons too, but I really couldn’t wake up every morning knowing that I had to censor myself on the behalf of the Xin Hua News Agency. You have no idea how psychologically painful it was for me to be sitting there making up the “banned words list” for the message board which included “Tiananmen Square,” “June 4,” “June Fourth,” “06/04/1989,” “Tanks,” “Murder,” “Human Rights Abuses,” etc etc.
And it is outside the agency is where I was when the bullets started flying at around 3-4 am in Beijing 1989. I heard the first shots over the radio live while just sitting with the hunger strikers in Hong Kong. I am sorry I became a blubbering girlie after watching the vid yesterday, but I can still hear that shot in my mind’s eye after all these years. I can tell you exactly what happened hour by hour in my life for about the next six in slow motion. My step-dad who is a retired police person said that morning, he found me in front of the TV showing all the symptoms of someone who was in shock. I was, and my poor 15 year old mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening, and I think every time I see those images my body goes into flashback mode.
6:42:24 PM
Tony Blair’s Quote Of The Day
Quote of the Day: “[the British Public] don’t like it, they can vote me down. [Britain] is a democracy.” (Well said Mr. Blair)
Tony Blair, defending his decision of unilaterally attacking Iraq at Question and Answer Session in Tsing Hua University in Beijing.
He also said “I am sorry about that. I think that’s something that happened a long tine ago.” When asked about the looted Chinese Cultural Relic in possession of the British Museums.
In that case, thanks for keeping them safe during the Cultural Revolution, when the country went a bit nuts and destroyed our own history etc etc… But now all that is over. Can we have it back? You still stole it.
I never went to the “Chinese Arts” section in the British Museum because I plan to see them in China one day.
6:18:03 PM
A Little Thing About Glutter.
Some guy called Zhang Fei wrote a comment how the end of Colonization in Asia is a joke on Asians. Implying British rule was a better option for this whole area, because they gave us prosperity and ¡§made it happen.¡¨ Blah¡K For the record I think attitudes like this are just FUCKING SAD.
I can¡¦t even be bothered to explain the wrongs of what he said at this moment. As I said last night, I am still finding voice, and I spent a lot of time thinking about the post-colonial period in Hong Kong as well as what it means to be a democratic Hong Kong. I have been thinking a lot about what Bruce Lee means, both in terms of the movie industry and also the idea of “Chinese Pride.” And most of all I want to find a way to talk about the formation of a Hong Kong identity. Something that is totally our own.
I do think for myself and many of my generation, it started with the call of democracy in China in 1989, followed by another burst at the end of the colonial era in 1997, and now we are trying to grapple with those thoughts and ideas after July 1st.
And on this blog, I feel I am documenting it¡¦s reemergence within myself which I have to admit was rather unexpected. It’s pretty much all I can think about lately, but I haven’t quite been able to get to its core. I don¡¦t really know how to talk about it, and I have not thought it through very well. But that¡¦s fine with me. I reread what I wrote a few days ago, and realized I repeat myself and revisit certain phases or ideas. That¡¦s because I am trying to work out what I really think.
I see this blog as a ¡§Work in Progress.¡¨ Maybe writing is not always top quality. Sometimes I don¡¦t have a point, and I am just rambling until I run out of things to say. Most of the time, it¡¦s the first time I put any of these thoughts on paper, so I am not very clear on where it¡¦s going. Sometimes the words on the page come as a surprise. Like a thought appears that I never thought of before. But I figure that¡¦s the process of writing.
And to be honest, this blog was never supposed to be about politics, it was meant to be my self indulgent little art diary, documenting my comic book, my film, and a place to collate the five years of photographs I took but never had the time to sort out. For whatever reason, I started in on July 1st 2003 at around 4 in the morning after a really intense filming session. 12 hours later, Hong Kong was different and so was I. And since it was here, I ran with it. And Glutter became something completely different from how I conceived it to be.
I created this space because it would be somewhere I had to put a few words down everyday. Those few words turned into thousands. Which again is fine with me. I am not a pundit, I am just a person who likes writing, and I am also a person who is finding out what it means to be a Hong Kong person and what it means to ask for something that previously though out your life you have been told is impossible.
But one thing I did notice no matter that sometimes what I write can be a little confusing or convoluted, I never contradict myself. I believe what I believe, and I am sticking with that. So if you¡¦re someone who thinks that Hong Kong was better off under British rule, or think that we don¡¦t have the ability to rule ourselves, or that can¡¦t understand why self autonomy is important, that democracy with all its flaws is still the best kind of political system we as a human race have created so far and why throughout history people has died for it. Well, you won¡¦t like what I write. You probably won¡¦t even like sitting at a dinner table with me. Which again is fine with me.
I don¡¦t expect everyone to like me, or the world to embrace this blog, but please don¡¦t come here and re-quote me and patronize me, and be a smart ass about Hong Kong people because it¡¦s not appreciated. Well you can, if you want, as I said, I just don’t appreciate it.
Yan
11:52:31 AM
Mpeg Videos YOU HAVE TO SEE
HONG KONG JULY 1st PROTEST Short Vid
Here is an AMAZING 3 minute Mpeg of the protest gathered from news footage, with lots of ariel shots. It’s incredible. http://www.rebuildhk.com/upload/71rebuildhk_ppc.mpg
The last bit reads “July 1st, the start of the democratic era.” Yes, let it be.
BLOOD ON THE SQUARE
This is a short video (5 mintutes) of what happenned in Beijing in 1989. I suggest turning off the sound and let the images speak for itself. I don’t think I have seen these images since viewing “Gate of Heavenly Peace” A documentary on the movement six years ago. And it still hurts every time and it will never stop hurting. Our Central government did not have the right to go in there with the tanks and shoot all those kids and they were kids, I am older then how old they were then, now. And I can’t imagine having my life stubbed out at that moment, (I was 15) because I loved my country and wanted better for my country. And then those bastards lied about it and said it never happenned. At this moment, I hate them, I hate them for being the liers they can be.
If this doesn’t tell you why Hong Kong people are afraid, and why we are so passionate on keeping our free speech and our right to protest I don’t know what will. We have never been mislead like the people daily said last week again. We went out on the streets because we weren’t, we remember!!
No matter how many times in those days China denied they never hurt anyone. I use to have a book that was published in China called “The truth of June 4th” where they dressed up burnt bodies of the students in PLA uniform and said that it was the students to attacked the soldiers. It made me so angry. ….I am sorry if I am slightly incoherent at this moment, because I am crying my eyes out.
I promised I would never forget, and we never will. Please take the time to view this. If you do through this site, and it reminds you, or that you see it for the first time because you don’t live in Hong Kong, well, then today, I did something to keep up my promises. http://www.alliance.org.hk/0107/BloodOnSquare.asf
I found the Links Vid HK Loiterer’s site.
http://www.hkloiterer.net/blog/
Who found them on our grassroots democracy “Hong Kong Alliance’s” Site
http://www.alliance.org.hk/htm/english/index.html
12:51:26 PM
—
Glutter is sad to announce “Cheung Moa Slap Regina” Stickers will not be appearing in Central.
Although I am glad she is gone. I am also sad that I won’t be able to implement my “secret” plan of making “Cheung Moa Slap Regina, Please!” stickers and placing them all over Central and around Legco one evening.
A few of us were also half way through planning a flash game where the player can slap Regina and Tung through our famous grass roots organizer. Stuff like that takes a while and Regina resigned. I even sent a message to Cheng Mao to ask his permission or at least let him know we were thinking of doing this via a friend. Oh well. I will think of something else I am sure.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 