Be Water: Civil Disobedience and the Fight for Democracy in Hong Kong

A curatorial collaboration with Alex Yong Kang Chow, former Hong Kong student activist sentenced to prison for seven months for his political participation in the 2014 Umbrella Movement and current UC Berkeley Geography Phd student, this program brings together films, performance, and discussion that prioritize the lived experience of protesters. Stuck between its British colonial past and a future ruled by communist China, Hong Kong’s young people are taking to the streets to fight for the autonomy and democracy they were promised. Attitudes to resistance, protest strategy, and tactics differ between generations and the leaderless demonstrators themselves. How do they manage the nuances of building a democratic movement? How are they using creative strategies in the arts, technology, and in the streets, as crucial communication tactics?

Co-Presented by Hong Kong Community Cinema and the Bauhinia Project

Panelists:

• Jeffrey Hou, Professor and Director of Urban Commons Lab at the University of Washington, Seattle
• Poets/Activists from the Bauhinia Project
• Conversations with the Courageous (CwC)
• Alex Yong Kang Chow, Hong Kong Action Association of Berkeley
• Brian Ng, Lausan Collective

Poetry reading by The Bauhinia Project, anonymous poets that bring Hong Kong’s struggles to the stage of transnational activism through lyric and language. Their work renders the testimonies of protesters and ordinary people in Hong Kong–some submitted to an encrypted email and others drawn from “found poem” materials–into English-language poems.

Curated by Alex Yong Kang Chow, Susannah Smith, & Robin Abad Ocubillo

CM credits pending

In this program

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