Feature Story

 


Tens of thousands of Hong Kong people
march in protest on a scorching hot day.

'MASSES' MARCH, DEMAND DUE DEMOCRACY

HONG KONG – Forget about Chinese history’s Long March. Hong Kong people have the “Big Walk”.

On July 1, an estimated 76,000 people braved the scorching sun and high humidity, many shielded by umbrellas and clutching water bottles, to march through the streets demanding universal suffrage and real democracy. Temperatures reached 32 degrees Celsius as the huge procession wound across northern Hong Kong Island.

“The fact that so many turned up despite the heat shows the public is very dissatisfied….” said participant Anson Chan, formerly Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration. “The government should listen to the public and give us a clear roadmap and practical measures for universal suffrage.”

This marks the seventh straight year that tens of thousands of Hong Kong people have marched in protest on the anniversary of a rainy, miserable night in 1997 when Britain “handed over” Hong Kong to China. Beijing’s refusal to allow Hong Kong people to select their own leaders or to stage free elections betrays the solemn promises China made before gaining sovereignty.

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Editorial

Letters to the Editor

Dissident Liu Xiaobo
Victim of Persecution
'No-Time' Barclay
Takes Time to Dine

Guest Comments by Amnesty International

In China, the recent (June 23) formal arrest of prominent scholar and activist Liu Xiaobo deserves condemnation. The People’s Daily newspaper reported that police accused Liu of activities like “spreading rumors and defaming the government, aimed at subversion of the state and overthrowing the socialism system in recent years”.

Such charges appear to stem from Liu’s support for Charter 08. That document calls for many of the same human-rights protections set out in China’s first-ever National Human Rights Action Plan.

Liu has been detained arbitrarily before. He supported the 1989 democracy movement and spent several years in detention.

His latest arrest follows the crackdowns on activists near the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Massacre and intensified controls on Internet use. These measures demonstrate the authorities’ lack of commitment and total disregard for the Action Plan.

“Such use of state-security charges to punish activists for merely expressing their views must stop,” said Amnesty International’s Roseann Rife. “It’s another act of desperation by a regime terrified of public opinion.”

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On July 8, Dymocks bookstores in Hong Kong will present a literary dinner with Linwood Barclay, the bestselling author of No Time For Goodbye, Too Close to Home and his upcoming novel, Fear the Worst. Barclay’s tense thriller, No Time For Goodbye, was Britain’s bestselling novel of 2008.

The literary dinner begins at 7:30 p.m. in Grappa’s Cellar, Jardine House, Central District. Tickets costing HK$400 (including a three-course dinner, glass of wine and tea or coffee) are available at Dymocks stores.

Dymocks Booksellers, Hong Kong



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Fiction

Book Review

SERIOUS SHIVERS
IN A MONEY CHILL
A Stray Cat on Lamma

Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady (Part 15)

By Emily Ho

Editor’s Note: The author runs an ice-cream parlor on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island. When time allows, she draws caricatures and writes. The following are semi-autobiographical anecdotes blending fact and fiction.


Emily’s Mad, Not Crazy

Without proof to claim compensation from the air-conditioner handyman after a dubious “cleaning” job (see First Confrontation, Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady, Part 12), Emily feared she’d have no choice but to buy a new air-conditioner.

Maybe her landlord would get her one. Many other landlords would provide for their tenants. Later, she was shocked to learn that the now-broken-down air-conditioner, for which she paid the landlord, was left by the previous tenant at no cost.

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A new book, A Stray Cat on Lamma (Susanna Ng, 2009, Chinese, English and Japanese, 112 pages, HK$88) boosts the reputation of Hong Kong's Lamma Island as a haven for animals and their human admirers.

Author and publisher Susanna Ng, one of the island’s most-adoring pet-owners, has written the story of Bobo, a multi-colored stray cat whom she adopted from the roadside near her home. The theme revolves around how greatly Bobo and Bobby, Susanna’s previous cat, enriched her life.

The two felines placed Susanna in a “happy together” family of three. “Everyday my two children would wait for me to come back from work. Bobo slept next to me, rain or shine, while Bobby would only join us in the cold weather. Bobo was my alarm clock. If I failed to wake up in the mornings, she would pat on my face. However, once she got the message that I did not want to get up at that time, she would jump down from bed, do her business, play a little and then keep an eye on me from the door. She was my guardian angel.”

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