Benedict Rogers: Please use your liberty to promote Hong Kong’s
When a city I once called home is in trouble, when a people I love are in danger and when values I cherish are trampled on, I don’t have a moment’s hesitation in doing everything I can to help. That means mobilizing governments, communicating to media, advocating actions that I believe the world should take. And that is what I have tried to do over the past six years, since the Umbrella Movement captured my heart, for Hong Kong.
I began my career as a journalist in Hong Kong, and my human rights activism blossomed there too. It was from Hong Kong that I began to engage with the two other causes that have been closest to my heart and most formative in my human rights work: East Timor and Burma. I never imagined the day would come when I would be using my voice for Hongkongers themselves, but with ever-increasing intensity that has been the case over the past six years – to the point that today, I am in a position where I feel compelled to say things that are too dangerous for Hongkongers themselves to say.
And by doing so – I find I may now be committing a crime. By wearing a t-shirt with a particular slogan, by holding a yellow umbrella, by having Winnie the Pooh on my bookshelf and even by holding a blank piece of paper I may – under Article 38 of the new National Security Law – be breaking that law: in London.
But in addition to using my voice to advocate, I can also use my pen to comfort, to encourage, to make people smile – even if only momentarily. And that is why, for the past few months, I have been writing traditional Chinese characters.
Over twenty years ago, I studied some Chinese – first when I taught English at the age of 18 in Qingdao, north-east China, then when I did a Master’s in China Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SAOAS) in London, and then when I lived in Hong Kong. But firstly, my Chinese study was piecemeal – a bit here, a bit there, which is never a way to learn a language properly. Secondly, I learned Mandarin and simplified characters, not Cantonese or traditional characters. And thirdly, for almost twenty years I have barely used it and so have forgotten so much.
A couple of months ago during lockdown in Britain due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I suddenly developed a desire to rediscover – and improve – my Chinese. It started with writing my name again. And then, with the help of a wonderful Hong Kong friend, I started – slowly – to practice writing some phrases. And to do so in traditional – not simplified – characters, in solidarity with Hongkongers.
I resolved to make this a daily practice and – again with the help of my Hongkonger friend – each day for the past few months I have written a phrase, a slogan, some lyrics from a song, a quote from an ancient classical Chinese text, a poem – and I have posted them on social media.
My teacher is the best teacher in the world, for she combines exactly the right mix of discipline and patience. She possesses such an eye for detail that if there is one dot missing, one stroke too long or too short, or one character that’s even slightly wrong, she makes me redo it – as many times as it takes. I say “makes me” – I do it willingly, because I want to get it right, and I much prefer her correction than anyone’s false courtesy. But she combines that with a generosity of time and spirit that epitomizes the spirit of the Hongkongers I love, and she corrects me with kindness and encouragement.
Some of the phrases I have written are now illegal under the new security law. For the sake of the publishers of this newspaper, I won’t quote them here, because I don’t want to endanger people. But you know what they are. And I’ll keep writing, from the safety and freedom of my home. After two decades of fighting for freedom for Burma, how could I forget Aung San Suu Kyi’s famous plea: “Please use your liberty to promote ours”? That’s what I will do, through advocacy, through op-eds, through media interviews – and yes, through writing characters too.
As I have written characters from songs, I have listened to the music from which they come – and that has spurred me on. It has brought my heart closer to the hearts of Hongkongers whom I have not met in person and whom I might never meet, but with whom across the oceans I am united in a common cause.
My character writing has traversed the worlds of song, poetry and scripture. As a Christian, I was delighted to write the words from the Bible from Amos 5: 24 – “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”. As someone who loves music, I have become a fan of Beyond, Denise Ho, Anthony Wong and Pong Nan. As an admirer of the last Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten, it was a privilege to write in characters some words from his final speech in Hong Kong, on the 23rd anniversary of that occasion – “I have no doubt that, with people here holding on to these values which they cherish, Hong Kong's star will continue to climb”. And as someone for whom poetry is something I never seem to have time to get to but beats within my spirit in tandem with my heart, I identified with Jack London when I wrote – in Chinese characters – the words of his “Credo”: “I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist.”
Why do I do this?
Three simple reasons.
First, by writing these characters I find a moment to take a step back from the helter-skelter of busy life, and breathe. It’s almost the same as praying. It forces me to stop, to take care, to go slow, to think – and to remember what life is meant to be.
Second, it gives hope to the people I love, in their hour of darkness. I am not naïve. I am not pretentious enough to think that my tweets do that much for people when they need practical, urgent help from the world. But from the replies I have received, I know they have made people smile, and in a very dark time a little smile once a day is the embryo of hope which might help spark a new dawn one day. From adults who have sent me emojis to teenagers with gifs to an eight year-old kid who has sent me drawings inspired by my character writing, if I can bring a glimmer of light by taking a few minutes to write some characters, it is worthwhile.
Third, it enables me to connect with Hongkongers again in a new way. When I lived in Hong Kong I took its way of life for granted, I never bothered to learn its distinctive language, and I hurried along the streets in Central, Wanchai or Tsim Sha Tsui muttering internally “fai di laa”(move more quickly) to the crowds slowing my pace – along with everyone else. But today those crowds are in my mind, my heart, my soul and I remain determined to carry a candle for them even if – for a time – it becomes too risky for them to carry it overtly themselves.
There are words I can write from a place of freedom that Hongkongers are no longer allowed to write. And it is essential to do so. Nothing will replace professional, formal, policy-focused, action-oriented advocacy – that’s what will make the practical difference in the long-run. But the spiritual, emotional solidarity shouldn’t be underestimated. It’s sometimes said that it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness, and by writing some Chinese characters each day I hope that, in a very tiny way, it helps keep that candle flickering.
One of my most recent tweets were the words I wrote in my own hand from a song called “18”, which I know my friend Edward Leung – now in prison on a six-year sentence – liked. When I wrote in Chinese characters the lyrics which translate as this – “If this song can represent me, allow me to be with you; As if we can pretend there are no boundaries, Let me keep you company in all weathers, And this would already be enough” – I cried. It’s what I want to say to every Hongkonger. And when I wrote the words – “狹路相逢勇者勝”(When people come into unavoidable confrontation, the braver one will win) – I did so knowing I don’t need to remind Hongkongers of the importance of courage, but rather the rest of the world.
When I write “我真係好撚鍾意香港”(I love Hong Kong so much), I do so not because I wish to be profane, but because I am adopting a slogan that my fellow Hongkongers have started and because it expresses my heart.
My teacher is not just any teacher. She is also Jasmine, who produced the amazing song “The Fools Who Dream”, which I have written about previously in this newspaper. By helping me to learn to write traditional Chinese characters, she inspired this particular fool to continue to dream – and to connect with other fools who will pursue that dream.
Benedict Rogers is the Co-founder and Chair of Hong Kong Watch. The article was published in Apple Daily on 10 July 2020. (Photo: Studio Incendo)