Hong Kong Watch hosts discussion on community resilience in central London

On Thursday last week, Hong Kong Watch hosted a discussion on building community resilience among BNO Hong Kongers, bringing together community organisers and charity organisations to discuss their experiences of building local and national organisations capable of tackling issues such as hate crime and transnational repression.  

The discussion included Andy Fearn of Protection Approaches, Richard Choi of Sutton Hongkongers, Simon Cheng of Hongkongers in Britain, John Jones from Free Tibet, and Dr Hsiao-wen Lee, Research Associate at the Centre for Taiwan Studies at SOAS.

Andy Fearn shared his experience running Protection Approaches, a UK charity working to tackle all forms of identity-based violence, such as hate crime. He talked about the findings of On Your Side, a service held within Protection Approaches targeted at the East and Southeast Asian communities within the UK, and offered insight on how transnational repression might interact with the legal concept of a hate crime. 

Richard Choi and Simon Cheng both shared their experiences running organisations dedicated to helping BNO Hong Kongers, at the local and national level. Simon shared his own experience of transnational repression and suggestions for how the UK government could improve its responsiveness on this issue. 

John Jones and Dr Hsiao-wen Lee offered lessons for the BNO Hong Kong community from the experiences of Taiwanese and Tibetan people living in the UK. Dr Lee spoke to the issue of cultural erasure, often state-directed, experienced by Taiwanese people; while John spoke on the Tibetan diaspora’s experience of building a centralised community infrastructure capable of maintaining Tibetans’ cultural identity while enshrining democratic principles. 

We would like to thank our speakers and all attendees for participating in this event.

This event is the last in Hong Kong Watch’s current civic and political engagement series, which aims to encourage community building and provide resources for BNOs to participate in civic spaces. This event is supported by the GLA’s Hong Kong Welcome Hub Empowerment Fund, and is part of a strictly cross-party and impartial series.

香港監察工作坊匯聚香港、臺灣、西藏社區代表 探討如何建立BNO港人社區力量

上週四，香港監察在倫敦市中心舉辦「香港、臺灣、西藏社區連線」工作坊，探討如何透過借鑒其他群體的經驗，建立BNO港人社區力量。活動匯聚多位社區組織及慈善組織代表，討論建立地方及國家層面組織的經驗，這些組織有能力對付仇恨罪行和跨國鎮壓等問題。

討論講者包括：英國慈善機構「Protection Approaches」Andy Fearn、薩頓港人組織「Sutton Hongkongers」Richard Choi、「Hongkongers in Britain 英國港僑協會」Simon Cheng 鄭文傑、「Free Tibet 自由西藏運動」John Jones，以及倫敦大學亞非學院（SOAS）臺灣研究中心副研究員Dr Hsiao-wen Lee。

Andy Fearn分享了他管理「Protection Approaches」的經驗，「Protection Approaches」是英國慈善機構，致力對付一切形式身分引起的暴力，例如仇恨罪行。他談到機構針對英國境內東亞及東南亞社群開展的服務「On Your Side」的調查結果，並就跨國鎮壓與仇恨罪行的法律概念如何互相影響分享見解。

Richard Choi和Simon Cheng分享了他們在地方及國家層面經營致力幫助BNO港人組織的經驗。另外，Simon分享自己遭遇跨國鎮壓的經歷，並就英國政府如何改善對跨國鎮壓的反應力提出建議。

Dr Hsiao-wen Lee和John Jones分別分享了居英臺灣人及藏人的經歷，供BNO港人社群借鑒。Dr Lee探討臺灣人所經歷的文化清洗問題，這種行為通常由國家主導。John則談論海外藏人社群建立集中社區基礎設施的經驗，這種基礎設施既能夠維繫藏人的文化身分認同，又能夠秉持民主原則。

香港監察非常感謝五位講者和所有參加者參與今次活動。

這場工作坊是香港監察今年公民及政治參與系列的最後一個活動，計劃旨在促進社區連繫，並向BNO社群提供資源，鼓勵參與公民活動。活動由大倫敦政府Hong Kong Welcome Hub Empowerment Fund贊助，所屬系列完全跨黨派和中立。