「香港已死，戰線早不在此。」
Allow me to recite and repeat the obvious once again up here in Chinese, for some Hongkongers (we mostly call them “Yellow Ribbons/黃絲”, who getting involved in 2014 and/2019 democratic movement to fight against an authoritative colonial master and its lackies in the form of Government of Hongkong) simply don’t understand this fact, and they still insist in fighting on a battlefield where all the troops have been somewhere else.
The illusion “Hongkong is still the battlefield of freedom” resulting in some very wrong assumptions:
- Hongkong is still “the centre of the universe”, the world still focus on Hongkong and her well-being;
- Hongkong can still be won back, even through guerilla warfare;
- and the world would, and should, take care of Hongkong.
It is true that “Battles win war,” as one of the fellow Hongkongers told me in the chat group. However, if the Japanese is sending their fleet to Midway for a decisive battle, what’s the point are we still sticking the remaining fleet in Pearl Harbour, assuming the Japanese will attack again?
As a result, wasting your “troops” in Hongkong is pointless. Some even think of US may free Hongkong and are asking which “Hongkong important strategic targets” should the US military bomb, and Hongkongers should avoid those locations. And as mentioned above, guerilla warfare is also considered by some of these people.
Forget the troops movements, factors and logistics (I am not a military strategist afterall), let me ask just one question: Do you think today’s Hongkongers will rise up to fight with you?
Don’t be so 很天真很傻 (“simple and naïve”), mates.
REVENGE
Live is good if you have a purpose. Losing something or someone, being hurt, etc, and then you want to get even or revenge for what you’ve lost … fine, if this is your purpose.
However, if you are looking for something which is unrealistic, what you are doing is just fruitless. If you revenge by doing something not only hurting yourself but others around you, it is not only “NOT fine”, it is outright selfish and foolish.
An idiom from Hongkong says it well: “食人血饅頭”, literally translated “eating stream bun dipped with human blood”, for those who push others into mortal danger and use them for your own benefit, I am in fact talking to you.
I am not saying this lightly. Although I am not saying this to a specific someone around me either; I saw this kind of attitude and behaviour all my career, since I work in an environment facing the Hongkongers in Canada. Someone may have been a hero, but if I were him, I probably don’t want to be one, since it is a very difficult life.
Don’t push other to be hero but hide behind him to get profit; if so, that only means you are just a coward.
ILLUSIONS
These people (allow me to call them 黃衛兵/”the Yellow Guards”, the way they think just like those “Red Guards” during the Cultural Revolution, which in fact one of the largest and longest disasters on a culture in history) are going against their enemy (The Chinese Communist, for the instant), they would support anyone who goes against this enemy, and then agree on anything this one person is supporting.
Donald Trump is one of those good examples. He say he is fighting against Communists (Democrats included, he said—about his problem, I would talk about it a bit more later), then these “Yellow Guards” would embrace him regardless.
However, in your city, there may be a lot more “little Donald Trumps”. They may have play like they are the only person who representing Hongkongers in the city, thinking they are always right, making you believe they are the only one who “fend off the Chinese Communists”, no matter the occasion is about Chinese Communists or not. They may be a community leader, a candidate of a political office, or else.
人地講你就信？你有冇天真咗啲？
（”Do you just believe everything he says? Are you a bit too simple and naïve?”)
Surely you have every sympathy of mine for what you have gone through in 2014 and 2019, as you do want “eye for an eye, blood for blood”, and I understand your emotion of REVENGE. But such emotion may have blinded your mind. Pity doesn’t mean you have the right to sacrifice your intelligence, throw away your logic, and leave your brain behind. In a democratic and free world, right or wrong, justice or injustice has never been clear-cut as black or white, light or darkness. Black or white only exists in stories, fantasies and religions, not in reality.
PANDEMIC
The war has never been about Hongkong, it’s about progress, about our freedoms, as well the democratic system and lawful international order that guard those freedoms.
Against all these, DICTATORSHIP has become the pandemic to this world. Hongkong is lost, doesn’t mean you have nothing to do; what’s matter, however, is how to do it properly.
And first of all, you have to find the active battlefields.
The fatal disease is now spreading into the US. From prosecuting those simply have a different opinion with him, calling every opposition as “Communist”, to grabbing money here and there for his own benefit, Donald Trump’s administration has every symtom of a dictatorship. No doubt it is NOT a authoritarian regime yet, and this is why we should fight against it, and stop it to become one. If you are a US citizen, you can start by voting the side who combat this narcissistic human being.
Ukraine is physically trying to fend off the Russians. No doubt they are having advantage, and Russian invasion is in the blink of collapse. They are not surely winning, however. Afterall, Russia is the larger country; and even we may not have to ability to join the Ukrainian army to fight their war, we at least can help support their cause by spreading their message, and even their culture as a whole. And if you are living in one of the EU countries who are backing the Ukrainians, you may find more ways to support them.
Yes, there are lots of ways (more then what I have mentioned) to combat this pandemic, THE WAR IS HERE AND NOW.
However one of the way we really should avoid is to think that people can repay you in return: Fighting against dictatorship and upholding democracy and freedom is their war, but Hongkong is not. They can at most support Hongkongers from behind, and they have no responsibility to do so; so, don’t even think of asking them to do they have no responsibility to do.
Courageous but reckless, you can only be others 豬隊友 (“piggie teamplayers”).
I remember one friend of mine told me he would love to stay in the country he is now living in to promote Hongkong culture after all these struggles. I think it is the most responsible in terms of him to his country, as well the Hongkong he left behind.
TO LIVE
However, after all these struggles, the victory is always “YOU HAVE SURVIVED”. The victory is to live you live as normal, be successful, and try to give back to the society you are living in. The country want you to stay to do exactly that, either this country is called Canada, the United Kingdom or Lithuania. Once you are here, you are Canadians, the British or Lithuanians. Maybe at most you can call yourself Hongkong Canadians, the Hongkong British or Hongkong Lithuanians, and it’s that simple.
You have boarded the ship, so every problem on this ship has become you problem. If you cannot help out or simply rant about and not meant to solve them, you have the freedom to leave. What happens on another ship a.k.a. Hongkong, you certainly can concern, even talk about it, but it is the Hongkongers to do the solving, not you.
I think if you would love to repay the kindness the place you live have given you, it is exactly the way.
COMMON SENSE
Afterall, common sense is never partisan, and it’s always the best guidance to your lives forward, not a single strong man’s logic.
Hope we can all live our lives well, and being successful in your own places and professions.