Backbone

I have to confess.
I have been too merciless in criticising Hong Kong in the past couple of years.
It was too broad.
Not all deserve it.

Sure, senior government officials deserve it.
Councillors too.
University professors no doubt.
These people all got their paycheques from tax payers.
But they hurt tax payers.

Bishops and pastors who don’t use taxpayers’ money deserve as well.
For they deceived them.

Even movie stars and singers.

Most speak twisted truths.
Farcical.
Others self muted.
Or like most preachers on Sunday, vomit harmless truths with self imposed boundary.
Caesar’s belongs to Caesar only, they say.

But recently average HK people showed what it was that enabled them to survive 3 yrs and 8 months under Japanese occupation.

It was something that’s kind of hard to put the finger on it.
But perhaps this might do:

Some years ago I read that Illinois would be experiencing a strange storm——one that would be so startling noisy that few people had experienced in the past decade.

Cicadas.

Then I learned that their nymphs could be buried under the earth for over a decade until one season they would all break through and make the remarkably deadening noise.

Life is not to be denied.

HK people may have lost a lot, and even all to some.
HK people have no alternative news, no public protest right, no free arts, nor publications.
No civic liberty.

But this is where I was wrong.
I was misled by those in high places and on Moses’ seat.

HK people have backbone.
Kind of like Cicadas.
Under earth but have life.

Signs of backbone could be picked up with the proper sensor.

The most obvious sign was the recent District Board election in December 2023.
Only about 27% of eligible voters voted, cast against the traditional 30% ironclad votes!
And minus 1.8% invalidated votes!
The most abysmal voting % HK has ever seen!
That’s after a supposedly “perfected” election, since the “perfected” administration of the HKSAR!

Cicadas effect.
All have gone under earth.
No noise but life.

All didn’t vote.
No noise made.
Just no vote.
Shows life still in non vote.

The second just as vocal but silent sign was the mass exodus in Christmas and New Year, to Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Europe and the America.
Revengeful spendings.
All overseas.
Just not in HK.
So it was reported that a never seen phenomenon appeared: Christmas and New Year buffets in major hotels were still available for booking or walk in during the holidays!

Cicadas effect.
Life seen in back bone.

Finally the nail on the coffin was hammered in by HK people shunting cinemas.
The ticket sales was reported to be the lowest in 20 some years!

Give to Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+.
Nothing to HK film industry.
Movies have been sanitised.
Stars have been co-opted.
No point for HK people with backbone to spend their money.

All three: no vote, no spending locally but overseas, and no cinemas.
Signs of Cicadas life.
Officials label it as “lying flat”, which borders on threat to national security as “soft resistance”.

But the back bone of HK people is a stark and unmistakable demonstration why HK had endured the 3 years and 8 months.

It’s a bit romantic to describe it as backbone for democracy under a totalitarian administration.

I’d say HK people just want autonomy, not really democracy.

Force me to act in a certain way?
No way!
I am my own man.
I might not be able to read the newspaper I like, books I cherish, and movies I enjoy.
I do things I can do.
I don’t do things I can not do.

So I didn’t vote.
So I didn’t spend in HK but overseas.
So I didn’t go to cinemas.

Call me lying flat, soft resistance.
But don’t call me spineless.

I am my own man, or woman.
I treasure autonomy.

Cicadas.