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jun_erh
07-01-2003, 11:49 AM
protesting new law (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030701/wl_nm/hongkong_dc_7)

Hong Kong Gripped by Massive Anti-Govt. Street Protest
Tue Jul 1,11:01 AM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Carrie Lee and Rico Ngai

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to Hong Kong's streets on Tuesday to denounce the government and its planned anti-subversion law in the city's biggest demonstration since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.







"Return rule to the people," they chanted as the rally began to denounce the bill which critics say will impose Beijing-style control over free speech and the media.


Brandishing banners, umbrellas and fans, many wore black on a sweltering day to mourn what they said was the demise of rights and freedoms in one of the world's key financial centers.


Critics say the law, which Beijing has been pressing Hong Kong to enact, poses the biggest threat to basic rights in the former British colony since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.


Earlier, a group of protesters burned the Communist Party flag as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao tried to reassure the territory that its freedoms would be protected. But the afternoon march was peaceful.


By nightfall, organizers said around 500,000 people had turned out, while police said they counted at least 350,000 people as of 6 p.m. (1000 GMT). It was the largest protest in Hong Kong since 1989, when a million turned out after troops killed hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators in the Chinese capital.


The government has said it would not back down on the national security legislation regardless of Tuesday's turnout. Despite renewed criticism from the United States and Britain, the bill is bound to be passed by the territory's legislature, which is packed with pro-Beijing and pro-government supporters.


Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, who was mocked on many of the placards, issued a statement saying it was the government's responsibility to pass the security law as required by the Basic Law, its mini-constitution.


"The government has promised the rights and freedom enjoyed in Hong Kong now won't be affected by the legislation," he said.


The anti-subversion measures, to be enshrined as Article 23 of the Basic Law, were the prime target of many of the protesters. But others said they were frustrated by the government's handling of the ailing economy and the SARS (news - web sites) epidemic, which killed some 300 people in the territory.


Marchers came from all walks of life with retirees and young couples pushing baby strollers walking alongside veteran democracy supporters, highlighting the depth of dissatisfaction with the government. Many were demonstrating for the first time.


PUBLIC ANGER


Political commentator Andy Ho said he was not surprised by the extent of public anger.


"Those who have come out are from all walks of life, and are not only opposed to Article 23 but a host of government policies," Ho told Reuters.


"This should serve as a wake-up call for the government. If it does not heed people's views, grievances will deepen and it will make it more difficult for it to rule Hong Kong."


The flag-burning took place a few hundred meters (yards) from the convention center where Wen and local leaders were celebrating the sixth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.


In what are believed to be the first public comments by a senior Chinese leader on the controversial issue, Wen repeatedly assured Hong Kong that its special status would be protected.





"The legislation according to Article 23 will not affect the different rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong people, including journalists, under the law," Wen told reporters.

He did not refer to Tuesday's marchers directly, but said stability was the key to the territory's long-term prosperity.

Though Hong Kong was promised a high degree of autonomy after the handover, critics say there has been a subtle roll-back of freedoms, especially as it grows more economically dependent on the mainland.

The government's push to pass the law this month has stoked concerns that any dissent may soon be treated the same way it is in China. Beijing fears that without the law, Hong Kong will be used as a base for subversive activities against it.

The Falun Gong (news - web sites) spiritual group for instance practices freely in Hong Kong but has been banned in China as an "evil cult."

Under the legislation, people can be jailed for life if convicted of subversion, treason or secession from China. It also allows gives police sweeping search powers without court orders.

But the government's much-criticized handling of the bill and many other issues may have set the stage for a bigger battle.

Its refusal to allow more consultation and widespread anger at Tung have spurred calls for more democracy and may have galvanized generations into becoming more politically active.

GeneChing
06-13-2019, 08:25 AM
What's Jackie to do? I'm sure his album promo tour has been in the works for months. He couldn't account for the protests.

Nevertheless, I want to hear I Am Jackie Chan.


In Taiwan to promote a new album, Jackie Chan pleads ignorance on mass protests in Hong Kong (http://shanghaiist.com/2019/06/12/in-taiwan-to-promote-a-new-album-jackie-chan-pleads-ignorance-on-mass-protests-in-hong-kong/?fbclid=IwAR0D0xKt1km5ypBd8dmdJPffgjyathqUxI-Pxr9S3y3t7d0XcmkQ0xH1D1E)
"I only found out yesterday there was a big march in Hong Kong. I don't know anything about it."
by Alex Linder June 13, 2019 in News

https://i1.wp.com/shanghaiist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/jackie-chan-taipei.jpg?w=1024

Jackie Chan has evidently been so busy promoting his new album that he hasn’t had any time to notice the mass protests rocking his home city.

On Wednesday, the movie star was in Taipei at a media event hyping up his latest album “I Am Jackie Chan,” his first album in 16 years. The event happened to coincide with tens of thousands of protesters surrounding the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong, angry over a controversial bill that would allow criminal suspects to be taken to mainland China for trial.

When asked to give his thoughts on the situation, Chan pleaded ignorance. “I only found out yesterday there was a big march in Hong Kong. I don’t know anything about it,” he said.

Chan has long been criticized in Hong Kong for his pro-Beijing views. The actor has never been shy to sing out China’s praises, literally doing so at two straight CCTV Spring Festival Galas. Last month, he was one of 200 of the city’s elite who joined in to sing the Chinese national anthem in a “flash mob” propaganda video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxYDkVanHFU

Back in 2014, Chan did offer his opinions on the Umbrella Movement, worrying that the protests were hurting Hong Kong’s economic future, writing on Weibo that:

“I found out through the news that Hong Kong’s economic losses reached HK$350 billion [$51.9 billion] and I’m really worried . . . I believe every Hong Kong resident loves Hong Kong and wishes it well! Hong Kong’s bright tomorrow requires everyone’s support and hard work . . . In the song ‘Country,’ one line goes: ‘There is no prosperous home without a strong country.’ I am willing to work hard with everyone and return to rationality, to face the future, love our country, love our Hong Kong.”

https://media.giphy.com/media/5xtDarKaxbNRjKhGe2c/giphy.gif



THREADS
Hong kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-kong-protests)
Jackie Chan's new music (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?40748-Jackie-Chan-s-new-music)
Jackie Chan scandals (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?42240-Jackie-Chan-scandals)

GeneChing
06-17-2019, 07:49 AM
I'm trying to imagine having to apologize to my fan base for having dinner with Jackie Chan. :rolleyes:

I'm also trying to imagine having a fan base. :o


X Japan’s Yoshiki apologizes for having dinner with Jackie Chan (https://soranews24.com/2019/06/16/x-japans-yoshiki-apologizes-for-having-dinner-with-jackie-chan/)
Master Blaster
yesterday

For a drummer, he really doesn’t have the best timing in the world.

Although the visual kei style of Japanese rock group X Japan is often dark and violent, fans know all too well how sweet and endearing its members really are. From the occasionally befuddled charm of drummer Yoshiki to the Christmas pancakes of singer Toshi, these guys don’t seem to have a bad bone in their body.

And on 12 June, Yoshiki’s social media accounts revealed what he thought would be an exciting image for his fans depicting a private dinner between himself and legendary martial arts actor Jackie Chan.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D83H_m5XUAERo6Q.jpg
View image on Twitter (https://twitter.com/YoshikiOfficial/status/1138788347160276999/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwte rm%5E1138788347160276999%7Ctwgr%5E393039363b636f6e 74726f6c&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoranews24.com%2F2019%2F06%2 F16%2Fx-japans-yoshiki-apologizes-for-having-dinner-with-jackie-chan%2F)

Yoshiki

@YoshikiOfficial
Wonderful dinner with #JackieChan .#ジャッキーチェン @EyeOfJackieChanhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BynBkdCA8l8/

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5:41 AM - Jun 12, 2019
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Considering your perspective on current events, you could interpret this photo two ways. On the one hand, it’s two giants of their respective arts having a chat over a nice dinner. On the other hand, it’s Yoshiki smiling and laughing with a prominent and outspoken supporter of the Communist Party of China, especially regarding issues with Taiwan and Hong Kong.

And considering the bitter and violent protests currently taking place in Hong Kong over a controversial law that would allow the mainland to extradite people from the territory, it’s understandably not the best time to be yucking it up with Jackie Chan. So, Yoshiki did take a little heat from his photo in the replies on his Instagram and Twitter accounts: (replies presented as originally posted, with minor changes)

“Shame….”
“Jackie Chan is a supporter of dictatorship, you rather have dinner with him and ignored the president of the first democratic republic country in Asia?”
“We hate jackie! just a running dog of communist china!”
“We are X, and f*ck Jackie chan”
“Why you can dinner with a sh*t?”
“I live in Hong Kong I like [Chan], he is no saint but he has his merit.”
“I am sorry, X and you is very important to me and i love you very much. but your photo with this guy made me cry and tear.”

For the most part it was Chan who took most of the verbal abuse with Yoshiki only receiving the occasional “shame on you” and questions of “why?” Still, being the sensitive guy he is, Yoshiki couldn’t sit quiet after causing fans even mild discomfort.


Yoshiki

@YoshikiOfficial
My dear fans,
If any of my posts made you feel like... I'm not considering any situation,
I deeply apologize.
I really care about all of my fans and friends.
Love you,

YOSHIKI

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6:28 AM - Jun 14, 2019
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And of course, being the sensitive bunch they are, X Japan fans were quick to support him.

“I don’t know what kind of tweets you’ve got or seen, but we’ll always love you and you don’t have to worry about that.”
“[Yoshiki] doesn’t do business with JC, neither he is involved with politics. It’s just a personal meeting for dinner, nothing more.”
“Please don’t apologize for us. We know exactly how you feel. Thank you for your concern about us.”
“What happened?”
“I like Jacky chen and Yoshiki!!”
“I think it’s his freedom to eat with any one. You should not argue about our own political issues with him.”
“You guys should keep your politics and personal hatred out of Yoshiki sama’s page. Have some respect.”
“It’s definitely bad timing, but no big deal really.”

All’s well that ends well for the rock star who is by all accounts just a swell guy. Jackie Chan, however, seems to be hemorrhaging goodwill left and right these days. We can only hope that this isn’t hurting our good friend Jackie Chen‘s impersonation business too badly.


THREADS
Hong kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-kong-protests)
Jackie Chan scandals (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?42240-Jackie-Chan-scandals)

GeneChing
06-18-2019, 07:56 AM
https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_3/public/d8/images/2019/06/17/epadan_himbrechts.jpeg?itok=_WLA8Gf3&v=1560760562

Jackie Chan dined with two stars. Hong Kong is not amused (https://www.inkstonenews.com/politics/hong-kong-fans-angry-after-jay-chou-and-x-japans-yoshiki-take-photos-jackie-chan/article/3014846?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3Mhmx5mbR00ME1OcJO4FU6l_UwMak_UonaGWlsT 0Fumm5wSMtb6IR7WZU#Echobox=1560771224)
Photo: EPA/Dan Himbrechts
by Stephanie Ma

Taiwanese megastar Jay Chou and X Japan leader Yoshiki are facing a backlash for hanging out with Jackie Chan.

Chou and Yoshiki were panned on social media by their fans after they shared pictures of themselves having dinner with Chan on Wednesday.

While the Hong Kong-born actor is widely adored globally for his kung-fu movies, Chan is spurned by many at home in Hong Kong for being pro-Beijing and dismissive toward the city’s aspiration for democracy.



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The musicians’ association with Chan didn’t sit well with their fans as Hong Kong was wrapping up a series of massive demonstrations against a controversial law allowing extraditions from the semi-autonomous city to mainland China.

When asked his opinion about the protests while promoting his new album last Tuesday in Taipei, Chan said he was unaware of the rally.

“I only just found out yesterday that there was a big parade in Hong Kong. I don't know anything about it,” he said.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/660w/public/d8/images/2019/06/17/afp_photo_wang_zhao.jpeg?itok=D35xnT_x
Jackie Chan attends the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing in March 2018. Photo: AFP/Wang Zhao

Two days before he spoke, Hong Kong saw one of the largest marches in its history, as opposition to the extradition bill made international headlines.

Chan is also remembered in Hong Kong and Taiwan for openly dissing the two places at an international forum in 2009.

“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not. I’m really confused now. If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also very chaotic,” he said.

Chou was criticized for being ignorant of Hong Kong’s political situation after he posted Wednesday on Instagram a picture with Chan, captioned: “Wishing Big Brother big sales for his new album.”


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D83H_m5XUAERo6Q.jpg
View image on Twitter (https://twitter.com/YoshikiOfficial/status/1138788347160276999/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwte rm%5E1138788347160276999%7Ctwgr%5E393039363b636f6e 74726f6c&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoranews24.com%2F2019%2F06%2 F16%2Fx-japans-yoshiki-apologizes-for-having-dinner-with-jackie-chan%2F)

Yoshiki

@YoshikiOfficial
Wonderful dinner with #JackieChan .#ジャッキーチェン @EyeOfJackieChanhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BynBkdCA8l8/

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5:41 AM - Jun 12, 2019
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Yoshiki, drummer and leader of Japanese rock band X Japan, even issued an apology after sharing a picture on the same day of himself having a “wonderful dinner” with Chan.

"My dear fans, if any of my posts made you feel like... I'm not considering any situation, I deeply apologize. I really care about all my fans and friends," he tweeted on Friday.

STEPHANIE MA
Stephanie Ma is an intern reporter at Inkstone.


THREADS
Hong kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-kong-protests)
Jackie Chan scandals (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?42240-Jackie-Chan-scandals)

GeneChing
06-20-2019, 08:14 AM
Does Pornhub do stuff like this? Asking for a friend...



By Gavin Butler
|
17 June 2019, 6:45pm
Hong Kong Porn Sites Shut Down to Encourage More People to Join the Protests (https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/597qv5/hong-kong-adult-porn-sites-shut-down-encourage-more-people-join-protests-extradition-bill-carrie-lam?utm_source=dmfb&fbclid=IwAR2HYyO4kK6jV7av4DZwWcxkx5Ade4WdXYlrCQBpM mnDQDtkKF4B3DcgdXY)
One site urged users to attend the “life or death” protests instead of “jerking off at home”.

https://video-images.vice.com/articles/5d083b0a519a23000863e8ed/lede/1560821304177-2019-06-17T112114Z_897959158_RC1229372D70_RTRMADP_3_HONGKO NG-EXTRADITION.jpeg?crop=1xw%3A0.8427xh%3B0xw%2C0.019 5xh&resize=2000%3A*
Image via Reuters

Things are heating up in Hong Kong. Over the past two weeks, a swelling tide of protesters has flooded the streets to demand that a contentious extradition bill—one which would allow China to extradite people from Hong Kong to the mainland—be retracted. In the past week alone, as many as two million people are thought to have gotten behind the movement. And an initiative taken by a handful of porn sites might have played at least some small part in bolstering the numbers.

Adult sites AV01 and ThisAV shut down temporarily last week in a bid to encourage users to get out and join the uprising, Quartz reports. Both sites stopped offering videos and published expletive-laden messages aimed at fuelling the fire and getting more people onside—with ThisAV urging users to attend the “life or death” protests instead of “jerking off at home”.

“Do you want to live the rest of your life looking over your shoulder?” read the message on AV01’s landing page. “There will be no more safe place or security. The government has failed you, the system has failed you, the society has failed you, do you want to fail yourself?”

In the time since the porn sites went down, the number of people protesting in the streets has grown to what may well be the largest demonstration in Hong Kong's history—though that's not to say that there's any direct correlation between the two. More than 100 local business have also shut up shop and encouraged their employees to take part.

The mounting pressure of the mass protests reached such an intensity that Chief Executive Carrie Lam issued a public apology over the weekend for her handling of the extradition bill, suspending it indefinitely. Protesters are now seeking to oust Lam from office.

As VICE News reported last night: “the size and scale of the protests are a reminder to Chinese President Xi Jinping that his authoritarian control on power does not yet extend to Hong Kong, which has repeatedly shown its willingness to stand up to Beijing’s efforts to erode the territory’s independence.”

GeneChing
07-01-2019, 07:48 AM
Hong Kong protests embrace Bruce Lee but reject Jackie Chan in tale of two martial arts heroes (https://www.scmp.com/sport/martial-arts/kung-fu/article/3016609/hong-kong-protests-embrace-bruce-lee-reject-jackie-chan?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0wsMW1dW3eWluZwK6_fwRKe8E5ud7iPvFgErG8g KRpOPID01RFluaS0QU#Echobox=1561785239)

Bruce Lee becomes a symbol for young demonstrators and their ‘formless’ guerilla tactics in defiance of China’s unpopular extradition law

But Jackie Chan, already vilified for his pro-Beijing stance, feigns ignorance of historic marches in his home city

Nicolas Atkin
Published: 1:00pm, 29 Jun, 2019

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2019/06/29/8913de34-98ae-11e9-b82d-cb52a89d5dff_image_hires_130009.jpg?itok=XPLJyxW0&v=1561784418
Protesters march in Hong Kong against an extradition bill. A number have been channelling the spirit of Bruce Lee, whose statue is seen in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photos: AFP/Sam Tsang

Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan may be Hong Kong’s two most famous martial arts sons, but the kung fu superstars are like chalk and cheese to the protesters taking part in historic marches against the city’s extradition bill.
Enter The Dragon star Lee’s famous “Be water, my friend” saying has become a clarion call among the young protesters demanding Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor withdraw the unpopular legislation which would have allowed for the transfer of fugitive suspects to mainland China and other jurisdictions with which Hong Kong has no extradition deal.
Lee’s words have also inspired a new form of guerilla tactics that has outfoxed the police and given the government headaches, with protesters moving in unexpected waves, rolling from one spot to another.
Spontaneous road blockades and the circling of buildings have replaced the prolonged mass sit-ins of the 2014 Occupy movement, creating a “formless” protest.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D99M4BcU4AAP-Nm.jpg
View image on Twitter (https://twitter.com/maryhui/status/1143717367521824768/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwte rm%5E1143717367521824768&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scmp.com%2Fsport%2Fmarti al-arts%2Fkung-fu%2****icle%2F3016609%2Fhong-kong-protests-embrace-bruce-lee-reject-jackie-chan)

Mary Hui
@maryhui
One Hong Kong protester channeling Bruce Lee philosophy.

90
8:07 PM - Jun 25, 2019
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“We are formless, we are shapeless, we can flow, we can crash, we are like water, we are Hongkongers!” read one protester’s sign channelling Lee’s philosophy.
Protesters are also wearing T-shirts and clothing bearing Lee’s words and likeness, with the martial arts icon becoming a symbol of the movement.
Drunken Master star Chan, on the other hand, feigned ignorance of the protests when asked during a trip to Taiwan to promote his new album, I Am Jackie Chan.
The visit coincided with police firing tear gas in clashes with demonstrators as tens of thousands surrounded the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong.
“I only found out yesterday there was a big march in Hong Kong. I don’t know anything about it,” Chan said, despite images of two million marchers being widely disseminated around the world.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/06/29/4e40f3a0-98a9-11e9-b82d-cb52a89d5dff_1320x770_130009.JPG
Hong Kong actor and singer Jackie Chan at an event announcing his new album in Taipei. Photo: AP

It was a less controversial take than his 2014 comments, when he weighed in on Beijing’s side and said he was “worried” about damage to Hong Kong’s financial markets during the occupation of key commercial districts, and called for a “return to rationality”.
“I am willing to work hard with everyone … to face the future, love our country, love our Hong Kong,” he added.
Well, Chan may love Hong Kong, but does Hong Kong love him any more?


https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/889e2109af4faca4d9bb448c0c2b053f/5DC72C47/t51.2885-15/e35/61504049_435310893917549_8743896719466822382_n.jpg ?_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com

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Hong Kong was not amused when Chan dined with two music stars earlier this month. Taiwanese megastar Jay Chou and X Japan leader Yoshiki faced an online backlash after sharing pictures on social media of themselves hanging out with the 65-year-old, who is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The legislative advisory body in Beijing is largely made up of members of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Hong Kong-born actor is adored around the world for his famous kung fu films like the Rush Hour series, but his pro-Beijing views and dismissals of the democracy movement are unlikely to endear him to protesters, two million of whom marched on June 16.
“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” he said in 2009. “I’m really confused now. If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also very chaotic.”
But while Chan is opposed to chaos, Lee embraced it in his teachings.
“In the middle of chaos lies opportunity,” was one of his famous idioms. “Out of chaos, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony,” was another.
Hong Kong’s protesters believe they are taking their opportunity amid the chaos to have their voices heard by the world. They say they are trying to bring the city together as one in harmony against China’s increasing curbs on their freedoms.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/06/29/04048be0-98a8-11e9-b82d-cb52a89d5dff_1320x770_130009.JPG
Demonstrators protest outside police headquarters, demanding Hong Kong’s leaders step down and withdraw the extradition bill. Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu

If Lee was alive today, who knows whether he would weigh in on the side of the protesters? Stardom and success often comes with a price to pay for Chinese actors and celebrities.
Hong Kong film stars Andy Lau, Leon Lai, Donnie Yen, John Woo, Sun Xing and Tony Leung Ka-fai all starred with Chan in the 2009 Chinese propaganda blockbuster Founding of a Republic. The epic was made by the state-owned China Film Group, and marked the 60th anniversary of the Communist revolution and featured a cast made up of almost 200 of China’s best-known stars.
Perhaps Lee would go the way of China’s other martial arts megastar Jet Li, who has naturalised himself in Singapore away from all the controversy – though Li also starred in Founding of a Republic.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/06/29/49e234ba-98a7-11e9-b82d-cb52a89d5dff_1320x770_130009.JPG
Protesters make an appeal to consulates for the G20 Summit. Photo: Felix Wong

There is of course no way to tell. But Lee’s legend is being immortalised by a new generation of Hongkongers who have made him a symbol for their cause. The legend of Bruce Lee is only being enhanced (as if it needed to be any more).
Chan, meanwhile, continues to turn a blind eye to what is going on in his home city. Maybe his PR people have told him it’s not a good look to make a big fuss again, something he probably doesn’t need telling.
But with the eyes of the world on Hong Kong, Chan will not be able to escape the questions forever. Sooner or later he will have to answer, and his reputation could suffer, depending on what he says.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Lee closer to their hearts than Chan

THREADS
Hong kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-kong-protests)
Jackie Chan scandals (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?42240-Jackie-Chan-scandals)
Bruce Lee Memorials (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?42950-Bruce-Lee-Memorials)

GeneChing
07-23-2019, 07:42 AM
The U.S. Should Defend Hong Kong (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-22/former-u-s-envoy-says-america-should-defend-hong-kong)
America’s recently departed envoy warns that Beijing poses a dire threat to the city’s cherished freedoms.
By Kurt W. Tong
July 22, 2019, 2:00 AM PDT

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iNgU2khMJvWM/v1/1000x-1.jpg
Protesters clashed with police over the weekend. Photographer: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Kurt W. Tong was formerly U.S. consul general for Hong Kong and Macau.

When I left my post as U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong recently, news organizations reported that the White House had effectively censored my valedictory remarks, as President Donald Trump apparently did not want to disrupt trade negotiations with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The Washington Post went so far as to say I’d been “neutered.”

Put the short-term politics aside. What matters is figuring out what’s really driving Hong Kong’s current unrest, and what the governments of Hong Kong, China and the U.S. should do about it.

The U.S. has more at stake here than many Americans realize. Opening doors to free and fair trade, with China and other partners, has been a consistent core interest of the U.S. in the western Pacific. Hong Kong has been at the center of that effort ever since the U.S. first opened its consulate in the city 175 years ago.

Today, Hong Kong deserves America’s commercial, financial and strategic respect and support because its economy and society are positive models for all of Asia. The city shows how open markets and transparent governance work together to create prosperity. The city’s value is buttressed by its rule of law -- not just rule by law -- and by its independent judiciary and sense of fair play.

That’s why more U.S. businesses -- close to 1,400 of them -- now operate in Hong Kong than when the British returned their onetime colony to China in 1997. Many important American firms, especially in finance and services, continue to favor the city for their Asian headquarters.

Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy is the necessary ingredient for this success. China’s growing encroachments on that autonomy, however, pose a very real threat to the city’s special status and future competitiveness.

During my three years as U.S. Consul, I saw Beijing’s interference take many forms: the disqualification of electoral candidates based on their political views; the banning of political organizations; and the prosecution of political activists for encouraging others to peacefully block traffic five years ago.

This year was marked by the Hong Kong government’s dramatic miscalculation to rush through legislation allowing extraditions for trial in mainland China’s unfair courts. A record number of citizens took to the streets in opposition; protests have continued even after Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam declared the legislation effectively “dead.”

This outcry is proof that leaders in Beijing have thoroughly underestimated the social anxiety and tensions inherent in the “one country, two systems” construct -- exacerbated of course by glaring economic inequalities within Hong Kong society. A more accurate formulation might be “same bed, different dreams.”

That reality requires much more careful handling. Most important, Beijing needs to not fret so much about Hong Kong and its freedoms of expression. It should be confident in the city’s future and its positive role inside China.

Let’s be serious: No outside power wants to see a “color revolution” in Hong Kong. Foreign investors hope only to preserve the status quo -- a Hong Kong that is stable, rules-based, transparent and open; one that is part of China but a uniquely easy place to do business.

The bigger problem is how the incentives for China to interfere in Hong Kong are becoming institutionalized. The Chinese governmental organizations handling Hong Kong affairs are now so large that they have good bureaucratic reasons to eschew the “less is more” approach that the situation requires. Chinese leaders need to realize they could destroy Hong Kong’s economic specialness if they keep trying to align its political culture with mainland norms.

Hong Kong’s city leaders, on the other hand, need to stay in closer touch with their people’s aspirations. Autonomy is a “use it or lose it” proposition. They must firmly embrace the notion that Hong Kong’s dual identity is an opportunity, not a burden, and convey that message to Beijing.

Hong Kong is both the most prosperous city in the world’s largest nation and a place with its own cosmopolitan identity and a degree of interconnectedness with the globe that is unique in Asia. Its leaders should double down on being “Asia’s World City.” Commitment to this idea faded in recent years, as Hong Kong leaders devoted energy to echoing mainland priorities.

A renewed international push should include more outreach to the U.S., which is, after all, Hong Kong’s most important economic and cultural partner outside China. And the U.S. should reciprocate. In my final message home to Washington, I urged colleagues to recognize the city’s abiding strengths. After all, a couple million people validated last month that Hong Kong remains very different from mainland China.

Most important, U.S. leaders should always remember that the city isn’t a card to be played against Beijing -- neither a means of highlighting flaws in the mainland’s governance when it suits us, nor a token to be exchanged for concessions in trade talks. Rather, Hong Kong is a vision of what we should want China, and indeed much of the rest of Asia, to look like. We should seek ways to bolster its strengths.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
Kurt W. Tong at KTHKMCG@gmail.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Nisid Hajari at nhajari@bloomberg.net

1,400 more U.S. businesses since the turnover - that was over two decades ago. I wonder what the total number is now.

GeneChing
07-23-2019, 09:21 AM
So brutal. I won't complain about my commute again.



Cook caught up in shocking violence near Hong Kong MTR station recalls horrific ordeal as 20 people attacked him with sticks and canes as he made his way home from work (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3019725/cook-caught-shocking-violence-hong-kong-mtr-station?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2NRkNE5Q49pBJIgeiv5u551rfi91u_GJ7mpy2Ud _kH-iXLmxBdVb6ypys#Echobox=1563864906)
Calvin So was left severely injured with skin on his back torn, his hands and shoulders wounded and swollen
Embattled officers face heavy criticism for arriving at scene too late to stop attacks but pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip calls for understanding
SCMP
Elizabeth Cheung
Peace Chiu
Athena Chan
Published: 2:26pm, 23 Jul, 2019

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Calvin So shows the marks on his back caused by a brutal attack near Yuen Long MTR station on Sunday night. Photo: Sam Tsang

A cook caught up in shocking violence in a northern Hong Kong district on Sunday night has recalled the horrendous experience of his journey home.
Calvin So, 23, had finished work at a restaurant in Yoho Mall, the shopping centre next to Yuen Long MTR station in northwestern Hong Kong, and was walking towards an exit just after 9.45pm. He was attacked by a group of men after simply saying: “There are lots of people in white clothes here.”
“Some people approached me. Soon after, a person started beating me and more joined in,” So said, adding he was attacked by about 20 people, armed with sticks and canes, during the assault.
“I didn’t do anything and asked them to stop beating me. But they just ignored me,” he said.

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A mob of men in white T-shirts attack protesters and passengers at Yuen Long MTR station on Sunday night. Photo: Handout

The railway station was the scene of unprecedented violence on Sunday night as a marauding gang of men in white T-shirts ambushed people including demonstrators returning home from a protest march elsewhere in the city. Some 45 people were injured and 11 have since been arrested.
So’s ordeal lasted for around five minutes before he tried to flee to safety. He was chased and struck several more times as he escaped the brutality.
The violent attacks left his back severely injured with torn skin. His hands and legs were wounded and his shoulders swollen.
He was admitted to Tuen Mun Hospital for treatment and said the injuries left him unable to sleep on his back on the first night.
“I was in pain whenever something touched my back,” he said.
So’s recovery was expected to take several weeks and he hoped police would investigate the assaults.
“There should be at least a public explanation,” he said. “It is unacceptable to see those people randomly attacking others.”

There should be at least a public explanation
Calvin So
By 6pm on Tuesday, five men were still receiving treatment at Tuen Mun Hospital. Among them, one was critical, one was serious and the remaining three were stable.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s former security chief and veteran pro-establishment lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee called for residents to show understanding over police handling of the violence, arguing the force had faced attacks comparable to “guerilla warfare” over the past two months.
Sales down at least 10 per cent at book fair as protest halts traffic
“The force has been worked to the point of exhaustion and manpower is strained … with so many large-scale protests and attacks since June 9,” Ip, a member of the government’s advisory panel, said on a radio programme on Tuesday.
The city’s embattled police force came under heavy fire for arriving at the scene too late to stop the attacks on anti-government protesters, journalists and passers-by at the station, as well as terrified passengers on a train.
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Regina Ip calls on Hongkongers to show understanding to city’s exhausted police force. Photo: Sam Tsang

Ip, an Executive Council member and New People’s Party lawmaker, believed many officers from Yuen Long were deployed to Hong Kong Island as protesters laid siege to Beijing’s liaison office following a march against a now-suspended extradition bill.
Hong Kong has seen a wave of anti-government, mostly peaceful, protests since early June. The city’s legislature was stormed and trashed on July 1, after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor refused to fully withdraw the bill, which would have allowed the transfer of suspects to other jurisdictions including mainland China.
Lam first suspended the bill, then declared it “dead” on July 9.

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The Chinese National emblem is vandalised by protesters who rally outside the liaison office in Sai Ying Pun on Sunday. Photo: Edmond So

“I hope Hongkongers can understand our police have done very well handling things such as public security and theft, so the overall crime rate is very low,” Ip said.
“What happened over the past month or so is not normal violence, but continued violence. It is like facing urban guerillas.”
Ip added she hoped the Chinese army would not be needed to handle the current crisis.
“I am worried some people are trying to force the People’s Liberation Army to come here,” she said, though she believed the Hong Kong and central governments would try to prevent this as much as possible.

I am worried some people are trying to force the People’s Liberation Army to come here
Lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee
She also warned that while there were no casualties at the siege of the liaison office, there was strong political meaning to the actions, with the compound vandalised and the national emblem on the building front defaced.
Meanwhile, about 30 members of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) Hong Kong and journalists silently protested outside the press club on Tuesday morning to condemn the violence directed at journalists when covering the protests last weekend, particularly the “sickening scenes of mob violence” in Yuen Long.
At least four local journalists were attacked by the marauding gang on Sunday. Two victims were reportedly from Apple Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper, and one each from the Stand News website and cable broadcaster Now TV.
One female reporter was attacked during a live online report. The news outlet said her hands and right shoulder were hurt and she suffered swelling on the back of her head.
President of the press club Jodi Schneider said: “We are out here standing for press freedom and to say yes to press freedom, no to violence against journalists. We are renewing our call for independent investigation by a third party, into any harassment or violence against journalists during the protests in Hong Kong.”

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/07/24/352845f0-ad01-11e9-a61f-bc570b50c4e7_1320x770_000237.jpg
A soldier stands guard at the People’s Liberation Army’s Hong Kong garrison. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

In a statement, the club called on Hong Kong police and the authorities to urgently find and bring to justice those who carried out the unprecedented attack.
A joint statement issued on Monday by the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association and the Independent Commentators Association made an urgent appeal to local police to protect citizens and journalists.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Cook recalls post-work ordeal as group of about 20 bash him

GeneChing
07-24-2019, 09:43 AM
Who are the Chinese 'triads' accused of attacks on Hong Kong protesters? (https://news.yahoo.com/triads-behind-attack-hong-kong-151351012.html)
The Telegraph
James Rothwell
,The Telegraph•July 23, 2019

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Screenshot of the moment men in white shirts began beating commuters on a train in Hong Kong. Many of the victims had taken part in a pro-democracy protest earlier that day - AFP

China's shadowy triads have long been suspected of doing Beijing's dirty work.

Perhaps most commonly associated in the West with over-the-top action sequences in kung-fu films, the term “triad” refers to various sects of criminal gangs which often harbour intense rivalries with each other.

Hong Kong is a hub of triad activity, a legacy of the Communist era purge of organised crime from the mainland.

The ancient gangs have been associated with the suppression of protesters and troublemakers in both Hong Kong and parts of southern China in recent years, where they act as thugs for hire.

Sunday's attacks were carried out in plain view of security cameras, and with a mysterious lack of police presence.

The most prominent triad gangs in Hong Kong are 14K and Sun Yee On, and there have been claims that the Wo Sing Wo group are behind Sunday’s attack.

In 2014, triad thugs riding a motorcycle attacked the outspoken editor of a Hong Kong newspaper editor with a meat cleaver, leaving a six-inch wound on his back. Members of the Shui Fong triad, it has been claimed, carried out the attack in exchange for payments of one million Hong Kong dollars (£100,000) each.



Ramy Inocencio 英若明

@RamyInocencio (https://twitter.com/RamyInocencio/status/1152999975766220800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1152999975766220800&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Ftriads-behind-attack-hong-kong-151351012.htmlhttps://twitter.com/RamyInocencio/status/1152999975766220800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1152999975766220800&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Ftriads-behind-attack-hong-kong-151351012.html)
THREAD: These unsettling #HongKong videos going viral speak for themselves. If you knew *nothing* about the #HongKongProtests you’d still know this is not right. Local reports say pro-gov’t triads beat anti-gov’t protestors - and anyone in between - at Yuen Long rail station.

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In the same year, at the height of the Occupy Movement protests in Hong Kong, suspected triad members beat protesters and destroyed their tents in the Mong Kok district, the gangs’ heartland.

Local authorities in mainland China have also been accused of paying triads to forcefully evict homeowners from their property.

In one case in 2011, a middle-aged woman who refused to move out died after her house was demolished by a gang while she was still inside. As far back as the 17th century, triad gang members were pawns in political struggles, including one attempt to overthrow the Qing dynasty and restore the preceding Ming dynasty.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi4wQ2w4ayc

When the Communist Party took power in China after the Second World War, vast numbers of triad gang members fled to Hong Kong.

Later, in the 1960s, the height of triad activity in Hong Kong, police suspected up to one in six people were members of roughly 60 different triad gangs.

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/PS_9KW68hsboZFTUbHjYyw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI-/https://media.zenfs.com/en-GB/the_telegraph_258/29278df112342455b0a10fa0e8f1b82a
Men in white T-shirts with poles are seen in Yuen Long after they attacked pro-democracy activists at a train station, in Hong Kong Credit: Reuters

More recently, drug trafficking has become a significant source of the triads’ income, along with extortion, money laundering, gambling and prostitution.

Gang members are often recruited in their late teens, and must take 36 oaths as part of their initiation ritual.

Initiates are warned they will be killed "killed by five thunderbolts" if they fail in their duties.

THREADS
Hong kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-kong-protests)
Gung Fu and triads (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?49132-Gung-Fu-and-triads)

GeneChing
08-06-2019, 09:34 AM
1 AUGUST 2019
“Be Water!”: seven tactics that are winning Hong Kong’s democracy revolution (https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2019/08/be-water-seven-tactics-are-winning-hong-kongs-democracy-revolution)
The strategies of Hong Kong protesters, honed through weekly clashes with police, offer a masterclass to activists worldwide.
BY ANTONY DAPIRAN

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GETTY IMAGES
Protesters are enveloped by tear gas during a demonstration in Hong Kong, 28 July

For almost two months, a wave of anti-government protests have rocked Hong Kong. Initially sparked by a government proposal to introduce a law that would allow the extradition of criminal suspects to stand trial in mainland Chinese courts, the protests have morphed into a broader pro-democracy movement, demanding greater government accountability and universal suffrage. Protests have largely been driven by young activists, who have developed and adapted their strategies during weekly protests and clashes with police, offering a masterclass in protest for activists worldwide. Here are some of their key tactics.

No more occupying – “Be Water!”

The worldwide “occupy” movements following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 served as the inspiration for Hong Kong’s previous mass act of civil disobedience – a series of protests known as “Occupy Central” or the “Umbrella Movement” – in 2014. These protests adopted the “occupation” logic of the prior movements, with protesters occupying the city’s main thoroughfares for 79 days in the hope that the disruption would force the government to the negotiating table. The government refused to budge, and the protests ended in failure.

This time around, Hong Kong’s protesters are taking their inspiration from a source closer to home: local hero, kung-fu movie star Bruce Lee, who famously advised: “Be Water”.

https://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/image_2.jpg?itok=FrXEHOxr
A banner used by a Hong Kong protester. Photo credit Mary Hui.

Hong Kong’s young protesters are eschewing the fixed, immobile occupation strategies of the past, in favour of a highly mobile, agile style of protest. A rally may turn into a march; a march may begin in one direction and abruptly change to another direction; the focus of a particular protest action may only emerge in the course of the march itself. In recent protests, small sub-groups of protesters dispatched themselves to carry out targeted “wildcat” occupations of a government building, flooding the entrance lobbies, escalators and lifts. When the government declared the building closed and dismissed staff for the day, the protesters dispersed and moved on to their next target. As Bruce Lee said, “Water can flow, or it can crash!”

Open-source protest

The current wave of protests in Hong Kong is leaderless. This is partly a response to the Hong Kong government’s aggressive prosecution of past protest leaders: Umbrella Movement figurehead Joshua Wong was only recently released from prison, while many other leaders including the initiators of the Occupy Central plan, Benny Tai and Chan Kin-man, remain behind bars. With no obvious leader, there is no one to imprison.

But the lack of a centralised leadership is also a result of the online, organic tactics. Protesters use online forums such a LIHKG – a kind of local, lo-fi version of Reddit where users comment and vote on posts – as well as Telegram chat groups (the larger among these have tens of thousands of members), where the poll function enables participants to vote on next steps: should the protesters stay on or disperse? Protesters vote on the spot, and act accordingly.

Professor Francis Lee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong has called it “open-source” protest. Volunteers with megaphones or walkie-talkies help to announce and coordinate, but they are not “leaders”. Protesters have also explained that this lack of leadership encourages everyone to get involved and contribute to the movement. In this way, the protesters are enacting the kind of participatory democracy they would like to see.

Airdrop

The protesters’ use of Telegram is well-known, and so it was perhaps not a surprise that during the most intense early clashes between protesters and police, Telegram reported that it had been subject to a distributed denial of service attack originating from mainland China. Add on top of this the massive overload of mobile networks when tens of thousands of people are standing in the same small area trying to access their devices simultaneously, and communications can quickly become unreliable. In response, protesters have turned to alternative peer-to-peer technologies, in particular the “AirDrop” feature that every Apple phone is equipped with (AirDrop enables iPhone users to send images to each other over BlueTooth connection, without the need for a mobile connection).

Protesters have used AirDrop both to share messages with participants in the course of protests, and to spread the word among a broader community. Commuters on Hong Kong subway system may find themselves receiving unsolicited AirDrop messages with slogans promoting the protesters’ cause or advertising the next rally. Prior to protests, Telegram chat groups carry the reminder “Remember to have AirDrop switched on!” Towards the end of a recent protest, as the protesters were preparing to again “Be Water” and disperse together, my mobile phone suddenly began to ping with AirDrop requests carrying the simple message: “Leave together at 7:00.”

https://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/image_7.jpg?itok=Q9tKavjX
Airdrop used by Hong Kong protesters. Photo credit Antony Dapiran.

Supply lines and sign language

The experiences of the Umbrella Movement and recent clashes with police have taught protesters what equipment they need at the front lines. To ensure new supplies can reach the front lines quickly, Hong Kong’s protesters have developed a unique system of hand signals, to send messages through the crowd about what equipment is required.

https://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/image_8.jpg?itok=hI1lEiAQ
Hong Kong protesters’ sign language. Photo credit Antony Dapiran.

A sign is passed onwards through the crowd back to the supply depots where goods have been transported near to the protest site, and the requested items are then passed through the crowd along a human chain back to where they are needed. These human supply chains have stretched as far as a kilometre in length, and are an impressive sight to behold.


Antony Dapiran

@antd
A VIDEO THREAD: How did HK protesters use hand signals & human chains to get supplies quickly to front lines on Monday? Here, they need more helmets at the front line at LegCo doors. What to do? The hand signal for “helmets” is passed from the front line through the crowd...

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This sign language has become so iconic that on a recent “silver haired” rally of elderly Hong Kongers marching in support of the young generation, the elders were learning and practicing the youngsters hand signals in solidarity.



Antony Dapiran

@antd
· Jul 17, 2019
Replying to @antd
The young people are handing out crackers and water to the elderly folks marching. In return elders are telling the young folks to stay safe.

View image on TwitterView image on Twitter

Antony Dapiran

@antd
Teaching the elders how to do the youngsters’ protest sign language. All the elders joining in.

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continued next post

GeneChing
08-06-2019, 09:34 AM
Neutralising tear gas

When police fired tear gas on protesters at the beginning of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement protests of 2014, it caused widespread outrage across the Hong Kong community and helped spark the 79-day occupation of the city. Fast-forward five years, and the deployment of tear gas on Hong Kong’s streets has become all-too commonplace. Indeed, over the past weekend alone tear gas was fired by police in dense, residential neighbourhoods on both Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday evening almost constantly over a period of some four hours. Part of the reason for the increased amounts of tear gas is that protesters have learned how to neutralise it.

Small mobile teams of “firefighters” wait at the rear of the front lines equipped with traffic cones. When a tear gas shell lands among the crowd, they race in to cover the shell with the traffic cone, creating a “chimney” that contains and funnels the smoke away. Another team member then moves in to pour water into the cone to douse the shell, putting it out. When a traffic cone is not available, water or wet towels are used to smother the tear gas shells, or a nimble protester wearing heat-proof gloves will snatch up the shell and throw it, either back at police or to the side of the crowd out of harm’s way.


Antony Dapiran

@antd
THREAD: How do HK’s #HardHatRevolution protesters neutralize police tear gas? Last night’s clashes with police in Sheung Wan showed how protester “firefighter” teams work. Here they are in position towards the rear of the front lines & ready to mobilize. Note the traffic cones.

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Avoiding a stampede

One of the greatest risks of injury or death in a crowd arises from the dangers of a stampede. This threat is compounded by the urban geography of Hong Kong: recent protests have taken place on narrow, winding back streets in the old Sheung Wan neighbourhood, or on mazes of overhead crossings and walkways that are interlaced across Hong Kong. When police fire tear gas into tightly-packed crowds, or the rapid-response “Raptor” police teams launch one of their lightning baton charges, the risk of the crowd panicking – and a stampede forming – is acute. Aware of these risks, crowds of protesters chant “One, Two, One Two…” in unison as they retreat, and march in time to the count. This ensures the retreat is orderly and avoids what could otherwise become a deadly crush.



Antony Dapiran

@antd
· Jul 28, 2019
Replying to @antd
Another tear gas volley on Des Voeux Road. Protesters throw some tear gas shells back at Police.

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Antony Dapiran

@antd
Under fire from police tear gas, the crowd retreats down a narrow side street. To avoid a lethal stampede, they all chant in unison “1, 2, 1, 2...!” and march in time to the chant.

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The Revolution will be crowdfunded

Hong Kong’s activists wanted to win international attention for their cause, and saw the planned G20 summit of world leaders to be held in Osaka at the end of June as an opportunity. Though unable to get their struggle onto the G20 conference room tables, they aimed for the next best thing: their breakfast tables. Activists took out a series of full-page advertisements in newspapers across the world to publicise their struggle. They crowdfunded the adverts with a campaign that had raised over £600,000 within a matter of hours. Volunteers prepared and proofed the text in multiple languages, booked the advertising space and delivered the artwork to newspapers across the world. In the days leading up to and during the G20 summit, striking full-page black and white advertisements reading “Stand with Hong Kong at G20” appeared in newspapers across the world, from the New York Times to The Guardian, Le Monde and Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Australian and the Asahi Shimbun, the Globe & Mail and the Seoul Daily.

https://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/image_9_1.jpg?itok=Weo8kuUA
An advert placed in the New York Times by Hong Kong protesters. Photo credit Antony Dapiran.


Antony Dapiran is a Hong Kong-based writer and lawyer, and the author of City of Protest: A Recent History of Dissent in Hong Kong published by Penguin.

'Be Water' is really a Daoist concept that Bruce Lee is credited with because of that famous interview. It's amazing how that still resonates.

GeneChing
08-07-2019, 08:23 AM
ENTER THE DRAGON
Hong Kong Protesters, Inspired By the Late Great Martial Artist Bruce Lee, Stun Beijing (https://www.thedailybeast.com/hong-kong-protesters-inspired-by-the-late-great-martial-artist-bruce-lee-stun-beijing?ref=scroll)
Groups of “front line” protesters have adopted tactics and strategies of their own to express their dissent in ways that resemble guerrilla warfare rather than planned rallies.

Brendon Hong
Updated 08.07.19 4:15AM ET Published 08.06.19 11:50AM ET

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Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast / Photos Getty

HONG KONG—A citywide strike and a series of anti-police activities shut down much of what is normally an international financial center and logistics hub here on Monday, as the city entered its ninth week of protests. Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flagship airline, canceled more than 150 flights. The subway was paralyzed. Major banks shut their branches. Shops were closed for the day. The Hang Seng stock index dipped by more than 3.6 percent at market closing, wiping out all gains made since January.

Many of the protesters, who have adopted black as their color and wear it from head to toe, are in their teens or twenties. How did they manage to bring a major city almost to a halt?



“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water . . . Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
— Martial arts icon Bruce Lee, "The Dragon"
An organization called the Civil Human Rights Front that is affiliated with all of Hong Kong’s democratic camps, including dozens of political parties and nongovernmental organizations, has pulled together the massive marches that have involved up to two million people at a time. But groups of “front line” protesters have adopted tactics and strategies of their own to express their dissent in ways that resemble guerrilla warfare rather than planned rallies.

The overarching philosophy behind blackshirt actions is “Be Water,” two words lifted from Bruce Lee’s idea of how to overcome what may seem like insurmountable fear: “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water... Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

Taking the concept even further, protesters have even formulated four principles: “Be strong as ice, be fluid like water, gather like dew, scatter like mist.”

Blackshirts readily admit that their portrayal as heroes fighting for freedom is overblown, and I have more than once heard individuals say, “We’re all afraid. But if that’s why we do nothing, then our future is ****ed.” They have taken Bruce Lee’s concept to heart, studying the methods used by civilians in Istanbul, Cairo, and other locales to limit the impact of tear gas and pepper spray.

Some have formed small groups like pit crews, covering canisters with a container like a traffic cone and dousing it with water—to kill the chemical reaction that releases irritant smoke—while using umbrellas to block the views of police cameras that may be aimed at them.



Alex Hofford
@alexhofford
Truly awesome the way Hong Kongers deal with tear gas.#antiELAB #HongKongProtests#BeWater

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Others have found the perfect implement to extinguish gas canisters by cutting off their oxygen supply—a wok lid, found in any Cantonese kitchen.

Video clips of protests that took place during New York’s Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring, at Istanbul’s Gezi Park, and those initiated by Paris’ mouvement des gilets jaunes have found their way into YouTube playlists shared by blackshirts, offering inspiration for countermeasures against the Hong Kong Police Force, or at least visual cues for how a crackdown by security forces may be executed.

Texts like Mao Zedong’s On Guerrilla Warfare, which describes the asymmetric battlefield tactics deployed by the Chinese Communist Party’s militias against Japanese troops in the '30s and ’40s, blend with the idea of “being water” to move dozens, even hundreds, of people from one district to another with unpolished efficiency. Decisions to stop and stage actions are made on the fly, taking into consideration a neighborhood’s geographical layout and exit routes suggested by local residents.



Nectar Gan

@Nectar_Gan
This is how protesters flow cross an arterial road in #HongKong like water: some help stop traffic, some help others jump down or climb up the road dividers. In less than a couple of mins over a hundred people have crossed Gloucester Road, and traffic returns to normal

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Protesters who have studied Mao’s text realize the irony in referencing the Great Helmsman, as they are, in part, responding to Beijing’s increasingly obvious encroachment in Hong Kong’s governance. But one blackshirt cited Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to me, emphasizing the need to understand one’s enemies, or else face constant defeat and peril.

continued next post

GeneChing
08-07-2019, 08:24 AM
The syncretic appetite has paid off. By late afternoon on Monday, blackshirts managed to temporarily occupy public areas in at least six districts as well as part of Hong Kong’s airport. Earlier in the day and over the weekend, they also erected makeshift barriers and blocked access to a cross-harbor tunnel that links Hong Kong Island with the Kowloon Peninsula.

In most cases, the presence was meant to be temporary, with retreats to new locations determined by a flow of information about police movements posted on an online forum called LIHKG or communicated via messaging apps.

The idea is to force the police to keep up with mobile groups of protesters who aren’t weighed down by their gear, sapping the security forces’ energy and morale through repetitive motions—and to minimize the number of arrests that are made on any given day. The police have taken 568 people, aged between 13 and 76, into custody since June 9. Among them, 148 were arrested on Monday.

Blackshirts constantly heckle police officers, calling them corrupt, or labeling them as dogs or affiliated with triad gangs. In return, the police berate protesters for being “useless” and call them trash and cockroaches, presumably because they wear dark clothing and scurry in swarms.

The Hong Kong Police Force currently faces massive disapproval and opposition from the public. In just the past few days, they have mistakenly arrested foreign nationals who were not involved with the protests (ignoring explanations made in English), released tear gas that choked the elderly in their homes, forced their way into residential compounds, attacked folks who just happened to be out—even when their commanding officer was issuing orders to retreat.

Yet the police were conspicuously absent whenever groups of armed men in white shirts showed up. On Monday, one crew whacked protesters with bamboo poles; 20 kilometers away, another gang armed with blades and bats was out for blood, slashing and striking people as they charged past.

In an attempt to understand how the police have become a force with their own agenda, decoupled from communities in every district in the city and allegedly willing to collaborate with underworld elements, some blackshirts have sought answers from books like Philip Zimbardo’s The Lucifer Effect and Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism.


“Be strong as ice, be fluid like water, gather like dew, scatter like mist.”
— Principles for Hong Kong protestors
On the surface, the protesters of Hong Kong resemble decentralized black bloc groups, with masks and hoods concealing the identities of individuals. But they have refrained from inflicting property damage, which has been a trademark of the blocs in Europe, most recently in Paris. Even during clashes that have taken place in shopping malls, the Hong Kong protesters have been careful, and when they stormed Hong Kong’s legislative headquarters, there were signs put up to remind everyone who entered that books and cultural objects were off limits and had to be preserved, and that theft would not be tolerated.

On Monday, when multiple police stations were surrounded, some being defaced or damaged, a forum post indicated that one particular station is classified as a historic building and heritage site, so protesters backed off.

It is decisions like that one, as well as a general sense of reverence for the cultures that define Hong Kong, that have led to sustained support for the “front line” blackshirts. If the umbrella symbolized the pro-democracy movement that changed the calculus in Hong Kong nearly five years ago, then the hard hat, goggles, and gas mask are objects that have come to exemplify the current tsunami of dissent emanating from all corners of the city—to such an extent that the three items are being sold in packages at some hardware stores, at times nearly at cost.



Denise Ho (HOCC)

@hoccgoomusic
Civil disobedience at its finest.🤣🤣🤣🤣

General strike in Hong Kong today, drivers in Tai Po are helping out by practicing their turning skills.#hongkongprotests #strike

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The blackshirts commit to a wide spectrum of actions, ranging from simple traffic disruptions to more radical responses. For instance, the Chinese national flag has been removed from a landmark pole twice since Saturday and tossed irreverently into the harbor, prompting the city’s previous chief executive to offer a reward of more than $127,000 to anyone who comes forth with information that leads to the prosecution of those involved.

Elsewhere, small groups have hurled bricks and other objects at quarters where the families of police officers reside, drawing criticism. Some used Molotov cocktails last night, chucking them into a police station’s parking lot.

Yet a core tenet of the protests is to leave no one behind, to back each other no matter what, while discouraging tactics that may create volatile situations. So far, that precept holds, and the blackshirts seemed only to have gained additional support from Hongkongers, their loyalty to each other unbroken.

In public spaces, especially on subway trains, information about actions and rallies is not just shared on social media but AirDropped from phone to phone, keeping the citizenry abreast of the latest developments in a direct way.


“Of course we are fearful. But if that happens, I'm sure every Hongkonger knows how to react, and will be water. We will go back home and sleep.”
— Blackshirt responding to the military threat
Cognizant of the importance of outreach, the blackshirts are taking their message even further, and held their first press conference on Tuesday morning to act as a “counterweight to the government's monopoly” on disseminating information.

Even when facing questions from the press, the overarching philosophy that has come to define every blackshirt action was channeled. Answering a query about how they may respond to intervention by the People’s Liberation Army, one said, “Of course we are fearful. But if that happens, I'm sure every Hongkonger knows how to react, and will be water. We will go back home and sleep.”

In between the musings of a modern kung-fu master, an anti-imperial fighter turned authoritarian, an ancient battle strategist, and contemporary thinkers, the blackshirts’ collective headspace exists. They are the product of a city that refuses to wither away under communist rule. Weekends of rage have become the norm, with flash mob clashes taking place multiple times throughout the rest of the week.

For those in power, winning means a return to the status quo. An agreeable outcome is a more complicated, fractured matter for the blackshirts—and the rest of Hong Kong.

The Chinese Communist Party’s signals have been clear. State-run media outlets released a video of Shenzhen police in drills to handle a situation that resembles what plays out on the streets of Hong Kong. And today, the spokesperson of Beijing’s top office that handles Hong Kong affairs, Yang Guang, warned of the “black hands”—foreign forces—behind the protests, and called upon Hongkongers to defend their homeland. Maybe Yang missed the memo: That’s exactly what they’re doing.

More on that Bruce Lee Chinese connection...

David Jamieson
08-07-2019, 12:56 PM
I've got a bad feeling about how this is all going to end.

Don't have a lot of faith in Xi and his government having a change of heart about democracy and autonomous government inside of of Chinese territory.

The so called "leaders" will be getting getting rounded up and extradited under the bill that everyone is protesting to never been seen or heard from again.

Authoritarian states are harsh.

MightyB
08-08-2019, 08:19 AM
I've got a bad feeling about how this is all going to end.

Don't have a lot of faith in Xi and his government having a change of heart about democracy and autonomous government inside of of Chinese territory.

The so called "leaders" will be getting getting rounded up and extradited under the bill that everyone is protesting to never been seen or heard from again.

Authoritarian states are harsh.

It's not going to work out well for the people involved. The software can identify people based on their unique gate.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uReVvICTrCM

GeneChing
08-08-2019, 08:51 AM
Gotta give HK cred for creative protests.


Hongkongers create own harbourfront light show after activist arrested over laser pointer ‘offensive weapon’ (https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/08/07/hongkongers-create-harbourfront-light-show-activist-arrested-laser-pointer-offensive-weapon/?fbclid=IwAR2b4FBRnBCJAM5Gt_Gme7fDS_0EEwXZg1ru5VqC XSDj3B7Bf04V--ea54E)
7 August 2019 21:10 Hong Wrong 2 min read

Hundreds of Hongkongers gathered outside the Tsim Sha Tsui space museum on Wednesday evening to create their own “laser show” to coincide with the nightly light show organised with by the Tourism Board.

https://www.hongkongfp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/photo6221983950960699685-Copy.jpg
Photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.

The gathering was a response to the arrest of Baptist University Student Union head Keith Fong on Tuesday night.

Fong was arrested in Sham Shui Po after several off-duty police officers said they saw him purchasing ten laser pointers.


Hong Kong Free Press

@HongKongFP
Hundreds of Hongkongers gathered to create their own “laser show” in Tsim Sha Tsui after a student was arrested for possessing offensive weapons - 10 laser pens. http://bit.ly/2ZFEW5p #hongkongprotests #china #antiELAB #hongkong

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Police said he was found to be in suspicion of possessing offensive weapons.

https://www.hongkongfp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/photo6221834760976705699-2-Copy.jpg
Photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.

That evening, hundreds besieged the local police station as officers fired tear gas to disperse them.

https://www.hongkongfp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/photo6222223687445227756-Copy.jpg
Photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.

On Wednesday, a crowd of over a thousand people shone lasers at the harbourfront, amid cheers and chants of “Reclaim Hong Kong, revolution of our time.”


Ryan Ho Kilpatrick 何松濤
@rhokilpatrick
· 7 Aug 2019
Replying to @rhokilpatrick
They were all just concentrating their lasers in an attempt to “set fire” to the planetarium, mocking police claims they can start fires. This is the joyous, comedic side of #HKprotests I’ve been missing amid the miasma of tear gas.

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Ryan Ho Kilpatrick 何松濤
@rhokilpatrick

They’ve even got transparencies and now they’re doing hand shadow shows of dogs (police) chasing down and biting people! Remember when protests were fun?!

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“I’m so angry, the student was just buying (laser) pens. How can the police arrest him without other evidence or information?” a 28-year-old designer surnamed Lai told news agency AFP. “We are doing this to tell others that possessing a pen doesn’t mean having an offensive weapon, it has other purposes.”

https://www.hongkongfp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/photo6222138436639369712-Copy.jpg
Photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.

The festivities continued past midnight with the crowd partaking in a dance party, as they sang songs, performed for each other and indulged in a brief water fight.

Laser pointers have been used by anti-extradition law protesters to hinder police officers on the front lines of demonstrations.


Galileo Cheng
@galileocheng
Ta Kung Po didn’t burn #antiELAB #ExtraditionLaw #HongKongProtests

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https://www.hongkongfp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/photo6210606784457058761-Copy.jpg
Photo: May James/HKFP.


Ezra Cheung
@ezracheungtoto
The famous Space Museum’s 3D Dome Movie Show from the other perspective. Human creativity and humour have no boundary. 😂😂 #antiELAB #ExtraditionLaw

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After police sought to demonstrate during a press conference that the laser pens can burn paper, some of those gathered at the Space Museum questioned why nearby trees were not bursting into flames after they activated their laser pens.

GeneChing
08-08-2019, 08:55 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KChqbx7IO4w

THREADS
chinese army combatives clip (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?46026-chinese-army-combatives-clip)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

Jimbo
08-08-2019, 10:54 AM
I've got a bad feeling about how this is all going to end.

Don't have a lot of faith in Xi and his government having a change of heart about democracy and autonomous government inside of of Chinese territory.

The so called "leaders" will be getting getting rounded up and extradited under the bill that everyone is protesting to never been seen or heard from again.

Authoritarian states are harsh.

Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if, 30 years from now, these HK protests are covered up by their government and long forgotten by the younger generations, in the same way that the younger generation in Beijing are unaware of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. You wouldn't think that could happen with something this big, but unfortunately, it can be made to happen.

David Jamieson
08-08-2019, 12:05 PM
Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if, 30 years from now, these HK protests are covered up by their government and long forgotten by the younger generations, in the same way that the younger generation in Beijing are unaware of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. You wouldn't think that could happen with something this big, but unfortunately, it can be made to happen.

The long march and the great leap forward combined with the cultural revolution wiped out the memories of an amazing past in so many ways.
here in Canada, the native folk were subjected to loads of poor treatment and being forced to not use their languages and being forced to assimilate into
Canadian (British/French) Society. It almost destroyed their collective memory. they are now getting back on their feet, languages are being revived, art forms, cultural events, the whole thing.

Anyway, if these people can recover and thrive, so too can anyone, the Chinese people included.

GeneChing
08-15-2019, 08:29 AM
Both Jackie & Tony are taking a lot of heat for this.


Jackie Chan and Tony Leung Ka-fai Voice Opposition to Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protests (https://www.indiewire.com/2019/08/jackie-chan-tony-leung-hong-kong-protests-1202166019/?fbclid=IwAR3bem_F-akXp_H3WlugSSC5djzQ1oBzU1TwJ2HJel4AEW-SUIHfHcTgeH4)
As the uprising enters its 10th week, top celebs native to the former British colony take controversial stances.
Tambay Obenson
Aug 14, 2019 6:17 pm

https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Screen-Shot-2018-12-03-at-1.44.28-PM.png?resize=1280,777
Top Photo Corporation/Shutterstock

As Hong Kong heads into a 10th week of mass demonstrations against a controversial China extradition bill, facing a major political crisis, high-profile local natives Jackie Chan and Tony Leung Ka-fai have publicly thrown their weight behind Beijing over the mass protests that have swept the former British colonial outpost since March.

In an interview with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Chan said (via Variety) it is “heartbreaking and worrying for many” to witness the gripping violence of the mass unrest, and that he supported the state TV’s campaign to protect the national flag “desecrated” by protesters. Specifically, Chan was referring to an incident in which pro-democracy protesters had thrown the flag of the People’s Republic of China into the sea.

“On one hand, I needed to express my most basic patriotism as a Hong Kong citizen and a Chinese,” Chan said. “I am also one of the flag guards. On the other hand, I hoped to express our collective voice through participating in such a campaign.”

Meanwhile, Tony Leung Ka-fai took part in a pro-police rally on June 30, where he posed with a sign reading, “Support the Police,” although he did not actually speak.

The controversial move by Chan might especially come as a surprise, given that he has long been Hong Kong’s most recognizable and influential export, launching a career that would thrive while the city was still under British colonial rule (it was handed back to China in 1997). Once considered a likely successor to Bruce Lee in Hong Kong cinema, Chan instead developed his own blended style of martial arts and screwball physical comedy which proved to be box office gold, en route to making him Hong Kong’s highest paid actor.

Leung, who burst onto the international scene after appearing in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “The Lover” (1992), is also a film industry veteran, with a career that spans almost 40 years, earning four Best Actor Hong Kong Film Awards (the Hong Kong equivalent to the Oscars).

What could be motivating both actors to take pro-Beijing positions, especially Leung, could be the box office. Leung’s most recent film, “Chasing the Dragon II” was in mainland China theaters at the time he attended the pro-police rally, where it grossed $43.6 million (RMB306 million).

However, the 65-year-old Chan may have less on the line. His output isn’t anywhere as prolific as it was during his junior years, and, according to Forbes, already boasts a net worth of around $350 million.

But Chan is certainly not new to stepping into political minefields, and has often sided with mainland Chinese government stances on a number of contentious issues. For example, during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Chan spoke out against demonstrators attempting to draw attention to several grievances against the Chinese government. And in December 2012, Chan criticized Hong Kong as a “city of protest,” suggesting that demonstrators’ rights in Hong Kong should be limited.

The current movement against a controversial law has expanded into something significantly larger. The protest has evolved to millions marching through the streets. While the majority of protestors have been peaceful, it’s clear that all sides are becoming increasingly frustrated. Protestors are now demanding greater democracy, as well as an investigation into alleged police brutality against demonstrators. And Beijing has taken an increasingly firm tone, calling the protesters “arrogant lunatics” that represent a “tiny minority,” promising “imminent punishment” to those who engage in violence.


THREADS
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)
Jackie Chan scandals (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?42240-Jackie-Chan-scandals)

GeneChing
08-16-2019, 12:06 PM
Disney’s Live-Action Mulan Facing Boycott Over Star’s Hong Kong Comments (https://comicbook.com/movies/2019/08/16/disney-live-action-mulan-boycott-stars-hong-kong-comments/?fbclid=IwAR028iOtEI93mqFumRYz_2jvBwsykwX8jufTHJVr bicmO0bye0tzq8EigQA)
By JAMIE JIRAK

Ohhh, Jackie's in hot water for HK comments too.

THREADS
Mulan - Live-Action (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68640-Mulan-Live-Action-Disney-project)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
08-16-2019, 12:06 PM
Disney’s Live-Action Mulan Facing Boycott Over Star’s Hong Kong Comments (https://comicbook.com/movies/2019/08/16/disney-live-action-mulan-boycott-stars-hong-kong-comments/?fbclid=IwAR028iOtEI93mqFumRYz_2jvBwsykwX8jufTHJVr bicmO0bye0tzq8EigQA)
By JAMIE JIRAK

Ohhh, Jackie's in hot water for HK comments too.

THREADS
Mulan - Live-Action (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68640-Mulan-Live-Action-Disney-project)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

PalmStriker
08-16-2019, 02:14 PM
:) Mobs will be mobs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc9zZ0ziEeI

GeneChing
08-19-2019, 08:15 AM
Bryan Ke·August 16, 2019·13 min read
Chinese Rappers Rally Together on Instagram in Support of Hong Kong Police (https://nextshark.com/chinese-rappers-hong-kong-police/?fbclid=IwAR2gRIxc3GKfuQRDRObXA-hVXXY6nY9Ttw9toroQ_maDGGHZY7ZlQ_ziMBY)

https://nextshark-vxdsockgvw3ki.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/rappers.jpg

Rappers in China are reposting a meme that has been circulating on Chinese social media to show support for the Hong Kong police as violent protests continue.

The patriotic fury was ignited after a Chinese journalist was tied and assaulted by Hong Kong protesters who thought he was undercover police despite wearing a yellow high-visibility vest typically worn by journalists covering the protest on Tuesday night, according to Inkstone News.

After the attack, two prominent members of China’s rap group Higher Brothers, Melo and DZ Know, shared images of the Chinese flag on their Instagram accounts on Wednesday afternoon.


melo0729
Verified


https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/453084b6354a5715377689565a11ce40/5DD7CF8D/t51.2885-15/e35/s1080x1080/66957636_1520856714773570_8885569183218553906_n.jp g?_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com

melo0729's profile picture
melo0729 (https://www.instagram.com/p/B1INtgtB50z/?utm_source=ig_embed)
Verified
Once again.I'm proud i'm a Chinese.
5d

Other Chinese artists also joined in, including “The Rap of China” champion PG One, who re-posted People Daily’s post that reads: “I support Hong Kong police, you can hit me” in Chinese characters and “What a shame for Hong Kong” written in English underneath it.

https://nextshark-vxdsockgvw3ki.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1kjygfdhskfghdfkgyuhdjkhefsdf.jpg
Screenshot via Weibo

“Support Hong Kong police, resist violent atrocities!!! I hope everyone is safe and secure!” PG One wrote in a Weibo post, Radii China reported.

Miss Vava, another star in “The Rap of China” whose song was featured in the movie “Crazy Rich Asians,” shared the same post on her Instagram with a caption that reads, “Hong Kong is part of China forever.”


vava.mis

https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/c274e2b81e59419fba2ffa9ce8109428/5DE4BFC9/t51.2885-15/e35/67146733_1105767099610015_2517154562472741505_n.jp g?_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com

vava.mis's profile picture
vava.mis (https://www.instagram.com/p/B1HRZMWHPvc/?utm_source=ig_embed)
Hong Kong is part of China forever

Another Chinese rapper, After Journey, also shared the post on Instagram. “Compatriots, remember this day, remember this moment,” the caption reads in Chinese.



afterjourney


https://scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/7447f02436288ac9897a29bfa3faf74a/5E0F0441/t51.2885-15/e35/66312442_2168558696776657_6829986747479276329_n.jp g?_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.cdninstagram.com

afterjourney's profile picture
afterjourney (https://www.instagram.com/p/B1HJniVndcj/?utm_source=ig_embed)
同胞们,记住这一天,记住这一刻

Featured Image via Instagram / higherbrothers (Left), Instagram / vava.mis (Right)

Anyone follow Chinese rap and know anything about these rappers?

GeneChing
08-19-2019, 10:16 AM
Now Xu Xiaodong (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70253-Xu-Xiaodong-Challenges-to-Kung-Fu) has chimed in on the Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests). It's interesting on which side various Chinese celebs are landing...


Mixed Martial Arts
MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong speaks out in support of Hong Kong people amid anti-government protests (https://www.scmp.com/sport/hong-kong/article/3023389/mma-fighter-xu-xiaodong-speaks-out-support-hong-kong-people-amid?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1Velejuxwl215OwFB5V96rEYoJApVw9TK_X_T8j wPIu9Zw4cLrFyULPcw#Echobox=1566196183)
Controversial Chinese fighter suspects a smear campaign against the city
Users of an online Hong Kong forum say they would welcome ‘Mad Dog’
Chan Kin-wa
Published: 2:13pm, 19 Aug, 2019

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2019/08/19/f2481c88-c240-11e9-ad8c-27551fb90b05_image_hires_145942.JPG?itok=iBq0DDJZ&v=1566197988
Chinese MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong at his Beijing gym. Photo: Tom Wang

Controversial Chinese MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong has sent a message of solidarity with Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters, but said he hoped the city’s social unity would not suffer lasting damage from tensions arising from recent developments.
In online posts on social media platforms Sina Weibo and YouTube, Xu doubted whether mainland Chinese media reports on the protests had presented a clear picture of what was happening and many citizens seemed to believe the unrest was the work of gangsters and thugs, leading to some strong anti-Hong Kong sentiment on the mainland.
Xu cited the case of a mainland citizen who was beaten up by protesters at Hong Kong International Airport last week, saying he felt ashamed of the behaviour of the man, whom he believed had been trying to provoke the crowd.
The outspoken MMA fighter said he hoped a smear campaign was not being conducted and noted the importance of accepting the city was governed under the principle of “one country, two systems”.
He posted in his social media accounts that he would kick people he suspected of trying to divide the country and smear Hong Kong people out of his “circle of friends”. Isolated violent acts and extreme individual behaviour were not broadly representative of most Hong Kong people’s attitude, he said.
“Please let it be remembered, whatever Hong Kong people do, they are still part of our family,” he said. “Don’t be fooled by the evil power trying to turn Hong Kong people and Chinese people against each other.”
The Beijing-based fighter said Hong Kong was China’s “Pearl of the Orient” and the world’s top free-trade port, as well as being the home of some of the world’s top universities. He said he had been watching Hong Kong movies and listening to Hong Kong music since his childhood. “Don’t forget all the blessings from Hong Kong people to the victims in big natural disasters in China,” he said.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORPINlorneE

Last week, Xu also expressed his sympathy to Hong Kong people in his first ever YouTube live broadcast.
“Hong Kong people are Chinese and I am also Chinese. That’s why I love Hong Kong people,” he said in the broadcast. “Someone asked me if I know what’s happening in Hong Kong and queried my right to make any comment. They may be right, but I want to ask why we don’t know what’s exactly happening in Hong Kong. Why?”
Xu’s comments were well received online.
In Hong Kong-based forum LIHKG, many users said they respected Xu, saying he was a brave person for speaking out and said the Beijing citizen would be welcome to emigrate to Hong Kong. However, there were also worries for his safety as the broadcast was closely monitored by the authorities.
Reports said Xu, who is a fierce critic of what he calls “fake kung fu”, previously had his social credit score lowered to heavily restricted “D” status in China following a court order. As a result, Xu was not allowed to buy plane tickets or train tickets.
He had the restrictions lifted after he eventually apologised but he said he ended up paying around US$37,250 after legal fees and the cost of paying for a public apology to be placed.

I guess Xu doesn't need to wear clown make-up anymore. That's too bad. I was rather enjoying that.

GeneChing
08-21-2019, 08:48 AM
Yifei really stabbed herself in the foot with this one. :o



In China, Disney's #BoycottMulan Problem May Only Be Growing (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-disneys-boycottmulan-problem-may-be-growing-1233417)
3:28 PM PDT 8/20/2019 by Patrick Brzeski , Tatiana Siegel

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2019/07/disneys_live-action_mulan-publicity_still_6-h_2019.jpg
Walt Disney Studios
Crystal Liu in Disney's 'Mulan.'

As the star of its Chinese warrior epic sides with police amid growing pro-democracy protests, the company may be "dragged into" taking sides as a mass sit-in at Hong Kong Disneyland is considered.
On Aug. 14, Crystal Liu, star of Disney's upcoming live-action Mulan, weighed in on Hong Kong's police crackdown of pro-democracy protesters. "I support Hong Kong's police, you can beat me up now," she wrote to her 65 million followers on social media platform Weibo, adding the hashtag "IAlsoSupportTheHongKongPolice," with heart and arm-flexing emojis.

Backlash, and talk of a boycott of Mulan, greeted Liu's post, with many pointing to the various international organizations that have accused the Hong Kong police of brutality and excessive force. And while Disney has chosen to remain silent so far, the problem may not go away any time soon for the studio, whose 10 tentpoles in the past year have earned 12 percent of their $8.85 billion in grosses from China. On a huge film like Avengers: Endgame, which became the all-time box-office champ with $2.8 billion in worldwide ticket sales, China accounted for a stunning 22 percent of that total.

"Disney can't support the protesters because their business in China is too important," notes Stanley Rosen, a professor at USC who specializes in the Chinese entertainment industry. "But they obviously can't be seen as pandering too much to China either, because that could backfire as well, depending on how the situation in Hong Kong unfolds."

The studio's studied silence at the least risks tainting the idealism of its brand and inflaming the international #BoycottMulan campaign. But if Disney instead distances itself from its star's statement, it will almost certainly invoke the ire of China's Communist Party authorities, who view control over Hong Kong as one their most urgent concerns.

A source close to Liu, 31, says she is being unfairly singled out given that other Chinese celebrities have voiced support for Beijing over the Hong Kong protest movement, including the city's own Jackie Chan and Tony Leung Ka-fai. Though protesters bristle at all stars who parrot an autocratic government's talking points, they have an ideal wedge with Liu as the lead of the upcoming global tentpole Mulan — about a young Chinese female fighter of injustice — that Disney will release March 27.

The studio's apparent decision to try to duck the difficult PR dilemma has put it in the awkward spot of aligning its interests with Beijing and the Hong Kong government, both of which seem to be hoping that the protesters will lose their nerve.

And yet, it's not as if Disney CEO Bob Iger hasn't taken a stance on hot-button political topics before. He stepped down from President Trump’s business advisory council in response to the president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate deal, calling the decision “a matter of principle.” Iger also said “I rather doubt [Disney] will” continue shooting in Georgia after the state passed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

The Hong Kong movement's determination not to simply fade away was on display Aug. 18, when an estimated 1.7 million protesters braved heavy rain for a peaceful procession through the heart of the city. Protesters are considering staging a mass sit-in at Hong Kong Disneyland next, possibly as soon as Aug. 24. (Some are concerned that the theme park's location — on a remote corner of Hong Kong's Lantau Island — could leave protestors cornered and vulnerable to mass arrests.)

Should they forge ahead — and should police respond — Disney may not have the luxury of avoiding comment if global newscasts show tear gas wafting over Hong Kong Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. "If things polarize even further in Hong Kong and China resorts to even greater violence to assert its authority, it will become much harder for [Disney] not to get dragged into it," adds Rosen, noting that further comments from Liu could also inflame tensions. "It's not unthinkable that the release date for Mulan could have to be moved beyond March 2020."

At the very least, Beijing's refusal to compromise an inch combined with the protestors' unflagging conviction has left even the most informed observers uncertain of how the standoff could conceivably unwind. Thus, Hong Kong's pro-democracy cause could very well continue to be a major news item come early 2020, when Mulan launches its worldwide marketing campaign — with star Crystal Liu front and center, facing the press gauntlet.

Karen Chu contributed reporting.



THREADS
Mulan - Live-Action (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68640-Mulan-Live-Action-Disney-project)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)
Chinese Theme Parks (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?62642-Chinese-Theme-Parks)

GeneChing
08-21-2019, 09:02 AM
Twitter Bans China Accounts for Misinformation Campaign Against 'Mulan' Boycott (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/twitter-bans-accounts-used-by-china-mulan-boycott-hong-kong-protestors-1233176)
8:50 PM PDT 8/19/2019 by Patrick Brzeski

The company deleted nearly 1,000 accounts it said were "deliberately and specifically attempting to sow political discord in Hong Kong, including undermining the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground."
Facebook and Twitter said Monday that they had deleted a network of fake accounts used by China to sow political discord over Hong Kong's pro-democracy, anti-police brutality protests.

The accounts also were used to share pro-Beijing rhetoric in response to the Hong Kong-initiated boycott of The Walt Disney Co.'s upcoming film Mulan, some of the tweet examples shared by Twitter reveal.

The Mulan boycott was initiated late last week after the film's star, Crystal Liu Yifei, posted a message of support on Chinese social media for the Hong Kong police force. The post ignited a firestorm both within Hong Kong and among pro-democracy sympathizers overseas, given the many accusations by international human rights groups that the police have been using excess force in their confrontations with protesters and the public.

Twitter said Monday that it pulled down 936 troll accounts, many of which pushed conspiracy theories about the Hong Kong protesters and their motivations.

"These accounts were deliberately and specifically attempting to sow political discord in Hong Kong, including undermining the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground," the company said in a statement. Twitter added that it has "reliable evidence to support that this is a coordinated state-backed operation."

Many of the deleted accounts claimed to be users based in the United States, in places ranging from New York City and to small towns like Berrien Springs, Mich. Some of the accounts were set up years ago, and slowly amassed followers by tweeting about innocuous pop culture, such as NBC's hit show This Is Us — a common tactic used to cloak misinformation campaigns in credibility.

Other accounts, such as @HKPoliticalNew, were attempting to pose as legitimate Hong Kong news outlets.

Facebook responded to Twitter's move by pulling down 16 pages it said were linked to the same troll operation.

One post highlighted by Twitter’s public safety team read: "We don’t want you radical people in Hong Kong. Just get out of here!"

A recent China-linked Facebook post compared the pro-democracy protestors to ISIS fighters.

Another Twitter post said: "Are these people who smashed the Legco crazy or taking benefits from the bad guys?" (Legco is Hong Kong's legislature, which was briefly occupied by protestors earlier this month.)

Central to Beijing's vast propaganda campaign within Mainland China is the allegation that the protests have been instigated by Western forces allied against China, including the CIA, rather than Hong Kong residents advocating for their own political concerns. China has offered no credible evidence for the claim.

Shortly after the #BoycottMulan hashtag start trending on Twitter last Friday, users tweeting about the campaign began calling attention to accounts they suspected were being directed by the Chinese government.

"You should come to Hong Kong to see the truth, not be misled by unscrupulous Western media and politicians," read one reply to #BoycottMulan from the account @shu_zhiyuan, which has since been removed by Twitter.

The Hong Kong protests began nearly three months ago in response to a bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents charged a crime to be extradited to mainland China. Nearly 2 million Hong Kong residents took to the streets to contest the bill at the height of the protests in June, believing it would mark the end of the autonomy and rule of law Hong Kong was promised when the territory was handed back to China from Britain in 1997.

After the Hong Kong police responded with heavy-handed tactics — including firing tear gas into public subway stations and using rubber bullets against crowds — the protests have intensified and the movement's demands have morphed into calls for independent investigations of the police and direct democracy. An estimated 1.7 million Hong Kong residents braved pouring rain in Hong Kong on Sunday to join a peaceful procession through the heart of the city — demonstrating that the movement is not fading away as the Beijing and Hong Kong authorities may have hoped.

Liu pulled Disney into the fray last week when she shared an image with her 65 million followers on China's Twitter-like social media service, Weibo, reading: "I support Hong Kong's police, you can beat me up now," followed by, "What a shame for Hong Kong." The image had originally been created by the state-backed People's Daily. Liu added the hashtag "IAlsoSupportTheHongKongPolice" and a heart emoji.

The post was widely praised in China — both by Beijing's vast social media propaganda apparatus and lay patriotic users — but outside the Middle Kingdom it has raised awkward questions about Disney's brand allegiances.

Both Facebook and Twitter, as well as the websites of the BBC, The New York Times and Bloomberg, are banned in China, blocked by the so-called Great Firewall, a complex system of Internet censorship mechanisms.

PATRICK BRZESKI
THRnews@thr.com
@thr


THREADS
Mulan - Live-Action (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68640-Mulan-Live-Action-Disney-project)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)
Add me on MySpace, Facebook & Twitter (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?42936-Add-me-on-MySpace-Facebook-amp-Twitter)

GeneChing
08-22-2019, 09:40 AM
A #SupportMulan campaign kicks off in China after calls in Hong Kong to boycott the Disney film (https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/entertainment/china-hong-kong-disney-mulan-intl-hnk-trnd/index.html)
CNN Digital Expansion 2017. James Griffiths
By James Griffiths and Jessie Yeung, CNN
Updated 4:21 AM ET, Thu August 22, 2019

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190706183604-mulan-live-action-remake-exlarge-169.jpg
Chinese-born actress Liu Yifei, starring in Disney's live action remake of "Mulan" next year, attracted controversy when she criticized ongoing protests in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong (CNN)Disney hasn't always had the easiest time in China, but amid calls to boycott the live-action version of "Mulan" the entertainment giant is getting help from an unlikely ally: Chinese state media.
Last week, Liu Yifei, the Chinese-born actress playing the eponymous role in the remake, waded into the Hong Kong protest controversy by pledging support for the city's police, who anti-government demonstrators accuse of using excessive force to quell unrest.
"I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong," she posted on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese social media platform.
Immediately, people began posting #BoycottMulan on Twitter, which is banned in China. Hours later, the hashtag was trending in Hong Kong and the United States. Twitter users accused the actress of supporting police brutality and noted that she's an American citizen.
"Liu is a naturalized American citizen. It must be nice. Meanwhile she ****es on people fighting for democracy," one person tweeted.
But on the Chinese internet and in state media it's been a different story. On those platforms, the actress has received considerable support.
On Thursday, China's state-run tabloid Global Times published a broadside against the boycott, accusing those who tweeted in support of it of "launching cyber violence against people who supports China."
"As the hashtag #Mulan was once topped Twitter's worldwide trend, these naysayers only want to use the popularity of the film to smear the Hong Kong police," Li Qingqing wrote in the newspaper. "The criticism is not simply targeted at a film. It is a malicious personal attack bordering on racism."
Retaliation against the boycott on Twitter helped to expose a network of bots that the platform said was being used to coordinate attacks against pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and spread misinformation about the ongoing unrest.
Li, meanwhile, said accounts tweeting in favor of the boycott should be suspended.


Global Times

@globaltimesnews
Anti-China public opinion wants to boycott #Mulan, as if whoever buys the ticket and watches the film is the enemy of democracy and freedom. These people are ideological paranoids. http://bit.ly/30yWQHq #SupportMulan #LiuYifei

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECgpFGUXoAEgCeI?format=jpg&name=large

View image on Twitter
61
10:20 AM - Aug 21, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
56 people are talking about this
On Twitter, where Global Times is one of several state-run outlets maintaining a major presence, the paper said boycotters were "ideological paranoids" and included its own hashtag #SupportMulan.
At the time of writing, the hashtag was largely populated by tweets referencing instances of violence during the protests, and accusing participants of being "thugs" or stooges of Washington fighting for Hong Kong independence.
"In the story of Mulan," one meme shared by several posters said, "she fights for her family and country in case it's been divided by others."

THREADS
Mulan - Live-Action (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68640-Mulan-Live-Action-Disney-project)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
08-22-2019, 03:09 PM
Chinese authorities question MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong over Hong Kong protest comments (https://www.scmp.com/sport/martial-arts/mixed-martial-arts/article/3023924/chinese-authorities-question-mma-fighter-xu?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1tb7X6Y_7YJl-ARK2RhE5sm9-Kka7wE44aEwCYV1cyahPnd8g4_Pl3ztY#Echobox=156646515 0)
MMA fighter says authorities visited him at his Beijing home after Twitter post supporting Hong Kong people
‘Mad Dog’ is worried about deviating from official mainland view on Hong Kong but wants to exercise right to speak freely, citing Chinese constitution
SCMP Reporter
Published: 4:52pm, 22 Aug, 2019

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2019/08/22/8f4f8250-c4ad-11e9-ad8c-27551fb90b05_image_hires_182057.jpg?itok=vNqRihTo&v=1566469261
Xu Xiaodong has been censored in China. Photo: Weibo
MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong has said Chinese authorities visited him at his Beijing home and questioned him about his views after his comments on social media about the Hong Kong protests.
While famous Chinese actors like Jackie Chan and Liu Yifei, as well as other public figures, have criticised anti-government demonstrations amid nationalist fury, the controversial “Mad Dog” spoke out in support of Hong Kong people.
Last Monday, state-run news agency Xinhua called protesters “rioters”, saying they had created “black terror” after a weekend of violent clashes. But Xu – who has been censored by authorities in China for exposing what he calls “fake kung fu” – said he suspected a smear campaign against the city.
“You can’t call all Hongkongers rioters. Can you call all 7 million Hong Kong residents rioters? Can you call 2 million demonstrators rioters?” Xu told SCMP’s Inkstone.
“Hong Kong is a member of our family. We should love and protect Hongkongers, and stand in unity with them. There are no rioters in Hong Kong, only unlawful individuals,” he added.
Xu said he was worried about deviating from the official mainland Chinese view on Hong Kong, where protests have stretched into an 11th consecutive week, but wanted to exercise his right to speak freely, citing the Chinese constitution.
Xu Xiaodong’s friend and fellow Chinese MMA fighter knocks out Bruce Lee wannabe in 12 seconds
In his Twitter comments, the fighter wrote that Hong Kong was China’s “Pearl of the Orient” and the world’s top free-trade port, with quality higher education including some of the world’s top universities.
He also praised the city’s entertainment industry, saying he had been watching Hong Kong films and listening to Hong Kong music since his childhood.
“Don’t forget all the blessings from Hong Kong people to the victims in big natural disasters in China,” he said.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORPINlorneE

Last week, Xu also expressed his sympathy to Hong Kong people in his first YouTube live broadcast.
“Hong Kong people are Chinese and I am also Chinese. That’s why I love Hong Kong people,” he said in the broadcast.
“Someone asked me if I know what’s happening in Hong Kong and queried my right to make any comment. They may be right, but I want to ask why we don’t know what’s exactly happening in Hong Kong. Why?”
China orders Xu Xiaodong to publicly apologise and pay damages for insulting tai chi ‘grandmaster’ Chen Xiaowang
Xu has previously had his social credit score lowered to heavily restricted “D” status in China following a court order. As a result, Xu was not allowed to buy plane tickets or high-speed train tickets, among other restrictions.
He had the restrictions lifted after he eventually apologised but he said he ended up paying around US$37,250 after legal fees and the cost of paying for a public apology to be placed.
Inkstone’s Qin Chen contributed to this article


THREADS
Xu Xiaodong (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70253-Xu-Xiaodong-Challenges-to-Kung-Fu) Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

hunter_02
08-22-2019, 10:51 PM
Hong kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-kong-protests)
Either he's a lying sum*****, or he's as stupid as the rest of the nitwits in hollywood.


"Return rule to the people," they chanted as the rally began to denounce the bill which critics say will impose Beijing-style control over free speech and the media.
THEY SHOULD NEVER HAVE LET 'RULE' BE TAKEN AWAY IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Critics say the law, which Beijing has been pressing Hong Kong to enact, poses the biggest threat to basic rights in the former British colony since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.
WHILE THE PEOPLE SHOULD NOT HAVE LET TAKE OVER TO BEGIN WITH, TO LET THEMSELVES REVERT TO MAINLAND RULE IN 1997 WAS JUST CRAZY.
Earlier, a group of protesters burned the Communist Party flag as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao tried to reassure the territory that its freedoms would be protected. But the afternoon march was peaceful.
YES, WEN WILL PROTECT THE TERRITORY'S FREEDOMS LIKE HE PROTECT THE FREEDOMS OF THE PEOPLES OF THE MAINLAND.
"The legislation according to Article 23 will not affect the different rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong people, including journalists, under the law," Wen told reporters.
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT A BRIDGE I OWN IN BROOKLYN. JOURNALISTS ARE THE FIRST PEOPLE THEY WILL ATTACK AND SUPPRESS.
Under the legislation, people can be jailed for life if convicted of subversion, treason or secession from China. It also allows gives police sweeping search powers without court orders.
YEPPER. THERE'S YOUR 'RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS'.
I'm just very surprised that it took this long for this krap to happen.
As the member of a family that has fought in every conflict from the French&Indian War up to VietNam, I'm telling you freedom is worth fighting for. And it ALWAYS cost blood and lives.
hunter

GeneChing
08-29-2019, 08:17 AM
...a hot cop. :rolleyes:


Bryan Ke·August 22, 2019·4 min read
‘Hot’ Hong Kong Policewoman is At Least Something Both Sides Can Agree On (https://nextshark.com/hong-kong-police-woman-hot/)

https://nextshark-vxdsockgvw3ki.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ddjdjdjj-1024x548.jpg

A policewoman from Hong Kong has gone viral after she was filmed in a Facebook live video.

Eagle-eyed netizens spotted the policewoman during HK Apple Daily’s live stream on Facebook on Saturday.

The woman who can be seen wearing a casual white shirt, vest and a police helmet, was outside the Western Police Station in Sai Ying Pun at the time of the video, according to Mothership.

https://nextshark-vxdsockgvw3ki.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1kushdlfisjdlfushekfjhskdjfhsdf.jpg
Screenshot via Facebook / HK Apple Daily

She was reportedly asking the identification of the three men in the video after being stopped by a group of riot police.

https://nextshark-vxdsockgvw3ki.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2ksuhdfksdnfklushekfjhnskdjhfkjshf.jpg
Screenshot via Facebook / HK Apple Daily

Her popularity skyrocketed overnight. Social media users quickly scoured the internet to find more information about the woman and managed to unearth her supposed Instagram account.

https://nextshark-vxdsockgvw3ki.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/3kshdfkisjdlfkusghdfkjsdflsdhfksjdhfsf.jpg
Instagram via Mothership

The unwanted attention quickly boosted her follower base to over 31,700.

https://nextshark-vxdsockgvw3ki.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/4ikyudhsflisjdkfushdkfjshdfkjsdjf.jpg
Screenshot via Instagram

Her overnight fame attracted mixed reactions, from admirers to people insulting Hong Kong officers.

https://nextshark-vxdsockgvw3ki.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/5jkysdkfijsdkfuhsdkfjhsdkfjshdfsf.jpg
Screenshot via Facebook / HK Apple Daily

Some went as far as tracking down the very first post she made, digging up pictures from early in her career, and posting them on online forums.

https://nextshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Screen-Shot-2019-08-19-at-9.49.42-PM_censored-e1566498129688.jpg
Instagram via Mothership

On Tuesday, August 20, the policewoman reportedly turned her Instagram into private.

Featured image screenshot via Facebook and Instagram / HK Apple Daily (left) and Mothership (right)

THREADS
Anti terrorist police in China. (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?60888-Anti-terrorist-police-in-China)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
09-03-2019, 09:22 AM
Taipan mooncakes pulled from shelves in mainland China after founder’s son denounced for supporting Hong Kong protests (https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3025377/taipan-mooncakes-pulled-shelves-mainland-china-after-founders)
Company’s signature mooncakes taken off sale after state media denounces Garic Kwok over Facebook posts that ‘ridiculed the government and police’
Blacklisting comes at busiest time of year for mooncake makers and one mainland importer said it would take a big financial hit as a result
Zhuang Pinghui
Published: 5:31pm, 2 Sep, 2019

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2019/09/02/adc6cfbe-cd4e-11e9-9cec-db56b3c139e7_image_hires_175322.JPG?itok=HrWawsrO&v=1567418007
Garic Kwok apologised for the Facebook posts. Photo: Weibo

Mainland Chinese retailers have stopped selling a popular Hong Kong brand of mooncakes after state media denounced the son of the founder for supporting the protests in Hong Kong.
Taipan Bread and Cake, which is best known for its snowy mooncakes, appears to have been taken off two of the mainland’s biggest e-commerce sites Tmall.com and JD.com after Garic Kwok, a company director, was criticised in an article published in People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, on Monday.
On Monday morning, searches for the brand results in “no relevant information” on Tmall.com, and the store could not be found on JD.com.
Tmall is operated by Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post. Both Tmall and JD have not responded to requests for comment.
Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during the Mid Autumn festival, which falls later this month, so this is the peak season for mooncake sales.
A staff member from Yingming Kailai Technology and Trade Development Company, which imports the cakes for mainland supermarkets and Tmall, said the product had been removed from the shelves of stores in Beijing. The items have also been taken off sale in other major cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Liu Shuting, who is responsible for store sales in the capital, said all the firm’s products had been withdrawn and the company was losing a lot of money.
“I can’t control what Mr Kwok said. I think the products are fine but we will have to suffer a big financial loss because of what he said,” Liu said.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/09/02/7a42d6c8-cd4f-11e9-9cec-db56b3c139e7_1320x770_175322.JPG
Snowy mooncakes are popular at this time of year. Photo: Facebook

The blacklisting follows an attack in party mouthpiece People’s Daily that criticised Kwok’s Facebook posts for supporting the “activities of those dressed in black”, and “forwarding pictures to ridicule the government and police, which has aroused public anger”.
Listed as evidence were Kwok’s posts on Facebook late last week, which included a drone picture of a protest that he described as “Hongkongers forming a pro-democracy human chain across the city” and another picture that said people who supported the Hong Kong police must “have a lack of empathy … and are inferior, selfish and arrogant”.
People’s Daily’s article has been widely recirculated by other mainland media, including the nationalist tabloid Global Times.
Kwok apologised and deleted the posts, but could not stop the criticism from snowballing.
“What I said and shared in Facebook is personal and not related to Taipan Bread & Cakes. I hereby apologise if they have caused misunderstanding or offended anyone,” Kwok posted on Friday.
The apology was shared by the brand’s account on Weibo, accompanied by another statement that Kwok’s remarks did not reflect the company’s stance.
Both apologies were badly received by mainland internet users, who criticised them for being insincere and insisted on a boycott.
“So he basically said, I am against the mainland but I am not against making money from mainlanders,” said one Weibo user.
“We don’t accept apologies from anyone or any organisation that erred on major issues of principle. I am warning you, if you don’t agree that you are a Chinese, just get out of China with your products and money,” wrote another Weibo user.
Hong Kong is currently in its 13th week of anti-government protests, which have triggered a nationalistic backlash in mainland media and online.
Many brands and celebrities, from bubble tea stores to luxury brands, have come under fire for their perceived stance on the issue.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Mooncakes pulled after firm’s boss denounced

THREADS
Happy Autumn Moon !!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
09-04-2019, 11:17 AM
Mahjong parlours and ‘Fujian gangsters’: how the peaceful New Territories town of Tsuen Wan became a flashpoint in Hong Kong’s protests (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3025147/mahjong-parlours-and-fujian-gangsters-how-peaceful-new)
The former industrial suburb was rocked by clashes between anti-government protesters and suspected triads on successive weekends
Outbreaks of violence and subsequent clashes with police have shocked locals, who believed town to be safe
Mandy Zheng
Published: 10:00am, 31 Aug, 2019

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2019/08/31/7840248a-c961-11e9-b4e3-f796e392de6b_image_hires_115129.JPG?itok=XLkubrcr&v=1567223505
Located near the coastal line with sufficient water resources, Tsuen Wan gained popularity among mainland business owners in the mid-20th century, who established cotton mills and enamel factories in the region. Photo: Martin Chan

“Compared with Central, the only thing Tsuen Wan doesn’t have is luxury stores,” Eva Chan Yee-wah jokes.
For the 26-year-old Tsuen Wan resident, her neighbourhood is time-worn yet vibrant and well-established.
“My friends and I seldom leave here to hang out, because we’ve got everything – tons of shopping malls, great food, a museum and a library, even bars for those who crave nightlife.”
But things have somehow changed since a month ago.
“Now I don’t go out alone at night any more,” says Chan, a young mother.
It all started when locals witnessed a violent incident at 11pm on August 5, during which protesters got into fights with a group of men dressed in white and wielding knives. At least four people on either side were injured, some with deep lacerations and bloody wounds.
Earlier that day, a strike against the now-shelved extradition bill took place at eight locations around Hong Kong, including Tsuen Wan. It was the first time that the western New Territories town had seen protesters besieging a local police station, and eventually confronting suspected “Fujian gangsters” based in the area.
Another brawl took place a week later in the small hours of August 12, when men dressed in white T-shirts attacked black-clad protesters, an incident that soon escalated into a bloody conflict where each camp used weapons such as knives, glass bottles, bricks and bamboo sticks.
The scene broke out at Yi Pei Square, home to the Fujianese community which is widely regarded as pro-government. Some from the area are rumoured to be members of local gangs who took part in the former clash between protesters and residents.
When protesters took to the streets in Tsuen Wan again last Sunday, some raided Mahjong parlours and gaming centres at Yi Pei Square, as they believed these were owned by triads.

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One of the textiles factories that thrived in Tsuen Wan in the late 20th century. Photo: Handout

When police soon came to stop them from vandalising businesses, an officer fired a shot into the air amid chaos at nearly 9pm, marking the first time live ammunition had been used in the 12 weekends of anti-government protests.
“I was astonished when I learned the police actually fired. I never thought Tsuen Wan would become this unsafe,” says local resident Lee Sheung-man, 26.
So why is Tsuen Wan known as a notorious hub of mahjong and gambling parlours controlled by Fujian gangs, which other districts are their strongholds, and how has this one has turned into a recent protest battlefield?

A triad hub?

Hong Kong saw a flood of mainland Chinese immigrants in 1949 after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Located near the coast with sufficient water resources, Tsuen Wan soon gained popularity among mainland Chinese business owners, who established cotton mills and enamel factories in the region. By 1971, it had become the largest industrial area in Hong Kong, accounting for about 20 per cent of the city’s total output value.

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A view of Tsuen Wan in the early 1960s. Photo: Handout

As job opportunities increased, workers from Shanghai and Fujian swarmed into these factories and gradually formed clannish communities. Since then, the Yi Pei Square area has turned into one of the neighbourhoods with a distinguished population of Fujianese immigrants.
“Yi” literally means “the second” in Cantonese, and Pei Square is a unique example of residential design in Tsuen Wan. Typically in such a neighbourhood, four lines of tenement buildings laid out in the shape of a square create an encompassed area, at the centre of which residents can gather and hang out, free from disturbance from the outside world. There are restaurants and leisure facilities on the ground floors of the buildings.

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Tsuen Wan Town Hall. Photo: Edmond So

This design is likely to have been inspired by the walled city in ancient times, which could be traced back to the Tang dynasty, according to an advisory report commissioned by Tsuen Wan District Council in 2010. There are four closely located Pei Squares in the area, the first one being home to a South Asian community, and the other two famed for their dai pai dongs and noodle shops.
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The Mills, located in the former Nam Fung cotton factory in Tsuen Wan. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Though it has hidden gems for gourmets, the Pei Square area is also notorious for being “jumbled”, says Eva Chan. “It has long been rumoured that Yi Pei Square is a triad camp. When I was a kid, my mum would warn me that I shouldn’t go there alone.”

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Tsuen Wan West MTR station, one of two which serves the town. Photo: Handout

“They own a couple of mahjong parlours and restaurants, and it’s said that they also earn money from protection rackets and illicit brothels,” Chan says.
Local news reports show that in the past few years, police have raided illegal prostitution and mahjong gambling venues at Yi Pei Square.
continued next post

GeneChing
09-04-2019, 11:17 AM
From “Shallow Bay” to Tsuen Wan

Although the New Territories is no stranger to deeply rooted local triads, Tsuen Wan is largely perceived as a peaceful and liveable neighbourhood for middle-class households, according to Chan.
Her pride in the town’s abundant public facilities and leisure venues is well-founded. Back in 1961, Tsuen Wan was the first to
be developed under the British colonial government's New Town project, aiming at dispersing the city’s booming population in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island to the New Territories.

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Anti-government protesters march from Kwai Chung Sports Ground to Tsuen Wan Park on August 25. Photo: Dickson Lee

Infrastructure such as two MTR lines, motorways, ports and public housing was established in the following decades. With notably long pedestrian overpasses connecting the MTR stations and shopping malls, Tsuen Wan has earned the name “the overpass town”.
Land reclamation was also a major element in urban development. To date, a total of 140 hectares of land has been reclaimed from the sea in Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung.
These efforts have greatly changed Tsuen Wan’s image from earlier times, when the town was seen as a land of scarcity by authorities and Hongkongers. The first historical record of residents in the area dates from 1649, which was then called “Tsin Wan”, i.e. “Shallow Bay” in Cantonese.

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Demonstrators smash a mahjong shop during protests in Tsuen Wan on August 25. Photo: AP

In the 20th century, a local scholar changed “Tsin” into “Tsuen”, meaning herb or fishing gear in ancient Chinese. Despite having a more elegant name, the town still repelled outsiders due to the prevalence of pirates and malaria.
There was even a popular saying among merchants: “Want to get rich? Go to San Francisco; Want to get killed? Go to Tsuen Wan” .
When the British took over the New Territories in 1898, the town had about 3,000 residents. Now its population has grown to more than 300,000, 93 per cent of those ethnic Chinese, according to government statistics from 2016.

What are the local charms?

With most factories having moved to mainland China, Tsuen Wan is now left with empty industrial buildings that residents seldom visit. The Urban Renewal Authority began to rejuvenate the town in the late 2000s, an initiative that has been largely successful.
One of the iconic projects is The Mills, a previously disused cluster of cotton mills that was transformed into a complex of art and exhibition centres, along with fashionable cafes and shops. It was reopened last December after four years of refurbishment.

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Police clash with extradition bill protesters in Tsuen Wan on August 25. Photo: Reuters

“It’s like the second PMQ,” Chan says. “People from other areas used to come to Tsuen Wan for food, but now more youngsters are visiting here to check out places like The Mills.”
For another resident Lee, some of her best memories in the neighbourhood are associated with Tsuen Wan Town Hall, a government-managed venue built in 1980 that hosts plays and exhibitions. “It’s our own Romerberg, where locals meet up and just chill,” she says.
“The kai fong [townspeople] here like to talk about things related to livelihood, such as which schools are better. We don’t care that much about politics,” Lee adds.
“I used to think we lived in our own bubble. But now the protests are changing everything.”

THREADS
Mahjong (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?40386-Mahjong)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
09-05-2019, 08:34 AM
Chinese importer says entire stock of Taipan mooncakes will be destroyed after backlash against Hong Kong baker (https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3025883/chinese-importer-says-entire-stock-taipan-mooncakes-will-be)
Manager of trading company says ‘huge amount’ of Taipan Bread and Cakes brand pastries were returned after mainland media storm over bakery director’s pro-protest Facebook posts
Zhuang Pinghui
Published: 5:39pm, 5 Sep, 2019

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An importer for Taipan Bread and Cakes, the Hong Kong baker known for its “snowy” mooncakes, may have to destroy returned stock after a social media controversy. Photo: FACEBOOK

A mainland Chinese importer of a popular Hong Kong mooncake brand caught up in a protest controversy said it would have to destroy stock because it could not cope with the volume of goods being returned.
Wu Haotian, general manager of Yonghuasheng Trading, told the Southern Metropolis News that “a huge amount of mooncakes” made by Hong Kong-based Taipan Bread and Cakes had been sent back by retailers after a director of the pastry company was denounced in mainland media for supporting anti-government protests in the city.
“The amount is so great that we haven’t calculated exactly how much have come back yet,” Wu said on Wednesday.
He said his company had talked to mainland partners about cutting their losses.

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Taipan Bread and Cakes director Garic Kwok faced a mainland media backlash after Facebook comments about demonstrations in Hong Kong. Photo: Weibo

“Those returned orders cannot be sent back to Hong Kong,” he was quoted as saying. “The only solution might be to destroy them eventually.”
Phone calls to Wu at Guangzhou-based Yonghuasheng Trading on Thursday went unanswered.
On Monday, Taipan mooncakes were pulled from shelves in mainland stores, supermarkets and online shopping sites after bakery director Garic Kwok was criticised for comments he made on his personal Facebook account last month.
One post included an aerial photo of a protest that Kwok described as “Hongkongers forming a pro-democracy human chain across the city”. Another post said supporters of Hong Kong police must “have a lack of empathy … and are inferior, selfish and arrogant”.
Mainland media, including Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, attacked Kwok as “supporting activities of those dressed in black” and “forwarding pictures to ridicule the government and police”.
The businessman deleted the offending posts on Friday and apologised, distancing his business from his personal views.
Taipan, known for its “snowy” mooncakes, said on Weibo on Friday that Kwok’s views were not those of the company.
But the damage to its reputation and business on the mainland was done.
On Saturday, mainland retailers began demanding distributors withdraw Taipan products. First, two major online retailer sites – JD.com, and Tmall.com, which is operated by Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post – pulled the goods from their websites.
Later that day, Taipan products were cleared from supermarkets and shopping malls across China.
Yonghuasheng Trading said on Sunday that the company had not been aware of Kwok’s posts and, as a Chinese company, Kwok’s remarks did not represent it.
“All the goods were bought with good money. Every box of mooncakes was declared to customs and tax was paid … I hope consumers understand us,” the company said.
On Monday, Wu posted a message saying “I am Chinese” and a Chinese national flag emoji on his WeChat account.
Months of protests in Hong Kong have triggered a nationalistic backlash in mainland media and online. Many brands, from bubble tea stores to luxury brands, and celebrities have fallen under their spotlight for their position on Hong Kong’s protests.

THREADS
Happy Autumn Moon !!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
09-06-2019, 07:52 AM
This guy... :cool:


'I’ll just make less then’: Actor Chow Yun-fat responds to alleged PRC ban for supporting HK protests (http://shanghaiist.com/2014/10/27/actor-chow-yun-cat-responds-to-prc-ban-after-supporting-protests/?fbclid=IwAR1d0_gyoqxlaX6ykYH4iuZIpB9f9A2PDIdcduFV a6etCmFp2LYYZq8dWVc)
by Shanghaiist May 5, 2018 in News

When asked about being banned in mainland China after voicing support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, actor Chow Yun-fat simply replied, “I’ll just make less then”.
Chow was asked by reporters at Kowloon Park after news had surfaced that the Chinese central government had put him on a blacklist.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B07UDa4CAAAFNwb.jpg
Yuen Chan
@xinwenxiaojie
Chow Yun-fatt shows why he is a #HK screen god. Asked abt being banned on Mainland: "I'll just make less then"

View image on Twitter (https://twitter.com/xinwenxiaojie/status/526591364104876032/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwte rm%5E526591364104876032&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fshanghaiist.com%2F2014%2F10%2 F27%2Factor-chow-yun-cat-responds-to-prc-ban-after-supporting-protests%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1d0_gyoqxlaX6ykYH4iuZIp B9f9A2PDIdcduFVa6etCmFp2LYYZq8dWVc)
259
9:28 PM - Oct 26, 2014
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416 people are talking about this

In early October, the Hong Kong celebrity spoke out in support of the student sit-ins, which just entered their unlikely fifth week, during an interview with Apple Daily.
“I’ve met the residents, the students — they are very brave and it’s touching to see that they’re fighting for what they want. The students are reasonable. If the government can come up with a solution that the citizens or students are satisfied with, I believe the crisis will end.”
Chow, who has in the past been praised for his graciousness and general likability, also criticized the police’s use of tear gas on demonstrators during the first week of peaceful sit-ins.
“When the government uses violent measures on students, it’s a turn-off for the people of Hong Kong,” he said. “I don’t wish to see anyone getting hurt… it was a peaceful demonstration, and there was no need for any violence or tear gas.”
Chow is among a contingent of famous figures from Hong Kong and Taiwan who’ve voiced support for the protesters, including Hong Kong singer Denise Ho, actor Tony Leung and actor-singer Andy Lau. Even American saxophonist Kenny G stumbled out of obscurity and into the scene, inciting a mild political scandal when he posed for photos with students at a protest site.
Hong Kong singer Anthony Wong, who’s also taken part in the demonstrations, told The New York Times that two of his mainland China shows in November have been “indefinitely postponed” by organizers.
“I’m just guessing, but I think they are trying to ban us because they’re afraid of different views,” he said. “They fear that we would spread them. And of course it’s an attempt to punish us, a cold-shoulder treatment of sorts, so we can’t earn their money.”
The threat of being cut off doesn’t seem to faze Chow, who’s already happily announced that he’s got plenty enough money to share (and will).



THREADS
Chow Yun Fat (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?63339-Chow-Yun-Fat)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
09-25-2019, 08:00 AM
I'm surprised the PRC hasn't Bingbinged (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70896-Where-in-the-world-is-Fan-Bingbing) Xu yet.



AUG 19
‘There are no rioters’: Chinese fighter breaks ranks to defend Hongkongers (https://www.inkstonenews.com/society/xu-xiaodong-says-hong-kong-protesters-are-not-rioters-he-was-invited-tea/article/3023448)
Photo: SCMP/Tom Wang
by Qin Chen

Over the past week, nationalist fury has enveloped China’s internet, prompting actors, musicians and other public figures in the mainland to criticize the continuing anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

Against this backdrop, outspoken Chinese mixed martial arts fighter Xu Xiaodong has bucked the trend by speaking up for Hongkongers on social media.

On Sunday, Xu, who has controversially made a name for himself by challenging what he calls “fake” kung fu masters, wrote on Twitter that Hong Kong is a world-class free market with quality higher education and a robust entertainment industry.

He condemned some violent clashes between protesters and police as illegal acts that must be punished according to the law. But, he added, those were individual cases and should not be amplified to drive a wedge between Hongkongers and mainlanders.


徐晓冬 北京格斗狂人
@Xuxiaodong3
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECNTHkpUcAAqqJo?format=jpg&name=smallhttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECNTHkqUIAAZzMt?format=jpg&name=small
1,403
4:11 PM - Aug 17, 2019
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“You can’t call all Hongkongers rioters. Can you call all 7 million Hong Kong residents rioters? Can you call 2 million demonstrators rioters?” Xu told Inkstone.

“Hong Kong is a member of our family. We should love and protect Hongkongers, and stand in unity with them. There are no rioters in Hong Kong, only unlawful individuals,” he added.

Xu’s remarks pit himself against increasingly tough rhetoric in state-run media calling for the Hong Kong unrest to be put down by force.

Last Monday, China’s official news agency Xinhua called the protesters rioters, saying they had created “black terror,” in reference to their black T-shirts. This happened after a weekend of violent clashes.

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Millions of protestors attended a peaceful rally in Hong Kong on Sunday afternoon. Photo: SCMP/Dickson Lee

One of the movement’s main demands is for the Hong Kong government to withdraw the use of the word “riot” in relation to protests. Anyone found guilty of rioting faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Xu told Inkstone that after posting about Hong Kong on Twitter, he was visited at home by the authorities and questioned about his views.

Sunday marked the beginning of the 11th consecutive week of protests in Hong Kong. The movement began in June against a now-suspended extradition bill, but it has evolved into a wider call for greater democracy and protecting Hong Kong's civil liberties.

Xu did point out that Hong Kong is part of Chinese territory and said China should honor the “one country, two systems” framework underpinning its relationship with Hong Kong.

His supportive comments about Hong Kong put him squarely at odds with the larger nationalist movement, which went into overdrive in mainland China last week after a Chinese journalist was beaten and tied up by protesters at Hong Kong’s airport.

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In 2017, a video of Xu knocking out tai chi master Wei Lei in 10 seconds went viral.

Xu is best known for exposing what he calls “fake” kung fu masters in high-profile matches.

His outspoken challenges to the martial arts establishment have previously have brought him lawsuits.

But the possible consequences don’t seem to hold Xu back from speaking his mind on contentious issues.

When asked if he was concerned about deviating from the official mainland Chinese view on Hong Kong, Xu said he was worried but wanted to exercise his right to speak freely, citing the Chinese constitution.


Qin Chen
Qin is a multimedia producer at Inkstone. Most recently, she was a senior video producer for The New Yorker’s video team. Prior to that she was at CNBC, making short documentaries and writing about how technology shapes lives.

THREADS
Xu Xiaodong Challenges to Kung Fu (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70253-Xu-Xiaodong-Challenges-to-Kung-Fu)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
10-01-2019, 12:14 PM
EU and Britain urge restraint and de-escalation after Hong Kong police officer shoots protester during National Day clashes (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3031159/eu-and-britain-urge-restraint-and-de-escalation-after-hong?utm_content=article&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1NAGpTQAkb-WMjagUEocD6QqUGK_D7rmElPnaWdFTbiC6m17ykyFUtNTQ#Ech obox=1569948568)
‘Use of live ammunition is disproportionate, and only risks inflaming the situation,’ British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says.
Teenaged protester was hit in the chest by a live round in Tsuen Wan as Beijing celebrated 70th anniversary of founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Owen Churchill
Published: 12:24am, 2 Oct, 2019

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Riot police fire non-lethal rounds to disperse protesters in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong on Sunday. The violence escalated on Tuesday when an officer shot a protester at close range in the chest with a live round. Photo: Bloomberg

The European Union and Britain urged restraint from authorities in Hong Kong on Tuesday after a police officer shot a protester in the city with a live round.
“Whilst there is no excuse for violence, the use of live ammunition is disproportionate, and only risks inflaming the situation,” Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement.
Police said the shooting occurred at around 4pm local time (4am US Eastern time) in Tsuen Wan, amid demonstrations held to coincide with celebrations in Beijing marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Video footage of the incident showed the protester, an 18-year-old man, attempting to strike the police officer with a stick, before being shot in the chest and collapsing to the ground. He underwent lung surgery and was in a non-life threatening condition, according to a source.

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A protester runs after setting a government office building on fire in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Demonstrations spread across the city as Beijing celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Photo: AP

A Hong Kong police force spokeswoman said in a video posted to the force’s Facebook page that the officer had feared for his safety and had acted to “save his own life and his colleagues’ lives”.
Calling on both anti-government protesters and Hong Kong authorities to de-escalate the conflict, Raab said the incident “underlines the need for a constructive dialogue to address the legitimate concerns of the people of Hong Kong”.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after the shooting, EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said the bloc “continues to stress that that dialogue, de-escalation and restraint are the only way forward”.
“More than three months since the protests began, the right to assembly and the right to protest peacefully must continue to be upheld in line with the [Hong Kong] Basic Law and international commitments,” Kocijancic said.
Tuesday’s incident, which occurred during a day of demonstrations billed by protesters as an act of “national mourning”, cast a shadow over mainland celebrations of the anniversary of China’s founding in 1949.
Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, faced criticism from pan-democratic lawmakers in Hong Kong for attending the Beijing festivities, which featured a military parade with thousands of troops and a flaunting of China’s latest advanced weaponry.
In Tiananmen Square, President Xi Jinping said in a speech that no force could “shake the status of our great motherland”.
Lam’s appearance at the parade, which was also attended by several Hong Kong police officers, was “tantamount to authorising police to administer Hong Kong”, two dozen Hong Kong legislators said in a joint statement.
“The members of the democratic camp urge Lam to stop pretending to be communicating [with the public, and to stop] relying on police violence,” the statement said. “She must face the problems and respond to protesters’ five demands.”

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A member of the media receives medical aid after being hit in the face with a projectile fired by police during clashes with protesters on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Last week, Lam met with more than 130 Hongkongers in a town hall-style event, at which she came under fire over her handling of unrest in the city, including her ongoing refusal to approve an independent inquiry into allegations of police brutality.
Lam offered few new commitments at the event, but vowed that detained protesters would no longer be sent to the San Uk Ling detention centre, where those held in custody have allegedly been maltreated.
Speaking on Tuesday, the EU’s Kocijancic said that while “initial positive steps to engage members of the public and various sectors of society in dialogue have been taken, further efforts are needed to restore trust”.

THREADS
70th anniversary of People’s Republic (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71411-70th-anniversary-of-People%92s-Republic)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
10-04-2019, 07:33 AM
Hong Kong actor Gregory Wong may be stopped from attending ‘Chinese-language Oscars’ over his role in anti-government protest (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3031430/hong-kong-actor-gregory-wong-may-be-stopped-attending)
Television star bailed and told not to leave city over unlawful presence inside Legislative Council on July 1
Wong had planned to go to Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival next month
Chris Lau
Published: 5:15pm, 3 Oct, 2019

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Actor Gregory Wong arrives at Eastern Court ahead of his appearance. May Tse

An outspoken Hong Kong actor’s plan to visit next month’s “Chinese Oscars” in Taiwan are under threat, because a court has barred him from leaving town after he was charged over his role in an anti-government protest.
Gregory Wong Chung-yiu, 41, appeared at Eastern Court on Thursday morning alongside Ma Kai-chung, 30, a reporter for localist news outlet Passion Times, to face charges in relation to their presence inside the Legislative Council during a demonstration on July 1.
Both were charged with one count of entering or remaining in precincts of chamber on the day of city’s handover anniversary, contravening an administrative order under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) ordinance.
Magistrate Veronica Heung Shuk-han released the pair on HK$2,000 bail, with the condition they not set foot in the Legislative Council, or the streets nearby including Lung Wo Road, Harcourt Road, Legislative Council Road, and Tim Wah Avenue.
She also ordered them not to leave Hong Kong, but told Wong he could apply for an exemption when he had plans to travel.
Outside court, Wong revealed his plan to attend the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival in November, an annual event dubbed the “Chinese-language Oscars”, which have been boycotted by Beijing amid tense relations with the self-ruled island.

The actor, known for his pro-democracy stance, said the idea to attend sprang from a discussion with a Taiwanese friend, and he thought it would be meaningful if he showed support to the event during this “wave of boycott”.
“It will be a worthy thing to attend this film awards ceremony fearlessly in the hope that it would no longer have to face persecution,” he said.
The actor, who rose to fame after starring in online television drama The Menu, in which he played a courageous reporter in search of the truth, said he felt he had become a target of persecution in real life.
“I believe that the police are trying to put out some sort of white terror towards people who come out to voice out their demands for Hong Kong, peacefully or otherwise,” he said.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/10/03/eea4d43e-e5a1-11e9-8a10-b9721f28293e_1320x770_225104.jpg
Reporter Ma Kai-chung leaves Eastern Court after being released on bail. Photo: Chris Lau

Both Wong and Ma were not required to enter a plea. They will return to the same court on December 13.
Video footage is believed to have captured Ma’s presence inside Legco between 9.23pm and 10.37pm, while Wong made a brief appearance at 11.47pm.
On Monday, seven others, including former University of Hong Kong student union president Althea Suen, were also charged with entering Legco on the same day.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/10/03/cad2a6c4-e5a3-11e9-8a10-b9721f28293e_1320x770_225104.JPG
Former University of Hong Kong student union president Althea Suen arrives at Eastern Court. Photo: Handout

The July 1 protest started peacefully, as demonstrators took aim at the now-abandoned extradition bill.
But some protesters later broke into the Legco building and chambers, trashing it and causing millions of dollars worth of damage in the process.
In another courtroom, e-sport player Cheung Ho-fai, 23, faced a charge of conspiracy to riot, while construction worker Shum Hiu-lun, 25, was charged with one count of riot, and a further of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, before Principal Magistrate Bina Chainrai.
Cheung was accused of rioting in an unspecified location with unknown people on October 1. Shum allegedly took part in a riot outside the Wan Chan Police Headquarters on June 26, and is accused of assaulting off-duty officer Cheung Kam-fuk that day.
Shum was granted a cash bail of HK$10,000, while Cheung paid HK$5,000. They were both ordered to observe a curfew and not to leave Hong Kong.
Shum will return to court on October 31. Cheung will return on November 29.

THREADS
Golden Horse Film Festival (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?46108-Golden-Horse-Film-Festival)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
10-07-2019, 09:36 AM
Launching this thread because I predict there will be more emoji news forthcoming. It's all about emojis nowadays. ;)


Taiwan flag emoji disappears from latest Apple iPhone keyboard (https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/10/05/taiwan-flag-emoji-disappears-latest-apple-iphone-keyboard/?fbclid=IwAR2aFEDlQlZdxnuJVLUwIai_h7cwu1NjEvb74wbo JAfpRic1PyMsLRoC8aU)
5 October 2019 12:22 Kris Cheng 3 min read

The Republic of China flag emoji has disappeared from Apple iPhone’s keyboard for Hong Kong and Macau users. The change happened for users who updated their phones to the latest operating system.

Updating iPhones to iOS 13.1.1 or above caused the flag emoji to disappear from the emoji keyboard. The flag, commonly used by users to denote Taiwan, can still be displayed by typing “Taiwan” in English, and choosing the flag in prediction candidates.

The change was spotted by Hong Kong online forum users recently. The iOS 13.1.1 update rolled out at the end of September in order to fix bugs.


王博源 Wang Boyuan

@thisboyuan
Apple’s region lock of ROC Taiwan flag ���� extended beyond CN devices to HK and Macau’s in the iOS/iPadOS 13.1.1 rollout. Interestingly, the new lock only affects the keyboard, and has no problem displaying and is easy to bypass by switching region. https://twitter.com/hirakujira/status/1179627685443751936 …

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EF8ST4vUYAA87YA?format=jpg&name=900x900
Hiraku
@hirakujira
iOS 13.1.1 之後,在香港、澳門的 Emoji 鍵盤不會出現中華民國國旗了 - https://ift.tt/2o0KUAo | Hiraku Dev

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An HKFP reporter using an iPhone with iOS 13.1.2 also observed the change. Previously, the Taiwan flag emoji was banned on iPhone in China.

According to an article on Hiraku, a blog about Apple devices, any device model with “CN” or “ZA” region – denoting China and Hong Kong – will not have access to the Taiwan emoji via the keyboard.

If users have a device from another region, but they set the region to Hong Kong or Macau, the Taiwan emoji will also disappear. The Hiraku article stated that, before the 2018 model iPhone XS was released, the region code of Hong Kong was “ZP,” but it was changed to “ZA” after the iPhone XS was released.

https://www.hongkongfp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/photo6105186004722887026.jpg
The Taiwan flag emoji can still be typed. Photo: HKFP.

“This means that all Hong Kong devices since iPhone XS / XR with iOS 13.1.1 or above [do not] show Taiwanese (ROC) flag in Emoji keyboard any more, and there’s no workaround to pass this restriction,” the article said.

“On the other hand, devices in other regions can add this restriction with software settings. If you want to try, just change your iOS 13.1.1+ device region to Hong Kong, and make sure that the interface language is not set to ‘Traditional Chinese (Taiwan),’ and then you can [find] that the Taiwanese flag is missing…”

Last year, HKFP reported that the names of some Chinese state leaders and activists were deemed “inappropriate words” and censored shoppers hoping to engrave their iPad, iPod Touch or Apple Pencil with a custom message.

Taiwan has been ruled by the Republic of China government since 1945 after Japan – which occupied the island for 50 years – was defeated in the Second World War. The People’s Republic of China claims that Taiwan is one of its provinces and does not recognise it as an independent country.

Live map banned

Meanwhile, an app showing the location of Hong Kong police deployments has been barred from the Apple app store.


HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖
@hkmaplive
"Your app contains content - or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity - that is not legal ... Specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement."@Apple assume our user are lawbreakers and therefore evading law enforcement, which is clearly not the case.

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It was banned as Apple said the app contained content that “facilitates, enables and encourages” illegal activities, the app’s developer said on Twitter.

“To make it clear, I still believe this is more a bureaucratic f up than censorship,” the developer said. “Everything can be used for illegal purpose [in] the wrong hand[s]. Our App is for info, and we do not encourage illegal activity.”

The app is still available on Google Play store. Its website version is also available.

THREADS
Emojis (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71534-Emojis)
Is everything ok in Taiwan? (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?11394-Is-everything-ok-in-Taiwan)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
10-08-2019, 07:56 AM
Hong Kong Protests Put N.B.A. on Edge in China (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/sports/basketball/nba-china-hong-kong.html)
A tweet from the Houston Rockets general manager prompted a backlash in China, making things uncomfortable for a league used to its players and representatives speaking out on politics.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/10/07/world/07china-nba-1/merlin_162305754_071aaeec-ae7e-4373-af4c-ad083d8b07e1-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp
The Houston Rockets and the New Orleans Pelicans during a preseason game in Shanghai in 2016.CreditCreditVisual China Group, via Getty Images

By Daniel Victor
Published Oct. 7, 2019
Updated Oct. 8, 2019, 6:07 a.m. ET

HONG KONG — The N.B.A. superstar LeBron James has routinely insulted President Trump. Two of the league’s most successful coaches, Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich, have repeatedly slammed American lawmakers for inaction on gun legislation. And other basketball stars regularly speak out on social and political issues — police shootings, elections and racism — without fear of retribution from the league.

But this weekend, a Houston Rockets executive unwittingly exposed an issue that may have been too much for the National Basketball Association: support for protesters in Hong Kong, which infuriated China.

“Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” said a post on Twitter by Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Rockets. It was quickly deleted.

But the damage was done, and the N.B.A. quickly moved to smooth things over in a lucrative market that generates millions of dollars in revenue. The league said it was “regrettable” that many Chinese fans were offended by the comment.

On Tuesday, CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, said it would suspend broadcasts of the league’s preseason games played in China. Some initial Chinese reports of the broadcaster’s statement, which left room for uncertainty, indicated that the ban covered all preseason games.

Sponsors in China paused their deals with the Rockets, and the country’s main broadcaster said it would remove the team’s games from its schedule. Two exhibition games scheduled for a low-level team affiliated with the Rockets were also canceled.

The issue is familiar to Hollywood studios, major companies and individual athletes chasing business in a country with 1.4 billion people, and the N.B.A.’s reaction reflects a corporate sensitivity toward China’s low tolerance for criticism of its political system.

The league’s statement, in turn, inflamed supporters of the Hong Kong protests and many fans in the United States, where the protesters are generally seen as battling a repressive government. Democratic and Republican politicians found agreement in calling the league gutless, accusing it of prioritizing money over human rights.


Josh Hawley

@HawleyMO
Let’s make this real simple. @NBA should apologize for groveling to Chinese Communist Party and cancel all exhibition games in China until the situation in Hong Kong is resolved. Peacefully. With the rights of Hong Kong’s people protected. https://twitter.com/esaagar/status/1181293413091676161 …

Saagar Enjeti

@esaagar
NEW: @HawleyMO writes in a letter to @NBA Commissioner Adam Silver:

"You may not think of your League as an American undertaking, but whatever you think, what you say and do represents America to the world"

Calls for end to all exhibition games in China

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGTMGB0VUAUDADc?format=jpg&name=small
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Beto O'Rourke

@BetoORourke
The only thing the NBA should be apologizing for is their blatant prioritization of profits over human rights. What an embarrassment. https://twitter.com/sopandeb/status/1181006820372025344?s=21 …

Sopan Deb

@SopanDeb
NEW: the NBA has released a statement on Daryl Morey:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGPHcIkWkAAgfE5?format=jpg&name=900x900
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Morey’s original tweet, which he later apologized for in a two-part post, was defended by Senator Ted Cruz, who disagreed with the league’s decision to back away from the comments.


Ted Cruz

@tedcruz
As a lifelong @HoustonRockets fan, I was proud to see @dmorey call out the Chinese Communist Party’s repressive treatment of protestors in Hong Kong.

Now, in pursuit of big $$, the @nba is shamefully retreating. https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/1181006820372025344 …


Sopan Deb

@SopanDeb
NEW: the NBA has released a statement on Daryl Morey:

View image on Twitter
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GeneChing
10-08-2019, 07:56 AM
Speaking ahead of a scheduled preseason game between the Rockets and Toronto Raptors in Japan, the N.B.A.’s commissioner, Adam Silver, acknowledged the fallout but said the league supported Morey’s right to free expression.

“There is no doubt, the economic impact is already clear,” Silver told Kyodo News. “There have already been fairly dramatic consequences from that tweet, and I have read some of the media suggesting that we are not supporting Daryl Morey, but in fact we have.”

On Tuesday, Silver tried again to limit the impact, saying that the league’s initial statement had left people “angered, confused or unclear on who we are or what the N.B.A. stands for.”
“It is inevitable that people around the world — including from America and China — will have different viewpoints over different issues,” he said in a new statement. “It is not the role of the N.B.A. to adjudicate those differences.”

He continued: “However, the N.B.A. will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues. We simply could not operate that way.”

James and the Los Angeles Lakers play two games in China this week against the Brooklyn Nets, a team owned by Joseph Tsai, the billionaire co-founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Tsai said in a statement late Sunday that Hong Kong was a “third-rail issue” in China, calling the efforts by protesters a “separatist movement.” (Most protesters deny they are interested in independence, but the Chinese state media has at times depicted them that way.)


Sopan Deb

@SopanDeb
NEW: The new owner of the Nets, Joe Tsai, has issued an open letter about the Morey situation: http://bit.ly/2nmCeUz

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGPx65oXUAAiBJ1?format=jpg&name=360x360https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGPx7veXUAAR5XG?format=jpg&name=smallhttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGPx8kMXkAgU0So?format=jpg&name=360x360
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Tilman Fertitta, the owner of the Rockets and Morey’s boss, publicly rebuked Morey but said later that the general manager’s job was not in danger.


Tilman Fertitta

@TilmanJFertitta
Listen....@dmorey does NOT speak for the @HoustonRockets. Our presence in Tokyo is all about the promotion of the @NBA internationally and we are NOT a political organization. @espn https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/1180312072027947008 …

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The N.B.A. is far from the first company to find itself forced to choose sides on geopolitical issues it never intended to be involved in, and to ultimately bow to China’s economic might.

China is an attractive — and necessary — lure for nearly all global institutions, with an economy that while slowing, continues to grow at a pace that is the envy of many countries. Any threat to an ability to do business in China would have dire financial consequences for many multinational corporations.

As a result, many companies have apologized or made concessions after angering China. In many cases, the companies found themselves scrambling to respond to comments or Twitter posts made by executives or other employees that generate unwanted attention on social networks.

“Obviously corporations and others perceive that their business interests are at risk, so they are apologizing,” said Shanthi Kalathil, the senior director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. “But where I would perceive the risks is at the level of reputation. These are well-respected global brands and there is reputational cost to simply going along with the party line.”

In an effort to avoid losing access to Chinese airspace, Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flagship airline, fired employees who wrote posts on social media in support of the protests. In August, Rupert Hogg, the airline’s chief executive, resigned.

Nike, which endorses James, pulled some shoes after a fashion designer’s support for the Hong Kong protests sparked a social media backlash against the brand.

The stakes are particularly high for the N.B.A. in China.

Tencent Holdings, a Chinese tech conglomerate, reported that 490 million people watched N.B.A. programming on its platforms last year, including 21 million fans who watched Game 6 of the 2019 N.B.A. finals. By comparison, Nielsen measured 18.3 million viewers for the game on the American network ABC.

The league recently announced a five-year extension of its partnership with Tencent to stream its games in China for a reported $1.5 billion.

“This is a massive indicator for the perceived value and enormous potential of the China market,” Mailman, a sports digital marketing agency, wrote in a recent report.

The N.B.A. has been similarly successful on Chinese social media. The league has 41.8 million followers on Weibo, a popular Chinese social network, compared with 38.6 million followers on Facebook and 28.4 million on Twitter.

The involvement of the Rockets is particularly troublesome for the N.B.A., given the franchise’s longtime status as among the most popular team in China. Yao Ming, considered the crown jewel of Chinese basketball, played for the Rockets from 2002 to 2011.

Yao is now the president of the Chinese Basketball Association, which suspended its relationship with the Rockets. It also canceled two NBA G League games scheduled for this month between affiliates of the Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks, said a person with knowledge of the decision who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Houston was the second-most-popular team in China behind the Golden State Warriors last year, according to Mailman. The team had 7.3 million followers on Weibo, compared with 2.9 million followers on Twitter.

James Harden, a Rockets guard and one of the N.B.A.’s biggest stars, directly apologized to Chinese fans on Monday.

“We apologize. We love China, we love playing there,” he told reporters in Tokyo, where the Rockets were preparing for their preseason game.

“We go there once or twice a year. They show us the most support and love. We appreciate them as a fan base, and we love everything they’re about, and we appreciate the support that they give us,” said Harden, who three years ago spoke out about the shootings of two black men by police.

Echoing China’s worldview, especially as it relates to its sovereignty over disputed territories, is considered a cost of doing business there, for both entertainers and companies.

Gap was forced to apologize in 2017 after selling a shirt that featured a map of China that did not include Taiwan, a self-governing island off its southern coast. The Marriott International hotel chain apologized in January 2018 for listing Tibet, a region of western China, and Taiwan as countries in a customer survey.

In February 2018, the German automaker Daimler apologized for using a quotation from the Dalai Lama, who is widely viewed as a Tibetan separatist in China, in a social media post from its Mercedes-Benz brand.

In March 2018, China demanded that international airlines refer to Taiwan as part of China in their online booking systems, a request mocked by the White House as “Orwellian nonsense” but eventually obeyed by all major carriers.

Movie studios frequently find themselves at odds with state censors in a country where notions of free expression do not apply but billions of dollars ride on international success.

Disney, which has been more successful at navigating these waters than any other American entertainment company, is now in the position of promoting the live-action adaptation of “Mulan” after Crystal Yifei Liu, its Chinese-American star, prompted dueling backlash in the United States and China by supporting a crackdown on protesters by Hong Kong police.

Disney, which had no comment, has inched forward in its positioning in China for decades, leading to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland in 2016 and spectacular results for films like the recent “Avengers: Endgame,” which took in $858 million in the United States and $614 million in China earlier this year. Last year, Chinese moviegoers bought an estimated $8.87 billion in movie tickets, up 9 percent from a year earlier, according to box office analysts.

For its part, the N.B.A. has weathered outrage in China before. Last year, J.J. Redick, then of the Philadelphia 76ers, recorded a video for the Chinese New Year in which he appeared to use a racial slur for Chinese people, which he later said was an unintentional verbal slip. He apologized, but was roundly booed when he touched the ball during preseason games in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Claire Fu, Sopan Deb, Julie Creswell and Brooks Barnes contributed reporting.


Correction: Oct. 8, 2019
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described a Twitter post by Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets. Mr. Morey did not say, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong;” instead, he shared an image that read, “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”

Daniel Victor is a Hong Kong-based reporter, covering a wide variety of stories with a focus on breaking news. He joined The Times in 2012 from ProPublica. @bydanielvictor

Sometimes, I find a really funny thread to copy something to - like this DAngerous Riot Breaks out at Basketball game... (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?35283-DAngerous-Riot-Breaks-out-at-Basketball-game) one that I'm copying this HK Protests news (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests) item to...

GeneChing
10-09-2019, 11:46 AM
...kill Kenny. :p

Honestly, I'm amazed that South Park even played in PRC to begin with...:confused:


OCTOBER 8, 2019 / 3:14 AM / UPDATED A DAY AGO
'South Park' creators offer mocking 'apology' to China over episode (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-television-south-park-china/south-park-creators-offer-mocking-apology-to-china-over-episode-idUSKBN1WN10B?utm_source=applenews)
3 MIN READ

LOS ANGELES/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The creators of satirical animated series “South Park” issued a mocking “apology” to China after media reports that episodes of the show were no longer available on some Chinese websites.

The “Band in China” episode released on Oct. 2 critiqued China’s policies on free speech as well as the efforts of Hollywood to shape its movie and television content in recent years to avoid angering censors in the vast Chinese market.

“Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom,” Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the irreverent Comedy Central show, wrote in a Twitter post titled “Official apology to China.”

“Long live the Great Communist Party of China! May this autumn’s sorghum harvest be bountiful! We good now China?,” Parker and Stone added.

A Reuters search online showed that iQiyi and Youku Tudou, two Chinese video streaming sites, both listed episodes of South Park available to view, but the actual episodes did not play when requested.

Searching for the show’s name on Baidu Tieba, a popular online forum, and on Douban, a popular movie ratings site, did not yield any results.

Spokespersons for Youku Tudou, iQiyi and Baidu did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, which oversees internet governance, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The South Park statement followed an uproar in China and the United States over a weekend tweet, which was quickly withdrawn, by the general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team that backed democracy protests in Hong Kong.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has built a large following and burgeoning business in China.

Slideshow (3 Images)
The long-running “South Park” series is one of cable channel Comedy Central’s biggest and most controversial hits, built around the misadventures of four foul-mouthed fourth graders.

The episode at the center of the latest dispute saw character Randy Marsh being arrested after trying to smuggle marijuana into China.

In jail, he meets two Chinese prisoners called Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, and is subjected to slave labor and re-education.

China has in the past proved sensitive about the British children’s characters because Pooh is sometimes used as a nickname on social media for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Additial reporting by Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Neil Fullick

THREADS
Censorship (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?39839-Censorship)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
10-09-2019, 04:05 PM
Philadelphia 76ers fans kicked out of game for carrying 'Free Hong Kong' signs (https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2019_41/3044991/191009-sixers-al-1433_f03e2a797de989565f6c459b5558a807.fit-1240w.jpg)
The protest came days after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for demonstrators in Hong Kong, which drew an instant rebuke from the league and partners in China.

https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2019_41/3044991/191009-sixers-al-1433_f03e2a797de989565f6c459b5558a807.fit-1240w.jpg
Philadelphia 76ers' Ben Simmons (25) drives to the net as Guangzhou Loong-Lions' Yongpeng Zhang defends during the first half of an NBA exhibition basketball game on Oct. 8, 2019, in Philadelphia.Matt Rourke / AP
Oct. 9, 2019, 1:27 PM PDT
By David K. Li

Two basketball fans were kicked out of a Philadelphia 76ers game Tuesday night because they carried small, handmade signs supporting anti-government demonstrators in Hong Kong.

Sam Wachs, 33, a podcast producer from Philadelphia, and his wife were at the Sixers exhibition game, sitting three rows behind the visitors bench — where the Guangzhou Loong-Lions, of the Chinese Basketball Association, were stationed at the Wells Fargo Center.

Each carried signs, "Free Hong Kong" and "Free HK," before they were booted by arena security in the second quarter.



Sam Wachs
@gogowachs
· 23h
At the @Sixers game & security took away my pro Hong Kong signage


Sam Wachs (https://twitter.com/gogowachs/status/1181765079697633281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1181765079697633281&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fus-news%2Fphiladelphia-76ers-fans-kicked-out-game-carrying-free-hong-kong-n1064386)
@gogowachs
Here are the controversial signs. I know, earth shattering right? Obvious why the NBA would have a problem with this. Thanks to @Christie_Ileto for sending me this photo:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGZ5ExPW4AAd_gG?format=jpg&name=small
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The Wachs' protest came four days after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for the demonstrators, drawing an instant rebuke from the league and its business partners in the People's Republic of China.

Residents of the semiautonomous region have been protesting for more than four months now, calling for reforms.

"The NBA does not want deal with this," Wachs told NBC News on Wednesday. "It’s all about money. They want their sweet, sweet Chinese money. And they say they're for human rights and equality but that's only up to point. And that point is the Chinese market."

Wells Fargo Center managers said their security officers had the right to eject Wachs and his wife over their support of Hong Kong protesters.

"After three separate warnings, the two individuals were escorted out of the arena without incident," according to the arena statement to NBC Philadelphia. "The security team employed respectful and standard operating procedures."

Wachs said the first warning came as he and his wife sat silently, holding up their signs, when security first approached them.

"'You can’t have these signs, nothing political,'" Wachs said, quoting a security guard. "I said 'Why' and he said 'Hey don't give me a hard time, I'm just doing my job.'"

The guard confiscated the "Free Hong Kong sign" but allowed them to keep their "Free HK" poster. Wachs said he told the guard "HK" stood for Harry Kalas, the late longtime Philadelphia Phillies baseball broadcaster.

That "HK" sign was confiscated a few minutes later. And then Wachs stood up and started chanting "Free Hong Kong, free Hong Kong," leading to his third strike and ejection from the building.

Wachs, who lived in Hong Kong between 2009 and 2011, called for fans in other NBA cities to pull similar protests and force the issue.

"I hope it does not go away, I would love people in other cities to do something like this," he said.



David K. Li
David K. Li is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.


THREADS
DAngerous Riot Breaks out at Basketball game... (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?35283-DAngerous-Riot-Breaks-out-at-Basketball-game) HK Protests news (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
10-10-2019, 09:23 AM
China lashes out at Western businesses as it tries to cut support for Hong Kong protests (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/08/china-lashes-out-western-businesses-it-tries-cut-support-hong-kong-protests/?outputType=amp&fbclid=IwAR3zIY2V5rAv0_iFi1Q5dH9KiS7EwVz836MKtPlzV n0bK7OuGdfGK9Zarus)
Well-known brands including Tiffany and the NBA have felt China’s wrath

https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/KcKeJ6RNR4P4DE9iLrbTbj4Mgt0=/767x0/smart/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/L7LOQDHKBYI6TIZJON4PX6Q3MM.jpg
Companies that do business with China walk a fine line to stay aligned with U.S. values such as freedom of speech and democracy while avoiding offending China, where they stand to make billions of dollars. (Andy Wong/AP)

By Jeanne Whalen, Ben Golliver and Steven Zeitchik
October 8, 2019 at 7:16 PM EDT

It’s not just professional basketball drawing China’s wrath.

As China sanctioned the National Basketball Association this week for a pro-Hong Kong message delivered by one of its team leaders, other American companies scrambled to avoid fallout of their own.

Tiffany & Co., which relies on the Chinese market for double-digit revenue growth, scrapped a global advertising image that some in China perceived as supporting Hong Kong protesters, even though the company said the image was taken weeks before the demonstrations began.

Blizzard Entertainment, the Irvine, Calif.-based video-game giant, suspended a professional player for one year for reportedly shouting “Liberate Hong Kong!” during an interview.

China has long been sensitive about its image at home, controlling what it allows Western businesses and its own citizens to say or do there. Now, however, with Hong Kong in its fourth month of street protests, China is increasingly imposing the same strictures on what’s said about it beyond its borders.

“This is core to Xi Jinping’s narrative about recapturing China’s greatness,” said Elizabeth Economy, director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, referring to the Chinese president.

“Whenever they see evidence that the international community is supporting Hong Kong or Taiwan as independent entities, they try to find ways to bring dissenting voices in line,” she said. “They don’t tolerate dissent on this topic inside China, and increasingly they are not tolerating dissent on these issues outside China.”

The tension underscores how reliant vast sectors of the U.S. economy are on China, not just on the nation’s consumers but on the blessing of Beijing’s leaders. And it raises questions not just about how American companies will shape their products and services to cater to the Chinese market, but also about how flexible they will be on traditional American values of free speech and democracy.

From hospitality and Hollywood to technology, American companies have increasingly been bending to accommodate China in recent years.

“I think if you charted it out, there’s been a dramatic increase in these incidents in the last five years. That’s all about the Chinese Communist Party regime throwing its weight around and feeling it now has the leverage and confidence about using the power of its market to apply pressure,” said Aaron Friedberg, a China expert at Princeton University who served as an adviser to former vice president Richard B. Cheney.

“They’ve done this in the past for other reasons, to extract technology from American companies,” he said. “Now they’re using it for bigger, more visible political issues.”

TikTok’s Beijing roots fuel censorship suspicion as it builds a huge U.S. audience

Consumer companies with high visibility among American and Chinese citizens have faced particular wrath from China in the aftermath of perceived slights.

Tiffany’s troubles stemmed from an ad showing a female model holding her hand over her right eye. Some in China saw it as a sympathetic reference to a Hong Kong protester who was shot in the eye in August.

The ad ran in print and online inside and outside China. Tiffany denied it had any relation to the Hong Kong protests, which began in June and intensified over the summer.

“This campaign image, which was photographed in May 2019, was in no way intended to be a political statement of any kind. We regret that it may be perceived as such, and in turn have removed the image from our digital and social media channels,” the company said in an emailed statement.

On a website for its Hearthstone game, Blizzard on Tuesday said it had ejected a player nicknamed “Blitzchung” from a tournament for violating competition rules in a way that brought “disrepute” to the player, offended the public or damaged Blizzard’s image. The company didn’t respond to a request for further comment.

Other companies have gotten into trouble for perceived slights relating to Taiwan or Tibet. Last year, Marriott International apologized to the Chinese government after listing Taiwan, Tibet, Macau and Hong Kong — all territories China claims — as stand-alone countries on an email questionnaire it sent to members of its rewards program.

Huawei executive becomes unlikely social media star as Chinese rally to tech giant’s defense

Mercedes-Benz issued an apology after offending Chinese consumers with an ad quoting the Dalai Lama. Outside China, the 82-year-old spiritual leader is among the world’s most popular figures, known for his teachings on peace and compassion, as well as for supporting an autonomous Tibet. The Chinese Communist Party, however, considers him a political agitator.

The NBA’s trouble began after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey sparked a furious backlash Friday when he tweeted: “Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”

After his social media account was inundated with criticism, Morey deleted his tweet and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta unsuccessfully tried to distance his organization from the sentiment. As Chinese media partners and sponsors quickly cut ties with the Rockets, the NBA issued a statement Sunday expressing “great respect for the history and culture of China” but also defending Morey’s rights to free expression. The NBA did not discipline Morey.

continued next post

GeneChing
10-10-2019, 09:23 AM
In response, CCTV, the Chinese state television network, canceled its broadcasts of preseason games in China this week, and Chinese retailers like Alibaba removed NBA merchandise from websites.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued a statement Tuesday reaffirming his defense of Morey’s freedom of expression, saying that the NBA “could not operate” if it attempted to regulate what players, employees and owners said on political issues. Silver also stressed the league’s “great affinity” for China, and told reporters that he would attempt to repair relations during his visit to China this week.

But China watchers said rapping the knuckles of a popular sports league ensures that a wide swath of Americans get the message. That’s important to Beijing as it sees broad support for the Hong Kong protesters in the Western press and on social media, experts said.

China’s influence has grown alongside its market potential for Western companies.

The NBA’s global aspirations rely heavily on China, with Silver in June referring to the country and its population of 1.4 billion as an “enormous opportunity.” The NBA began hosting exhibition games in China in 2004 and officially opened a China office in 2008. Although China will not broadcast the games, the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets will play this week in Shanghai and Shenzhen, continuing a longstanding tradition of sending high-profile teams to China during the preseason.

Meanwhile, superstars such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have regularly made pilgrimages to promote their sneakers. Numerous NBA players, including former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, have signed promotional deals with Chinese sneaker companies rather than American brands. And NBA teams including the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors have designed and worn jerseys aimed specifically at the Chinese audience.

According to league figures, 640 million Chinese viewers consumed NBA content during the 2017-18 season, and the NBA’s most recent five-year extension with Chinese online entertainment giant Tencent was reportedly worth $1.5 billion. Tencent announced that 21 million people used its service to watch the decisive game of the 2019 NBA Finals — topping the television viewership number in the United States.

Silver told reporters this week in Japan that the league had already felt “fairly dramatic consequences” from Morey’s tweet. A Chinese boycott of the NBA would do significant damage to the league.

Some industries are increasingly anticipating Chinese sensitivities and working to avoid them.

To win China’s coveted film distribution slots, Hollywood has tried to avoid content that authorities find morally or politically offensive. In some cases, this has extended to outright changes after a movie has been shot. The producers behind the reboot of “Red Dawn” earlier this decade altered the film in post-production so the villains were from North Korea instead of China.

In other instances, Hollywood has included references to Chinese genius, as in the disaster movie “2012,” in which Chinese scientists rescued civilization.

Marvel shot some of “Iron Man 3” in the country with the help of Chinese investment. New scenes were added specifically for the Chinese release. Hollywood studios often partly finance their films with Chinese investors, deepening the relationship.

China is the world’s second-largest market by box office revenue, and Hollywood has often reaped the benefits. Studio movies took in more than $2 billion in the country last year. Officially, though, only some 38 Hollywood films are allowed to play in Chinese theaters, according to the rules of the government-run China Film Group. This causes a scramble among studios to please authorities.

The U.S.-China trade war has lent these efforts a fraught quality; many big-budget films have been unable to secure slots since the conflict intensified. Disney remains the exception. The company — which has partnered with the Shanghai government on a theme park there — is still seeing many of its offerings available in the country.

For now much of Hollywood seems content to keep its head down and steer clear of the controversy that has gripped the NBA — so much so that John Penotti, the Los Angeles-based producer of “Crazy Rich Asians,” who conducts business throughout Asia, said entertainment officials on both sides of the Pacific are avoiding the subject of the Morey backlash.

“I haven’t heard a single person bring it up in conversation in the past few days,” he said. “It’s kind of amazing.”



Jeanne Whalen
Jeanne Whalen is a reporter covering business around the world. She previously reported for the Wall Street Journal from New York, London and Moscow.

Ben Golliver
Ben Golliver joined The Washington Post as the National NBA Writer in 2018. Previously, he was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated covering the NBA. An Oregon native, he lives and works in Los Angeles.
k
Steven Zeitchik
Steven Zeitchik covers the business of entertainment for The Washington Post, examining the industry's trends, challenges, issues and ideas. Before joining The Post, he covered entertainment for the Los Angeles Times for eight years. He also did reporting tours for The Times in places including Ukraine, Egypt, Germany and the Bill Cosby trial.

Righteous democracy versus all that money.

GeneChing
10-14-2019, 08:03 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQYvsaEmCio

GeneChing
10-16-2019, 08:08 AM
Who would've imagined that Basketball would become such an issue with Hong Kong?



LeBron James no longer King James for Hong Kong protesters (https://news.yahoo.com/lebron-james-no-longer-king-135300974.html)
Associated Press
JOHN LEICESTER
,Associated Press•October 15, 2019

HONG KONG (AP) — When the ball smashed into a photo of LeBron James' face stuck above the hoop and dropped into the basket, the Hong Kong protesters cheered.

They also trampled on jerseys bearing his name and gathered in a semicircle to watch one burn.

James' standing among basketball fans in Hong Kong took a hit because of comments the NBA star made about free speech. Fans gathered on courts amid Hong Kong's high-rise buildings Tuesday to vent their anger.

The player for the Los Angeles Lakers touched a nerve among protesters for suggesting that free speech can have negative consequences. They have been protesting for months in defense of the same freedom that James said can carry "a lot of negative."

The protesters chanted support for Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, something of a hero among demonstrators in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory for having tweeted on Oct. 4 in support of their struggle, infuriating authorities in China.

What the crowd of approximately 200 people chanted about James wasn't printable.

"People are angry," said James Lo, a web designer who runs a Hong Kong basketball fan page on Facebook. He said he's already received a video from a protester that showed him burning a No. 23 jersey bearing James' name.

He expects more, given the backlash from protesters who've been regularly hitting the streets of Hong Kong and battling police because of concerns that the international business hub is slowly losing its freedoms, which are unique in China.

"Students, they come out like every weekend. They've got tear gassed and then they got gun-shot, like every weekend. Police beating students and then innocent people, like every day. And then he (James) just comes up with something (like) that. We just can't accept that."

James made his comments in response to a question about whether Morey should be punished for his tweet that reverberated in China and had consequences for the NBA.

"Yes, we do have freedom of speech," James said. "But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you're not thinking about others, when you only think about yourself."

He added: "So many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually. So just be careful what we tweet and what we say and what we do. Even though yes, we do have freedom of speech, it can be a lot of negative that comes with it."

NBA players weren't made available before or after games in China, which CCTV didn't broadcast, and several companies and state-run offices reportedly severed their ties with the NBA over Morey's tweet and the league's response to it.

Protesters said James' comments smacked of a double-standard, because he's used his clout as a sports headliner to press for social causes in the United States.

"Please remember, all NBA players, what you said before: 'Black lives matter.' Hong Kong lives also matter!" one of the protesters, 36-year-old office worker William Mok, said in addressing the applauding crowd.

Others said LeBron's comments made it seem that he's more worried about money than people.

"James was trying, you know, to take a side, on the China side, which is like ridiculous," said Aaron Lee, a 36-year-old marketing director. "He was being honest, financially. Financial is money. Simple as that. LeBron James stands for money. Period."




THREADS
DAngerous Riot Breaks out at Basketball game... (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?35283-DAngerous-Riot-Breaks-out-at-Basketball-game)
HK Protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
10-16-2019, 03:50 PM
Hollywood's New Self-Censorship Mess in China (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/south-park-lebron-hollywood-new-censorship-mess-1248149)
8:37 AM PDT 10/16/2019 by Tatiana Siegel

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2019/10/0.jpg

With pro-democracy marches gaining steam in Hong Kong and billions at stake in the country’s film market, studios may look to speak out just enough that it "doesn’t embarrass you so much that people say you’re a toady or kowtowing."
Two days after South Park was banned in China, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone served up Hollywood’s most defiant rebuke of the communist government in decades with their Oct. 9 episode. When the Comedy Central series’ geologist turned pot dealer Randy Marsh — voiced by Parker — shouted, “**** the Chinese government!” it marked the most incendiary words from an actor since Richard Gere dubbed China’s occupation of Tibet “horrendous” at the 1993 Oscars.

While South Park’s “Shots!!!” episode provided fodder for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters, who are battling mainland backed police forces, don’t expect many other high-profile entertainment figures to follow suit. When it comes to China and its vast moneymaking potential, the prevailing wisdom is: Get woke, go broke. The practice of self-censorship is common now, say top producers. “With China, nothing is transparent,” a producer who has released films there tells The Hollywood Reporter. “No one knows what the ground rules are. And that’s by design. It leaves everyone on edge.”

From Mulan actress Crystal Liu to the Lakers’ LeBron James, most top stars are taking no chances and are lining up to either side with the Chinese regime or denounce any criticism of its authoritarian tactics. Similarly, companies like ESPN (which used a controversial map on SportsCenter that indicated the self ruled island of Taiwan was part of China) and Apple (which removed from its online stores the so-called Hong Kong protest app and quietly dropped the Gere series *******s, despite picking it up straight to series late last year) appear to be toeing the party line.

All the while, observers say an overt self-censorship has begun to creep into the entertainment industry. Inside Hollywood, the film industry faces the greatest risk in rocking the China boat.

Consider that American movies earned $3.2 billion in China in 2018, with Disney accounting for nearly a quarter of that with $700 million. This year, the studio’s Avengers: Endgame pulled in $614 million from China alone. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Disney stayed silent in the wake of Liu posting on social media platform Weibo in August: “I support Hong Kong’s police, you can beat me up now,” adding the hashtag #IAlsoSupportTheHongKong Police.

“Disney has certainly enjoyed major success in China, but I’d hesitate to say that any single studio has the luxury of provoking China because it’s a very important relationship for the industry at large,” says Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice Media. “Virtually all of the majors have appealed to Chinese audiences with blockbuster tentpole releases and occasionally in a bigger way than some films played with domestic moviegoers.”

James’ courtship of Chinese consumers extends well beyond basketball and sneakers and into film thanks to his upcoming Warner Bros. tentpole Space Jam 2 (dated for July 16, 2021). But James drew outrage when he blasted Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey for tweeting his support for Hong Kong protesters, calling him “misinformed” (Morey had deleted the tweet). After all, James has been outspoken about police brutality in the U.S. as well as about President Trump’s so-called Muslim travel ban (in China, more than 1 million Uighur Muslims are said to be held in internment camps).

Disney-owned ESPN drew further criticism when Deadspin on Oct. 8 reported on a leaked email written by news editor Chuck Salituro that discouraged any political discussion about China and Hong Kong with regard to the Morey story. (An ESPN source noted that the network had reporters and cameras in Shanghai and broadcast video of a Chinese worker ripping down an NBA logo as well as video of the Lakers arriving to little fanfare.)

“In entertainment, these people have to look at the bottom line,” says Stan Rosen, a USC professor who specializes in China’s entertainment industry. “You want to address [the human rights abuses] in a way that keeps the China market but doesn’t embarrass you so much that people say you’re a toady or kowtowing to China. That’s why you’re seeing a pushback against the NBA and Disney to a certain extent.”

Some of the official explanations offered by corporate giants for their Chinese-friendly moves have been criticized as murky. With *******s, sources say Apple bristled at the vigilante justice tone of the show. As for the app removal, the tech and soon-to-be content giant said that HKMap.Live, used by Hong Kong protesters, had endangered law enforcement and residents.

The stakes continue to grow. This year, China’s Tencent signed a five-year, $1.5 billion deal to continue as the NBA’s exclusive digital partner in China. In the case of South Park, China’s move to scrub every clip, episode and online discussion of the series won’t hit Viacom’s bottom line. But the parent company, soon to merge with CBS, will have to contend with any Chinese retaliation for its other companies like Paramount, which fuels the country’s pipeline with such product as the Mission: Impossible and Transformers films.

A company like Netflix has more freedom to antagonize China given that its platform isn’t available in the Middle Kingdom, thus it acquired such incendiary documentaries as 2017’s Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower. But it will face a major test of China’s patience with the upcoming Meryl Streep starrer The Laundromat, which depicts adherents of outlawed spiritual practice Falun Gong as victims of the government’s organ harvesting program. South Park and Laundromat notwithstanding, the industry likely will continue to tiptoe around China and any other lucrative hotspots that contribute to the bottom line of studios, networks and streamers.

“That’s the world in which we live now. You’re pandering to the people that have the money and the power,” says Joker producer Jason Cloth of the industry’s increased self-censorship. “There are many films that fail in North America but do gangbuster business in major foreign markets. So if you have to be cognizant of offending somebody in a major foreign market, you’re going to stay away from that subject matter.

This story first appeared in the Oct. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.


THREADS
DAngerous Riot Breaks out at Basketball game... (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?35283-DAngerous-Riot-Breaks-out-at-Basketball-game)
HK Protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)
Censorship (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?39839-Censorship)
Mulan Live-Action Disney project (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68640-Mulan-Live-Action-Disney-project)

GeneChing
11-21-2019, 03:27 PM
Hong Kong protests, cheap Chinese rivals: why Thai rice is in crisis (https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3037976/hong-kong-protests-cheap-chinese-rivals-why-thai-rice-crisis)
The country was once the world’s top exporter but it has been hit by a triple whammy of unrest in Hong Kong, a strong baht and tough competition
With rice front and centre in Thai politics, that’s bad news for Bangkok
Jitsiree Thongnoi
Published: 12:15pm, 17 Nov, 2019

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2019/11/15/902fb852-0602-11ea-a68f-66ebddf9f136_image_hires_192545.JPG?itok=Iwhw4QSy&v=1573817156
Rice at a market in Bangkok. Photo: AFP

Thai rice, once dominant on the world market, is now facing a triple whammy of a strong baht, tough competition from Asian neighbours and social unrest in Hong Kong that is weighing on demand.
The weaker sales overseas are part of a lacklustre performance by the country’s export sector amid an almost 10 per cent rise in the currency against the US dollar since the beginning of the year. Rice exports have been left exposed to stiff competition from large producers such as India, Vietnam and China.
Traders have also blamed continuing anti-government protests in Hong Kong, where about half of rice classified as premium produce comes from Thailand. The number of tourists visiting the Chinese city has plunged in recent months, from 5.1 million in July to 3.1 million in September.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/11/15/a3cdc75a-0602-11ea-a68f-66ebddf9f136_1320x770_192545.JPG
Thai farmers harvest rice in a field in Thailand’s southern Narathiwat province. Photo: AFP

Thailand exported 143,000 tonnes of rice to Hong Kong between January and September last year.
In the same period this year, the country managed only 127,000 tonnes – an 11 per cent drop.
“Thai premium white rice caters mainly to Hong Kong’s tourism sector,” said Charoen Laothamatas, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association (TREA). “But we have seen fewer shipments to Hong Kong in recent months as there is lower demand from restaurants and hotels.”
Thailand’s share of the city’s rice market peaked in 2016 at 64 per cent, but Laothamatas said it had since fallen to about 52 per cent.
However, a source at Chaitip, a major rice trading company that has been exporting to Hong Kong for more than a century, said the demonstrations had not been as damaging as recent price rises.
“The lower demand is not due to the unrest, it is because jasmine rice has become too expensive,” said the source.
“Droughts in many parts of Thailand this year have led to lower production of jasmine rice, which is why the price has shot up.”
Thai hom mali, or premium jasmine rice, is the country’s most recognisable rice product. Its slim and aromatic grain now costs about 1,200 baht (US$39) per tonne, while Vietnam’s white rice is priced at about half that figure.
The industry is crucial for Thailand because of the large number of Thais who depend on it. It supports as much as 30 per cent of the country’s 69-million population, according to Chookiat Ophaswongse, TREA’s special president.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/11/15/c0082dfc-0602-11ea-a68f-66ebddf9f136_1320x770_192545.JPG
Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra relied heavily on government subsidies to rice producers to win political support. Photo: AP

It has often been central to Thai politics, with the country’s farmers holding considerable political influence. Support from Thailand’s rural northeast was central to the electoral success of the Shinawatra family between 2001 and 2014. Former prime ministers Thaksin and his sister Yingluck relied heavily on government subsidies to rice producers, who in turn formed the backbone of their populist “red shirt” movement, which clashed repeatedly with anti-Thaksin, pro-monarchy “yellow shirts”. The conflict led to a military intervention in 2014 that only ended this year with elections in March.
Until 2012 Thailand was the world’s top rice exporter in terms of volume, but India took the top spot after it lifted a ban on non-basmati rice exports in 2011.
The loss of Thailand’s prized position came in the wake of a “rice-pledging scheme” embarked on by Yingluck’s administration. The government bought rice from farmers at inflated prices, which sent the price of the product upwards on the world market while forcing down demand. An 18-million-tonne stockpile was accumulated by the state, the last of which was shipped out to market only last year, when total exports for the year stood at 11 million tonnes.
The disastrous programme cost the government US$8 billion, according to figures from the military, which cited it as a major justification for its coup that deposed Yingluck in 2014. The prime minister was subsequently sentenced in absentia to five years in prison, and the military junta then worked hard to court Thai rice farmers before it relinquished power this year.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/11/15/8395cba4-0602-11ea-a68f-66ebddf9f136_1320x770_192545.JPG
Bags of rice stacked at a factory in Bangkok. Photo: AFP

Nipon Puapongsakorn, a researcher at the Thailand Development Research Institute Foundation, said the government subsidy programme was a short-sighted attempt to maintain Thailand’s agricultural productivity and competitiveness.
The state last month also began paying farmers across Thailand who have joined a rice price guarantee scheme.
The scheme ensures farmers are paid the difference when the price falls below a predetermined benchmark. It covers five types of rice, including those from the country’s hom mali paddy and glutinous rice paddy, which are badly affected by drought and floods.
The programme will run until October next year, but several other subsidies and financial support schemes for rice farmers and growers of other crops, including oil palm, cassava, rubber and corn, will be available for longer.
Sudarat Keyuraphan, a key member of Thailand’s Shinawatra-backed Pheu Thai political party, this week said the government subsidy would allow middlemen to reduce the price of rice further when they bought from farmers.
But Puapongsakorn said these measures were only short term. “The budget for subsidy programmes is much higher than that for rice research, which helps Thailand stay competitive in the long run,” he said.
The researcher added that India’s development of hybrid fragrant rice and Vietnam’s research into soft white rice for export had seen Thailand’s jasmine rice lose its charm among international buyers.
“Vietnam has lower costs and the country’s currency is under control,” he said. “The government needs to develop new types of rice that meet more of the market demand.”
Vietnam is now the third-biggest supplier in the world.
Meanwhile, China, with its estimated rice stockpile of more than 100 million tonnes, has begun releasing supply to African countries, further edging out Thai producers, according to Puapongsakorn. He said China’s exports rose more than 70 per cent last year due to demand from Africa, with Ivory Coast the country’s biggest customer.
Chinese white rice cost US$300 a tonne in July, while similar grains from Thailand were quoted at US$390, those from Vietnam at US$360, and India at US$370, according to Thai media.
Market share for Thailand in Africa stood at 51 per cent last year, TREA figures show.
Laothamatas said TREA had cut its export target for this year to less than 8.5 million tonnes, down from the usual figure of between 9 million and 9.5 million.
“There was no competition 20 years ago, but there is competition everywhere now, from India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Cambodia,” he said. “We need to develop new rice varieties and reduce our costs so that we can compete.”
Ophaswongse told Bloomberg that the competition was “killing us all”. “We don’t know what else we can do. We tried reducing costs, but the baht keeps making our rice more expensive,” he said.
“We can only sit and wait, and some might have to quit the business.” ■

THREADS
Rice (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69705-Rice)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
12-03-2019, 09:37 AM
ASIA NOVEMBER 28, 2019 6:14AM PT
DC Comics Comes Under Fire for Deleting Batman Poster That Sparked Chinese Backlash (https://variety.com/2019/film/news/dc-comics-warner-brothers-batman-1203419190/)
By REBECCA DAVIS

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/batman.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1
CREDIT: COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.

DC Comics has yanked a poster for a new Batman title from its social media accounts after the image drew criticism from Chinese commenters who said it appeared to support the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

The artwork depicts Batman throwing a Molotov cocktail against a backdrop of hot-pink words spelling out the new comic book’s tagline, “the future is young.” It was posted on DC Comics’ Twitter and Instagram accounts; both platforms are blocked in mainland China. The poster was meant to promote a forthcoming DC Black Label comic called “Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child,” due to hit shelves Dec. 11. DC Black Label is an imprint that seeks to appeal to an older-skewing readership through reprints and original limited series.

But the poster came under fire from Chinese internet users who contended that it contained coded messages in support of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. They said that the Molotov cocktail alluded to young Hong Kong protesters’ more violent tactics, that the “dark knight’s” choice of black attire referred to the black-clad Hong Kong protesters, and that the “golden child” of the book’s title was a veiled reference to the color yellow, which was taken up by previous pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong five years ago.

“The black clothes represent Hong Kong, the mask represents Hong Kong, the Molotov cocktail represents Hong Kong, what else here doesn’t represent Hong Kong???” wrote one angry Weibo commenter. Another chimed in: “No matter what the reason, to put an image like this up at a sensitive time like this means you have a death wish.”

DC Comics has since removed the poster from its social media. A Beijing-based representative of Warner Bros. declined to comment on the move.

China is a critical market for Warner Bros., which owns DC Entertainment and DC Comics, its publishing subsidiary. “Aquaman” broke Chinese box office records last December to take in a cumulative $292 million, while “Shazam!” made $43.8 million in April.

With the “Batman” image, the company joins the ranks of Western entities like the NBA and Disney that have been thrown onto the minefield of Chinese politics, with Chinese nationalists threatening to boycott on the one hand and others lobbing criticism for seeming to sacrifice freedom of speech for profit on the other.

On Weibo Thursday, angry comments and discussion of the poster mixed with promotion for the new trailer of Warner Bros. “Birds of Prey,” which will debut stateside next February and is helmed by Chinese-American Cathy Yan.

In the meantime, DC Comics’ Instagram has been flooded with criticism from people who support the Hong Kong protests or are angry that the company appears to have given in to Chinese political pressure.

“So now Batman loves money more than justice?” asked one commenter.

Another wrote: “Apparently China rules the world now. The future is young? No, the future is censorship.”

THREADS
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)
Batman-Fu (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?37491-Batman-Fu) we gotta lotta batman threads - i just picked this one randomly from the flock

GeneChing
12-26-2019, 07:43 AM
Hong Kong Protestors Boycott 'Ip Man 4' for Donnie Yen and Producer's Pro-Beijing Stance (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hong-kong-protesters-boycott-ip-man-4-1264759?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR18YOCswdAricknwiwxHmdep4fgwvkUBE3013YI3 k0r95pAmaFeEFJcxs8)
7:30 PM PST 12/23/2019 by Karen Chu

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2019/03/ipman4_2_1.jpg
Courtesy of Mandarin Motion Pictures
'Ip Man 4: The Finale'

Pro-democracy activists in the country are snubbing the martial arts film and discouraging others from seeing it in a variety of ways, including posting spoilers on social media.
Hong Kong protestors are boycotting Ip Man 4: The Finale to oppose the pro-Beijing stance of producer Raymond Wong and stars Donnie Yen and Danny Chan.

The fourth installment of the wildly successful Ip Man franchise, The Finale has broken box office records for an Asian film in China, Taiwan and Singapore. But in Hong Kong, the pic has grossed $660,000 since bowing Friday, finishing in second place behind Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

The boycott was organized by users of the Reddit-like LIHKG forum, one of the strategizing hubs of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement that began in June and has seen the city-state roiled by protests, running street battles and heavy-handed police action. Not only are protestors snubbing the movie, they are also actively discouraging others to see it by spoiling the storyline of the film on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in the “Ip Man Challenge.” Handy placards with major plot points in English or Chinese are being distributed alongside the hashtag "#boycottIpMan4."

Those boycotting the pic have cited the political leanings of Ip Man 4’s producer and actors as basis for their action. Wong has made his pro-China stance known especially in recent years, having organized a fund for an anti-Occupy Central organization in 2014 and vocally criticized the democratically voted best film win of the politically controversial Ten Years at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2015, calling the movie’s triumph at the ceremony “a huge mistake” and “a joke” despite it being the consensus of film industry members.

Yen, who played the eponymous character in the film series, shared the stage and sang with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a gala commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover in 2017 and issued a statement early this year reasserting “the determination of the motherland” after his fans in China was outraged by his attendance of an event hosted by German clothing brand Philipp Plein, which was allegedly involved in an incident deemed “insulting” to China a dozen years ago. Meanwhile, Chan, who plays Bruce Lee in the latest movie, has been outspokenly supportive of the Hong Kong police, posting on social media that police should not “go easy on any [protesters]” nor “let anyone of them go.”

The boycott was launched as a part of the grassroots “yellow economic circle” initiative that has started to gain traction in recent months, meant to endorse restaurants, shops and brands that support the movement and discourage spending at “blue” or pro-China establishments. Maps and guides of “yellow restaurants/shops” have been put together to encourage patronage of protest-minded Hong Kong citizens.

As one of the high-profile Hong Kong film releases this year, the China co-production Ip Man 4 was seen as a “blue” product and as epitomizing the China-leaning nature of Hong Kong-Chinese collaborations that cater to Chinese audience’s taste at the expense of the Hong Kong audience.

Veteran producer Wong inaugurated the Ip Man film franchise in 2008, making Yen a star and paving the way for his involvement in Hollywood productions, including Star Wars spinoff Rogue One and the upcoming Disney live-action remake of Mulan, which is itself the subject of a boycott after lead Crystal Liu voiced support for the Hong Kong police. The first Ip Man pic won best film and action choreography honors at the 2009 Hong Kong Film Awards. Known for its action sequences and Chinese nationalistic themes, where Ip Man always triumphs over foreign aggressors, the first three installments in the franchise have grossed over $228 million in total worldwide.

THREADS
Ip Man 4 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69747-Ip-Man-4)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
01-15-2020, 09:48 AM
Hong Kong / Politics
Hong Kong tourist arrivals drop 14 per cent year on year in 2019 amid anti-government protests (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3046132/lunar-new-year-fireworks-show-hong-kong-cancelled-over-anti)
Arrivals drop to 55.9 million in 2019 from 65.15 million the previous year, caused by 14.2 per cent decline in mainland Chinese tourists and fewer overnight visitors
Lunar New Year fireworks show also cancelled amid safety fears, though light show at Victoria Harbour and performances in West Kowloon Cultural District stay on schedule
SCMP
Denise Tsang and Alvin Lum
Published: 11:11am, 15 Jan, 2020

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2020/01/15/1ea4553a-373f-11ea-9933-e21be988cd59_image_hires_204152.jpg?itok=WdtLPJU5&v=1579092121
The traditional fireworks for Lunar New Year will not be repeated in 2020, in another blow to the city’s events programme. Photo: Martin Chan

The number of visitors to Hong Kong dropped by 14 per cent last year amid the ongoing protests roiling the city, tourism authorities revealed on Wednesday, as the government announced that the signature Lunar New Year fireworks show would be cancelled.
In 2019, arrival figures dropped to 55.9 million from 65.15 million the year before, dragged down by a 14.2 per cent decline in mainland Chinese, who accounted for the bulk of visitors to the city, the Tourism Board said.
Overnight visitors, who spend more, tumbled 18.8 per cent to 23.76 million.
The news came as Hong Kong continues to be gripped by civil unrest, sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill. The campaign has since morphed into a wider movement against the government and police, often ending in violent clashes between demonstrators and officers.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2020/01/15/3114db6c-3772-11ea-9933-e21be988cd59_1320x770_204152.JPG
The months-long anti-government protests have affected Hong Kong’s tourism sector badly. Photo: AFP

“Hong Kong’s tourism industry has faced exceptional challenges over the past year, but I have every confidence in our resilience and appeal as a world-class travel destination,” board chairman Pang Yiu-kai said. “We are working tirelessly on a major global promotion that will rebuild the city’s image as a destination and help our tourism industry recover.”


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v67S6X9mebw
Secrets of Hong Kong’s pyrotechnic power

He referred to the online platform called “Hong Kong is On”, which was launched early last month and provides more than 500 offers on flights, hotels, dining, retail and attractions.
Despite its efforts to promote the city, the government chose to axe the signature fireworks at Victoria Harbour, which were scheduled for the second day of Lunar New Year celebrations on January 26, blaming the “current situation”.
Tourism lawmaker Yiu Si-wing earlier said the government had safety concerns, as the protests engulfing the city showed little sign of abating.
“When it comes to safety issues, the decisions are understandable.”
The 20-minute-long fireworks have been at the heart of the Lunar New Year festival for years.
The last time they were cancelled was in 2018 in the wake of a bus accident in Tai Po that claimed 19 lives and injured at least 60.
Yiu said it was disappointing the fireworks had joined a growing list of axed events.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2020/01/15/b6cfcb42-3743-11ea-9933-e21be988cd59_1320x770_204152.JPG
Yiu Si-wing has confirmed the usual fireworks for Lunar New Year will not happen in 2020. Photo: SCMP
The months-long protests prompted the city’s tourist arrivals to contract 39.1 per cent in the second half of the last year, offsetting the 13.9 per cent growth in the first half. More than 40 jurisdictions have issued travel warnings or advisories against heading to Hong Kong.
Home affairs minister Lau Kong-wah attributed the government’s decision to drop the Lunar New Year fireworks to “the current situation”.
“After careful assessment, we decided to cancel the fireworks based on public safety concerns,” the minister said on Wednesday.
He added the light show at Victoria Harbour and performances in West Kowloon Cultural District would not be affected.
Convenor of the pro-democracy camp Tanya Chan Suk-chong said she could not understand the logic behind the cancellation, saying it had dealt another blow to Hong Kong’s reputation.
Referring to the strength of police firepower and proposals for more weaponry, she said: “I don’t understand why police have no confidence in ensuring public safety.”
Chan said the administration lacked the will to properly govern the city, and urged Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to respond to the anti-government protesters’ five key demands.
Pro-establishment lawmaker Lau Kwok-fun said the cancellation of the fireworks was disappointing but understandable.
“Over the past seven months, some large-scale events have been cancelled amid protests,” Lau Kwok-fun said.
“We hope the protests come to a complete stop. The government should also have more dialogue with the public.”
Aside from the fireworks blow, it was previously announced the Lunar New Year celebration would be watered down, with a three-day carnival replacing the parade through southern Kowloon.
The traditional New Year’s Eve fireworks, organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, were also cancelled due to safety concerns.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: fireworks axed in new blow to tourism

THREADS
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)
2020 Year of the Rat (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71622-2020-Year-of-the-Rat)

GeneChing
03-09-2020, 09:01 AM
Boycott Mulan, anyone? Brie Larson, The Rock face backlash after tweeting support for Disney film starring Crystal Liu Yifei (https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3074270/boycott-mulan-anyone-brie-larson-rock-face-backlash-after)
Hollywood stars’ social media posts looking forward to release of Disney’s Mulan, starring Crystal Liu Yifei, prompt acid response from Hong Kong internet users
That’s because in August, the Chinese-American actress voiced support for Hong Kong police – accused of acts of brutality – amid anti-government protests
SCMP Reporter
Published: 4:11pm, 9 Mar, 2020

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2020/03/09/54ad632a-61d2-11ea-8e9f-2d196083a37c_image_hires_161131.jpg?itok=MWOqwch2&v=1583741516
Workers man a promotional stand for the Disney move Mulan in an almost empty shopping mall in Beijing. The film’s release in China and Hong Kong has been postponed amid the coronavirus outbreak. Some Hong Kong film fans are unlikely to welcome its eventual release. Photo: AFP

Hollywood stars Brie Larson and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson became the latest focus of Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters after showing their enthusiastic support for the upcoming movie Mulan on social media.
Disney’s live-action remake of the popular 1998 animated film has been a lightning rod for many Hong Kong cinema-goers – and the target of a boycott campaign – since August 2019, when the film’s Chinese-American star Crystal Liu Yifei voiced support for the Hong Kong police, frequently accused of using excessive force and perpetrating brutality on citizens during the increasingly violent protests.
So when Larson, best known for her portrayal of the superhero Captain Marvel and her Oscar-winning role in Room , showed her passionate anticipation for Mulan on Friday, many Hong Kong internet users were swift to respond.
Under Larson’s tweet, “I cannot wait to see this movie. Every trailer has made me burst into tears.”, one of the most liked replies reads, “You know what makes Hong Kongers burst into tears every night? #HKPoliceBrutality, a #HumanRightsViolations that #Mulan lead actress #LiuYifei openly supports.”



Brie Larson

@brielarson
· Mar 5, 2020
I cannot wait to see this movie. Every trailer has made me burst into tears. https://twitter.com/thr/status/1235601603027259392 …


The Hollywood Reporter

@THR
Disney's #Mulan is targeting a heroic U.S. debut of $85 million or more, according to early tracking http://thr.cm/eIKycg0


#SOSHK Fight for Hong Kong
@Fight4HongKong
You know what makes Hong Kongers burst into tears every night?#HKPoliceBrutality, a #HumanRightsViolations that #Mulan lead actress #LiuYifei openly supports.#BoycottMulan

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12:26 AM - Mar 8, 2020
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Another reply reads: “Disney is bursting into tears tooCrying face #LiuYifei has single handedly ruined the box office. Her decision to disrespect #HumanRights and openly supporting #China backed #PoliceBrutality in HK … well … led to big time #BoycottMulan.”
Dwayne Johnson has been attracting similar feedback after he tweeted on Friday, “Been waiting for this one! Pumped to see it! Great job team @asadayaz”. Asad Ayaz is the president of marketing of the Walt Disney Studios.



Dwayne Johnson

@TheRock
· Mar 5, 2020
Been waiting for this one! Pumped to see it! Great job team @asadayaz
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mulan-tracking-heroic-85m-us-bow-1282674 …


https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1235600898572701698/8QgRpo2b?format=jpg&name=600x314
'Mulan' Tracking for Heroic $85M-Plus U.S. Opening
Disney's latest live-action remake of a classic animated movie opens in late March.

hollywoodreporter.com

Lai King
@laiking7394
Mulan actress Liu Yifei supports police brutality in Hong Konghttps://time.com/5653973/mulan-boycott-liu-yifei/ …

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1236131030081265669/f8kGpA9h?format=jpg&name=600x314
Here's What to Know About the Mulan Boycott
The actor playing Mulan in Disney's live-action reboot was met with a backlash after voicing support for the Hong Kong police

time.com
55
1:50 PM - Mar 5, 2020
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See Lai King's other Tweets
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong branch of Walt Disney Studios has announced that the film’s release in the city, slated for March 26, had been postponed until further notice. “We will announce a new release date soon, depending on the situation surrounding Covid-19. Please stay tuned,” read a statement from the studio, referring to the global coronavirus epidemic.
finance
Unlike those in mainland China, Hong Kong cinemas have remained open throughout the epidemic; in the coming two weeks, at least 10 new films are scheduled to open in the city. Asked for comment on the postponement of Mulan’s release in Hong Kong, Disney’s Hong Kong office declined to add to its earlier statement.

THREADS
Mulan (2020) (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68640-Mulan-(2020))
covid-19 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71666-Coronavirus-(COVID-19)-Wuhan-Pneumonia)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
05-25-2020, 07:32 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChWSaNw7bO0&feature=emb_logo

GeneChing
05-28-2020, 10:35 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRg8pz8N63I

GeneChing
07-01-2020, 06:33 AM
Why China's national security law could change Hong Kong forever (https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/asia/hong-kong-national-security-law-intl-hnk/index.html)
CNN Digital Expansion 2017. James Griffiths
Analysis by James Griffiths, CNN

Updated 4:18 AM ET, Wed July 1, 2020

Hong Kong (CNN)Forty days after the Chinese government said it would pass a national security law for Hong Kong, that legislation is now in force, with potentially massive ramifications for the city's political freedoms.

It was drafted almost entirely in secret, via closed-door meetings in Beijing that even Hong Kong's leader, Carrie Lam, was not a part of. Even hours after its reported passage by China's National People's Congress Tuesday, all but a tiny handful of Hong Kongers still had no idea what the law contained.
Promulgated in Hong Kong late Tuesday night, bypassing the local legislature, the law criminalizes "acts of secession, subversion of state power, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign or external forces to endanger national security."
While officials had earlier suggested penalties under the law would be softer than they are in China, the maximum sentence given for each of those four main crimes -- secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces -- is life imprisonment.
Right to a trial by jury can be suspended in certain circumstances, cases can be heard in secret, and foreign residents in Hong Kong can be expelled if suspected of violating the law, regardless of conviction. The national security law trumps any existing Hong Kong laws, should there be a conflict.
The law also extends Beijing's direct control over the city, establishing a new committee for national security that will include a Beijing-appointed adviser, and an "Office for Safeguarding National Security," directly under the Beijing government, which has broad powers to prosecute Hong Kongers deemed to have committed particularly egregious offenses.
Hong Kong and Beijing officials have argued the law is necessary and overdue, and promised it will only affect a tiny minority of Hong Kongers, while returning "stability and prosperity" to the city.
"The national security law is a crucial step to ending chaos and violence that has occurred over the past few months," Lam, the city's chief executive, said Wednesday. "It's a law that has been introduced to keep Hong Kong safe. The legislation is lawful, constitutional and reasonable."

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200701084133-hong-kong-0701-carrie-lam-exlarge-169.jpg
Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam (C) speaks to guests following a flag-raising ceremony to mark China's National Day celebrations early morning in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020.

Chilling effect

Before it was even in force, the law had begun to have a chilling effect, with multiple political parties disbanding, shops removing anti-government paraphenalia, and people deleting social media accounts and old posts.
That will likely accelerate, as the offenses under the law are broad and far-reaching, with no certainty of just what actions will be deemed illegal until prosecutions are brought.
For instance, the offense of inciting, assisting or abetting secession could cover most statements related to Hong Kong independence. At recent rallies, protesters could regularly be heard chanting this was "the only way out," and waving flags promoting separatism. The minimum punishment for such crimes is five-years in prison.
In a meeting Tuesday of senior police commanders, they were told that anyone seen waving a pro-independence flag or chanting in support of independence must be arrested, a police source told CNN. In addition, the source said anybody searched and found to have independence flags in their possession will be arrested.
Subversion and terrorism are also defined particularly widely, with the latter including "dangerous activities which seriously jeopardize public health, safety or security" for the purpose of "intimidating the public in order to pursue political agenda."
If applied broadly, this could reclassify anti-government protests like the city saw last year -- which often turned violent, with clashes between protesters and police, and vandalism of public property -- as terrorism, exactly how the protests were often described in Chinese state media.
In particular, the law criminalizes the "sabotage of means of transport (and) transport facilities," or the "serious interruption or sabotage of electronic control systems" relating to transport, which could be interpreted to include vandalizing subway stations or blocking roads and buses.
The maximum punishment for serious terrorist offenses is life in prison, with a minimum sentence of 10 years. Those found guilty of related, less serious offenses can face a minimum of five years in prison.
continued next post

GeneChing
07-01-2020, 06:34 AM
Foreigners threatened

While the greatest impact of the law will be on Hong Kongers, it also includes multiple provisions that could affect how foreign entities, in particular media and NGOs, operate in the city.
The law states that anyone who "directly or indirectly receives instructions, control, funding or other kinds of support from a foreign country or an institution, organization or individual" could be guilty of an offense if they are pursuing certain actions deemed hostile to national security.
Those include lobbying for sanctions against Hong Kong or Chinese officials -- such as those recently imposed by Washington over this very legislation -- "undermining" elections in Hong Kong, "seriously disrupting the formulation and implementation of laws or policies" in the city, or "provoking by unlawful means hatred among Hong Kong residents towards the Central People's Government."
In China, people have been prosecuted for leaking "state secrets" to overseas media, governments and organizations, something the new Hong Kong law also criminalizes, potentially making it far harder for foreign journalists and NGOs to operate in the city.
One of the duties of the Office for Safeguarding National Security, which reports directly to Beijing, will also be the "management of (the) organs of foreign countries and international organizations in (Hong Kong), as well as non-governmental organisations and news agencies of foreign countries."
At present, Hong Kong has a generous visa policy for journalists, who are classed as regular foreign workers and not subject to the more strict regulation seen in China. It is also easy for NGOs to operate in Hong Kong, with human rights organizations, labor groups, and press freedom groups that struggle to operate in China using the city as a base.
Non-permanent residents in Hong Kong can be expelled from the city, regardless of whether they are convicted, if suspected of contravening the law.

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200701084147-hong-kong-0701-flags-exlarge-169.jpg
The Chinese (front) and Hong Kong flags are released during a flag-raising ceremony to mark China's National Day celebrations early morning in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020.

Judicial changes

One of the biggest controversies leading up to the passage of the law was the creation of a new panel of judges dedicated to national security cases, who will be appointed by the Chief Executive directly.
Legal analysts have warned that this could undermine judicial independence, as it enables the government to pick judges that are potentially sympathetic to particular issues.
"A person shall not be designated as a judge to adjudicate a case concerning offense endangering national security if he or she has made any statement or behaved in any manner endangering national security," the law states.
It adds that jury trials can be suspended when deemed necessary, with cases instead heard by a panel of judges.
Beyond this, certain cases can also be handed directly over to the Chinese authorities for prosecution, with the Office for Safeguarding National Security taking the lead, applying Chinese law and legal standards.
The office "shall initiate investigation into the case, the Supreme People's Procuratorate shall designate a prosecuting body to prosecute it, and the Supreme People's Court shall designate a court to adjudicate it," the law states.
When exercising this power, members of the Office "shall not be subject to the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region," and police in the city are obliged to assist in their duties and prevent anyone obstructing them.
It is unclear whether such cases will be transferred to the mainland, or if they will be processed in Hong Kong by Chinese prosecutors. The suggestion of extradition to China is what kicked off last year's massive anti-government protests.
China has a notoriously high conviction rate, especially in national security cases, and is regularly criticized for politicized prosecutions in which defendants are denied access to lawyers.

What comes next?

For weeks now, Hong Kong officials and the central government in Beijing have been reassuring members of the public that the law will be applied selectively, and only affect a tiny number of people.
Following its passage Tuesday, a Hong Kong government spokesman reiterated that the law "targets an extremely small minority of offenders while the life and property as well as various legitimate basic rights and freedoms enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of citizens will be protected."
"There is nothing for Hong Kong citizens to worry about in exercising these legitimate rights," he added.
Whether this is true remains to be seen, and may not be known for months, until the first prosecutions under the law are brought. But the chilling effect already seen this week suggests the repercussions of the law will ripple out well beyond individual cases.
Hong Kong has long been known as a "city of protest," with a vibrant opposition movement, unshackled media and dynamic public discourse. The national security law would appear to take aim at all of this, and could reshape the city forever.

Anyone here in HK right now?

GeneChing
07-06-2020, 08:08 AM
News
Martial Arts / Kung Fu
Donnie Yen celebrates Hong Kong’s ‘return’ to the motherland – ‘I am fighting for the Chinese people (https://www.scmp.com/sport/martial-arts/kung-fu/article/3091681/donnie-yen-celebrates-hong-kongs-return-motherland-i-am)’
The Hong Kong actor and Ip Man star posts Facebook video playing the piano with Lang Lang for Xi Jinping
The 56-year-old Guangzhou-born film producer posted the comment in response to a user calling his post ‘tragic’
Patrick Blennerhassett
Published: 1:49pm, 3 Jul, 2020

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2020/07/03/85b83304-bcf0-11ea-b64b-070a892763db_image_hires_155201.jpeg?itok=BVbhWauf&v=1593762730
Donnie Yen in a still from Ip Man 4: The Finale. Photo: Handout
Hong Kong martial arts actor Donnie Yen Ji-dan made a congratulatory post on his official Facebook page on July 1 in relation to Hong Kong’s Establishment Day.
The 56-year-old Ip Man star posted a video montage of himself playing piano, with an accompanying caption.
“Today is the celebration day for Hong Kong returned to motherland China 23 years,” he wrote.
“Recalling such memorable night in 2017 where I had the privilege to performed with piano Maestro Lang Lang for Chairman Xi [Jinping] and wife along with several hundred guests who came to watch the show and celebrated the night!”

Yen replied to a Facebook user’s comment that said: “He probably has a 100 million reasons. But indeed tragic seeing a such talented person like Donnie fighting for the people on set but unable to do the same in real life.”

He wrote: “I am fighting for the Chinese people which indeed for the longest time, been undermined and disrespected, but worst abused.”

In February, Yen donated HK$1 million to frontline medical workers in Wuhan during the initial Covid-19 outbreak which ravaged the mainland Chinese city.
Yen, who last starred in Enter the Fat Dragon (2020), said at the end of last year that Ip Man 4 would be his final kung fu film.


Patrick Blennerhassett
Patrick Blennerhassett is an award-winning Canadian journalist and four-time published author. He is a Jack Webster Fellowship winner and a British Columbia bestselling novelist. He has covered sport for the South China Morning Post since 2018

Threads
Hong-Kong-protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)
Donnie-Yen-Uber-Awesome-!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58046-Donnie-Yen-Uber-Awesome-!!)

rett2
07-06-2020, 12:11 PM
I will definitely never watch another movie with Donny Yen in it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7CPqROtanA

rett2
07-06-2020, 12:13 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWgqdfAomVI

GeneChing
07-07-2020, 12:00 PM
#BoycottMulan Trends Again After Donnie Yen Celebrates Hong Kong’s Return to ‘Motherland’
Donnie Yen (https://nextshark.com/donnie-yen-boycottmulan-hong-kong/)
Martial arts star Donnie Yen recently celebrated Hong Kong’s handover to China, sparking heavy criticism from fans and renewed calls to #BoycottMulan.

https://cdn.statically.io/img/nextshark.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/feat.jpg?quality=100

Pro-Beijing post: Yen, who plays Commander Tung in Disney’s upcoming live-action Mulan remake, becomes the film’s second cast member along with lead Liu Yifei to spark backlash from fans.

On July 1, Yen took to Facebook to mark Hong Kong’s handover day, which commemorates the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China in 1997 and the eventual establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
“Today is the celebration day for Hong Kong returned to motherland China 23 years [sic],” the Chinese-born actor wrote.
He also fondly remembered performing for Chinese President and Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping back in 2017, calling it a “memorable night.”
In Hong Kong, the anniversary of the July 1 handover is celebrated as the Establishment Day and marked with “fireworks displays, live music, and dragon dances,” according to Public Holidays HK.
It has also become the platform for political movements demanding universal suffrage.
Yen is now being criticized in Hong Kong for his opinion of Xi Jinping amid Beijing’s recent imposition of the controversial national security law.
The new law, which many views as a threat to civil liberties, has since sparked a new round of pro-democracy protests in the city.

This article has a bunch of tweets after the it. Follow the link if you're interested.

Threads
Hong-Kong-protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)
Donnie-Yen-Uber-Awesome-!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58046-Donnie-Yen-Uber-Awesome-!!)
Mulan (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68640-Mulan-(2020))

GeneChing
07-09-2020, 10:00 AM
Jul 7, 2020 12:10pm PT
Donnie Yen Lauds Hong Kong’s Return to China as He Starts New Films ‘Sleeping Dogs,’ ‘Golden Empire’ (https://variety.com/2020/film/asia/donnie-yen-mulan-sleeping-dogs-hong-kong-national-security-law-1234699338/)
By Rebecca Davis

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/donnie-yen-rogue-one.jpg?w=600
Courtesy of Disney

Hong Kong “Mulan” star Donnie Yen this week reiterated his political loyalty to mainland China as he teased work on the upcoming theatrical adaptation of popular video game “Sleeping Dogs” and announced “Golden Empire,” a new China-backed crime thriller.

His hometown is currently roiling under the impact of a controversial new national security law imposed by Beijing that strips Hong Kong of many of its former freedoms, which came into effect July 1 — the anniversary of Britain’s handover of the territory to China. Ten people protesting its stipulations were arrested within 24 hours of its enactment, including a 15-year-old girl.

The same day, however, the “Ip Man” star feted by posting a celebratory message complete with champagne bottle emoji to his Chinese and western social media accounts. Under a video montage of himself tickling the ivories and shaking hands with Chinese president Xi Jinping, he reminisced: “Recalling such memorable night [sic] in 2017 where I had the privilege to performed [sic] with piano Mastro [sic] Lang Lang for Chairman Xi and wife along with several hundred guests who came to watch the show and celebrated the night!”

Comments on his Instagram version of the post have been “limited,” and show only positive feedback. But on his official Facebook account, the post was met with more teeth by fans baffled by his “celebration” of what many have deemed a devastating occasion.

“He probably has 100 million reasons. But indeed tragic seeing such [a] talented person like Donnie fighting for the people on set but unable to do the same in real life,” wrote one commenter.

Yen himself responded directly, writing in English: “I am fighting for the Chinese people, which indeed for the longest time, [have] been undermined and disrespected, but worst abused.”

Yen is best known in the west for his turn in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “xXx: Return of Xander Cage,” and plays Mulan’s mentor Commander Tung in Disney’s upcoming live-action version of “Mulan.”

But staying in Beijing’s good books is likely key for Yen, 56, who these days is one of Asia’s most bankable stars thanks to the China market.

Last December’s “Ip Man 4” grossed $165 million in China, but just $3.7 million in Hong Kong (and $4 million stateside), making the mainland far and away Yen’s most lucrative fanbase.

He also recently starred in “Enter the Fat Dragon,” a comedy backed by China’s Bona Film Group that cancelled its planned Feb. 16 theatrical release because of the coronavirus and moved directly to streaming.

His next project appears to be “Sleeping Dog,” an action movie adaptation of the popular 2012 video game of the same name developed by United Front Games and published by Square Enix.

Yen confirmed his participation in the film over the weekend, posting a video of himself busting a few warm-up moves at the gym and writing that he is “aiming to make another breakthrough movie.” He will star as main character Wei Shen, an undercover police officer who infiltrates the Hong Kong triads. “I am excited to start preparing for the next challenge,” he said.

First announced in 2017, the project will be produced by Neal Moritz’s Original Film (“Fast and Furious”) and DJ2 Entertainment and is listed as currently in pre-production, though neither company replied to Variety’s request for comment by press time.

Yen will also star in and co-produce a new crime thriller called “Golden Empire,” about a drug lord wanted by authorities in both the U.S. and Mexico. It will be backed by China’s Starlight Media and SA Inc., with Starlight’s CEO Peter Luo also producing.

Threads
Hong-Kong-protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)
Donnie-Yen-Uber-Awesome-!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58046-Donnie-Yen-Uber-Awesome-!!)
Sleeping-Dogs (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65178-Sleeping-Dogs)
Golden Empire (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71823-Golden-Empire)

GeneChing
08-10-2020, 10:23 AM
WORLD
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested, top aide says (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hong-kong-media-tycoon-jimmy-lai-arrested-top-aide-says-rcna73)
The democracy activist was detained under a new national security law that punishes what China considers subversion, secession and collusion with foreign forces.


https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/rockcms/2020-08/81/200809-jimmy-lai-axc-929p-61e833_5fef7efaba73a2d9a55cf706cc9beae62d1ea90c.fi t-1240w.jpg
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai in a July interview.Vincent Yu / AP
Aug. 9, 2020, 6:35 PM PDT / Updated Aug. 9, 2020, 6:39 PM PDT
By Reuters

HONG KONG — Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been arrested over suspected collusion with foreign forces under the new national security law, his top aide said on Twitter, in what is the highest-profile arrest yet under the legislation.

Lai has been one of the most prominent democracy activists in the Chinese-ruled city and an ardent critic of Beijing, which imposed the sweeping new law on Hong Kong on June 30, drawing condemnation from Western countries.

The new security law punishes anything China considers subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Critics say it crushes freedoms in the semiautonomous city, while supporters say it will bring stability after prolonged pro-democracy protests last year.

"Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time," Mark Simon, a senior executive at Lai's media company Next Digital , which publishes local tabloid Apple Daily, said early on Monday.

Police did not immediately comment.

Lai was also arrested this year on illegal assembly charges, along with other leading activists, relating to protests last year.

In an interview with Reuters in May, Lai pledged to stay in Hong Kong and continue to fight for democracy even though he expected to be one of the targets of the new legislation.

This does not bode well...

threads
Chinese-Tycoons-CEOs-amp-Tuhao (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69088-Chinese-Tycoons-CEOs-amp-Tuhao)
HK protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
08-20-2020, 09:53 AM
Here’s Why Jackie Chan Is Really Unpopular in Hong Kong (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxqkn5/heres-why-jackie-chan-is-really-unpopular-in-hong-kong)
One of Hong Kong's most famous exports has provoked the ire of the pro-democracy movement.
By Heather Chen
August 19, 2020, 5:25am

https://video-images.vice.com//articles/5f3d16905cd4f50098a95991/lede/1597839046307-0631183504470.jpeg
JACKIE CHAN ACCEPTS THE ALBERT R. BROCCOLI BRITANNIA AWARD FOR WORLDWIDE CONTRIBUTION TO ENTERTAINMENT ONSTAGE DURING THE 2019 BRITISH ACADEMY BRITANNIA AWARDS PRESENTED BY AMERICAN AIRLINES AND JAGUAR LAND ROVER AT THE BEVERLY HILTON HOTEL ON OCTOBER 25, 2019 IN BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA. PHOTO: KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

To the Western world, Jackie Chan is a martial arts hero and popular action film star. But in his birthplace of Hong Kong, Chan is deeply unpopular, particularly among the city’s pro-democracy movement.

“The West lauds Jackie Chan but they don’t understand him,” a popular Twitter account called Hong Kong World City that supports the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement told VICE News. “He isn’t this wholesome mascot that he makes himself out to be.”

Known in the cinematic world for his acrobatic fighting style and slapstick comedy, Chan—who also goes by his Chinese name Cheng Long—is easily one of Asia’s most recognizable and influential stars. He started out as a stuntman in the 1970s and worked his way to the top, rising to international superstardom after appearing alongside comedian Chris Tucker in the hit action-comedy franchise Rush Hour.

Chan has appeared in more than 200 films and shows to date and remains one of Hong Kong’s biggest names in the entertainment industry—with an estimated net worth of $400 million.

But Chan’s outspoken support for China’s ruling Communist Party has caused controversy in Hong Kong—he was even recruited to join the party’s political advisory body.

In 2009, Chan questioned the idea of a free press and said that Chinese control was a positive thing.

“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” he said at a conference in 2009. “I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”

Hong Kong World City referenced Chan’s comments in a recent tweet, explaining why people in Hong Kong are not fans of Chan.

“His support among fans in Hong Kong is bone dry because of the controversial beliefs he holds—that people here and in Taiwan belong to mainland China and therefore, do not deserve freedom,” the Twitter page told VICE News. “His words are unfathomable and unforgivable.”

Chan criticized Hong Kong’s renewed pro-democracy protests in a televised 2019 state TV interview, reiterating his pro-China stance and expressing hopes for the city to “return to peace”.

“The recent events in Hong Kong are sad and depressing,” Chan said. “Hong Kong and China are my birthplaces and my home. China is my country and I love my country.”

Most recently, Chan voiced his support for the controversial national security law imposed on Hong Kong by China. The law bans all forms of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with a foreign country, and threatens a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Chan added his signature to a group statement that read: “We fully understand the importance of safeguarding national security for Hong Kong and support the decision of the National People’s Congress on Hong Kong’s national security law.”

In response, Hong Kong and Taiwanese netizens were quick to label him “a two-faced scumbag” and “a deviant traitor”.

“Instead of raising awareness and safeguarding Hong Kong’s security and core values, Cheng Long rides on his political status with mainland China,” Lo Kin-hei, vice-chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, told VICE News.

“He may have been well-liked and respected as an actor in the 1980s and 1990s but things have changed. There is a lot of hatred for him in Hong Kong now and he is no longer in any position to accurately represent our city and its people.”

Chan was also the subject of a political art campaign by popular Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao.

“When you stand with the Chinese government, you stand with violence, censorship, concentration camps and ethnic cleansing,” the political cartoonist told VICE News.

“Jackie Chan is one of Hong Kong’s biggest names. He has a social responsibility to speak out about what’s happening in his home city but instead, he defends Beijing-backed violence and police brutality. Cheng Long may be an idol to many Chinese people but he is misusing his fame and influence by allying with the Communist Party to betray not only Hong Kong but himself.”

The artist added: “Democracy helps artists by giving us the freedom to create work. Jackie Chan is an enemy of democracy.”

The mainland Chinese market is a lucrative one that wields power and influence over Hollywood. To anger China would mean paying the price with one’s career, John Lee, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and an adjunct professor at the U.S. Studies Center in Sydney, Australia previously told VICE News.

“There are potentially serious commercial consequences for celebrities and entertainment executives who make sensitive comments that are deemed as being critical of China and the Communist Party,” Lee said.

“China’s box office revenue is valued at almost $10 billion, which makes it the second-largest in the world after the United States and there are estimates that this figure will even double,” he added. “Mainland Chinese audiences are also a highly influential market that the U.S. and other regional film industries are all seeking to expand into.”

The turbulent anti-government protests that have roiled Hong Kong for years have also split its entertainment industry.

Celebrity figures like Chan and Ip Man star Donnie Yen, who is featured in the upcoming Disney live-action reboot of Mulan, are rewarded for loyalty in promoting China and the Communist Party. But fellow veteran Hong Kong stars like actor Chow Yun-fat and Cantopop singer Denise Ho, who have thrown their support behind the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, have paid the price with their careers.

“There is a sense of betrayal and hypocrisy, given that Jackie was born in Hong Kong and presumably enjoyed the freedoms that the territory offered,” Lee told VICE News.

“This benefitted his career greatly,” Lee added. “But today he articulates the same propaganda messages as the Chinese government on highly sensitive and political issues, emphasizing the importance of patriotism and stability rather than freedom and democracy.”

Representatives for Chan did not immediately respond to VICE News for this story.

Threads
Jackie Chan Scandals (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?42240-Jackie-Chan-scandals)
HK Protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

rett2
08-24-2020, 06:19 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAD6YfyjBTE

GeneChing
12-11-2020, 08:36 AM
DECEMBER 10, 20208:32 PM UPDATED 5 HOURS AGO
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai charged under national security law (https://www.reuters.com/article/hongkong-security-idUSKBN28L0DL)
By Reuters Staff

3 MIN READ

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong democracy activist and media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 73, has been charged under the city’s national security law on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces, his Apple Daily newspaper reported on Friday, citing a police source.

https://static.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20201211&t=2&i=1544223916&r=LYNXMPEGBA0I5&w=1024

Lai, an ardent critic of Beijing, would be the highest profile person charged under the sweeping new law imposed on the Chinese-ruled city in June.

He was due to appear in court on Saturday, according to Apple Daily, a popular tabloid known for its feisty and critical coverage of China and Hong Kong.

The security law, which punishes what Beijing broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in jail, has been condemned by the West and human rights groups as a tool to crush dissent in the semi-autonomous, Chinese-ruled city.

Authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing say it is vital to plug gaping holes in national security defences exposed by months of sometimes violent anti-government and anti-China protests that rocked the global financial hub over the last year.

“The goal is to hold Jimmy Lai, and shut Jimmy Lai up,” Mark Simon, an associate of Lai, told Reuters.

Hong Kong police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The publishing tycoon is one of the financial hub’s most prominent democracy activists, while his Next Media group is considered one of the key remaining bastions of media freedoms in Hong Kong.

Tensions between China and the United States have escalated in recent weeks as Washington accuses Beijing of using the security law to trample wide-ranging freedoms guaranteed when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Authorities have intensified a crackdown on opposition forces in the city, dismissing lawmakers from the legislature, conducting widespread arrests and jailing high-profile democracy activists such as Joshua Wong.

Lai was denied bail earlier this month following his arrest on a separate charge of fraud related to the lease of a building that houses his Apple Daily, an anti-government tabloid.

He was arrested in August when about 200 police officers swooped on his offices. Hong Kong police later said they had arrested nine men and one woman for suspected offences including “collusion with a foreign country/external elements to endanger national security, conspiracy to defraud” and others.

The tycoon had been a frequent visitor to Washington, where he has met officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to rally support for Hong Kong democracy, prompting Beijing to label him a “traitor”.

Reporting by Twinnie Siu and Greg Torode in HONG KONG; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Sam Holmes, Lincoln Feast and Michael Perry

threads
Chinese-Tycoons-CEOs-amp-Tuhao (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69088-Chinese-Tycoons-CEOs-amp-Tuhao)
Hong-Kong-protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

highlypotion
12-17-2020, 09:32 PM
Does Pornhub do stuff like this? Asking for a friend...

This is a problem for some people.

GeneChing
12-30-2020, 09:53 AM
speedboat chase. how very hong kong.


Hong Kongers who tried to flee to Taiwan jailed in China for up to 3 years (https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/29/asia/hong-kong-china-taiwan-jail-intl-hnk/index.html)
By James Griffiths, Jadyn Sham and Eric Cheung, CNN

Updated 10:32 AM ET, Wed December 30, 2020

Hong Kong (CNN)Ten Hong Kongers who attempted to flee the city by speedboat to Taiwan have been jailed in China for up to three years for organizing and taking part in an illegal border crossing.

The activists -- most of whom were on bail or facing charges in Hong Kong related to last year's anti-government protests -- were caught by the Chinese coast guard in August as they attempted to escape to the self-governing island of Taiwan, about 700 kilometers (440 miles) away.
Two convicted of organizing the illegal border crossing were sentenced to two and three years in prison, respectively. The other eight were convicted of taking part in the border crossing and all received seven-month sentences. Yantian People's Court said all 10 pleaded guilty. All the accused also received fines ranging from $1,500 to $3,000.
Earlier Wednesday, China handed two suspects aged under 18 who were also on the boat to Hong Kong police. Authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen said they had confessed to crossing the border illegally but had not been charged.
All 12 were detained for more than 100 days before this week's trial in Shenzhen, as their parents and politicians in Hong Kong, the United States and the United Kingdom pressured for their release. A group representing the families of the accused said their loved ones were abused in Chinese custody and denied access to their lawyers.
Police and prosecutors in Shenzhen have previously denied accusations of ill treatment and claimed the 12 had access to legal advice, though the practice in mainland China of denying defendants their lawyer of choice by appointing a government-picked counsel has been well documented in the past.
On Monday, a US State Department spokeswoman urged Beijing to release the 12 and allow them to leave the country, adding their "so-called 'crime' was to flee tyranny."
"The treatment by PRC authorities of these 12 individuals, some of whom are underage, has been appalling," the spokeswoman said. "Beijing authorities continue their campaign to stamp out the remaining rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, falsely equating their system of rule by party decree with the rule of law."
The fate of the 12 activists has attracted considerable attention both in Hong Kong and overseas, emblematic of the city's worsening political freedoms and climate since the passage earlier this year of a new national security law. The law -- imposed on the city by Beijing, bypassing Hong Kong's semi-democratic legislature -- criminalized secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces, and has already had a major chilling effect on politics and debate.
Numerous high-profile activists, including former lawmakers Nathan Law, Ted Hui and Baggio Leung, have all fled the city for exile overseas, while many other protesters have also left, fearing arrest in connection with the anti-government unrest that rocked Hong Kong for much of 2019.
On Tuesday, Tony Chung, a onetime Hong Kong independence activist who is also facing charges under the national security law, was sentenced to four months in prison for unlawful assembly and desecrating the national flag in connection with protests last year.
Chung had reportedly attempted to flee the city in October by seeking asylum at the US Consulate, but was turned away.
Avenues of escape have grown continually tighter this year, exacerbated by closures and lockdowns around the world as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. What had been a viable, albeit risky, sea route to Taiwan was closed off once the Chinese coast guard made clear they were monitoring waters around the city.
Some commentators have speculated the 12 activists were permitted to leave so they could be publicly detained and put on trial as a lesson to others. In October, open source flight data revealed a government plane was monitoring the area when the activists left Hong Kong and then appeared to track their route.
Carrie Lam, the city's Beijing-appointed chief executive, has refuted any suggestion that the Hong Kong government was aware of or involved in the case prior to the 12 being arrested.
The fugitives had "chosen to flee, and in the course of fleeing, they entered another jurisdiction and have committed a crime of illegally entering another place," she said in October. "They have to face the legal consequences in that jurisdiction. It is as simple and straightforward as that."
The potential to face prosecution in China was a major source of opposition to a proposed extradition bill that kicked off protests last year, and the fate of the 12 seems to have borne out many of the concerns felt in Hong Kong. The activists were allegedly denied access to proper legal representation and scant information was offered about their condition.
Chinese courts -- along with prosecutors and police -- are overseen by the Chinese Communist Party's powerful Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission and its local branches.
In a statement, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific regional director Yamini Mishra said the sentences "meted out after an unfair trial lay bare the dangers faced by anybody who finds themselves tried under the Chinese criminal system."
"The Chinese authorities have shown the world once again that political activists will not receive a fair trial," she added.

GeneChing
01-29-2021, 05:53 PM
China is making some moves...

China derecognizes British National Overseas passport (https://apnews.com/article/china-british-national-overseas-passport-9eff79173444f227c67c838fd86a45aa?)
yesterday

https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/90fd8f7f0aa94db38ec757349a9f1944/800.jpeg
A British National Overseas passports (BNO) and a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China passport are pictured in Hong Kong, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. China said Friday it will no longer recognize the British National Overseas passport as a valid travel document or form of identification amid a bitter feud with London over a plan to allow millions of Hong Kong residents a route to residency and eventual citizenship. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
BEIJING (AP) — China said Friday it will no longer recognize the British National Overseas passport as a valid travel document or form of identification amid a bitter feud with London over a plan to allow millions of Hong Kong residents a route to residency and eventual citizenship.

The announcement by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Friday throws up new uncertainty around the plan just hours after the U.K. said it would begin taking applications for what are called BNO visas beginning late Sunday.

Under the plan, as many as 5.4 million Hong Kong residents could be eligible to live and work in the U.K. for five years then apply for citizenship. Demand soared after Beijing last year imposed a sweeping new national security law on the former British colony following months of pro-democracy protests.

“The British side’s attempt to turn a large number of Hong Kong people into second-class British citizens has completely changed the nature of the two sides’ original understanding of BNO,” Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing.

“This move seriously infringes on China’s sovereignty, grossly interferes in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal affairs, and seriously violates international law and the basic norms of international relations,” he said. “China will no longer recognize the so-called BNO passport as a travel document and proof of identity starting from Jan 31st, and reserves the right to take further measures.”

Many Hong Kongers carry multiple passports and it is unclear what if anything the Chinese government could do to prevent people entering the U.K. through the BNO visa plan. As a further protection of personal privacy, a cellphone app will allow applicants to download their biometric information without having to been seen visiting the British visa office.

The BNO passport was originally a disappointment for Hong Kongers when it was first offered ahead of Hong Kong’s handover to Chinese rule in 1997. At the time, it offered only the right to visit for six months with no right to work or become a full citizen. Applicants had to have been born before the handover date.

However, pressure grew to expand such privileges as China increasingly cracked down on civil and political life in Hong Kong in what critics say violates China’s commitment to maintain the city’s separate way of life for 50 years after the handover. China first declared the 1984 Sino-British Declaration setting out the handover arrangements null and void despite its recognition by the United Nations, then imposed the national security law on the territory after the city’s legislature was unable to pass it on its own.

“I am immensely proud that we have brought in this new route for Hong Kong BNOs to live, work and make their home in our country,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.

“In doing so we have honored our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong, and we have stood up for freedom and autonomy – values both the UK and Hong Kong hold dear.”

GeneChing
02-05-2021, 10:40 AM
This reminds me of the HK flight to Canada in '97.



Thousands flee Hong Kong for UK, fearing China crackdown (https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-beijing-hong-kong-coronavirus-pandemic-china-7d3497f187a251a9ca7655fce308c470?fbclid=IwAR0Znt_H rm7-OiOyyj46xfj-1b3O7fFej0pb-GVj36-9oz5kftxtc0MqfJc)
By ZEN SOO and SYLVIA HUI
February 1, 2021

https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/1bd9f87213e146278a32fbd86f2583f3/800.jpeg
FILE - In this July 7, 2019, file photo, thousands of protesters carrying the British flag march near the harbor of Hong Kong. Thousands of people from Hong Kong are fleeing their hometown since Beijing imposed a draconian national security law on the territory in the summer 2020. Many say China’s encroachment on their way of life and civil liberties has become unbearable, and they want to seek a better future for their children abroad. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
HONG KONG (AP) — Thousands of Hong Kongers have already made the sometimes painful decision to leave behind their hometown and move to Britain since Beijing imposed a strict national security law on the Chinese territory last summer. Their numbers are expected to swell to the hundreds of thousands.

Some are leaving because they fear punishment for supporting the pro-democracy protests that swept the former British colony in 2019. Others say China’s encroachment on their way of life and civil liberties has become unbearable, and they want to seek a better future for their children abroad. Most say they don’t plan to ever go back.

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The moves are expected to accelerate now that 5 million Hong Kongers are eligible to apply for visas to Britain, allowing them to live, work and study there and eventually apply to become British citizens. Applications for the British National Overseas visa officially opened Sunday, though many have already arrived on British soil to get a head start.

Britain’s government said some 7,000 people with British National Overseas passports — a travel document that Hong Kongers could apply for before the city was handed over to Chinese control in 1997 — have arrived since July on the previously allowed six month visa. It estimates that over 300,000 people will take up the offer of extended residency rights in the next five years.

“Before the announcement of the BN(O) visa in July, we didn’t have many enquiries about U.K. immigration, maybe less than 10 a month,” said Andrew Lo, founder of Anlex Immigration Consultants in Hong Kong. “Now we receive about 10 to 15 calls a day asking about it.”

Mike, a photojournalist, said he plans to apply for the visa and move to Leeds with his wife and young daughter in April.

His motivation to leave Hong Kong came after the city’s political situation deteriorated following the anti-government protests and he realized that the city’s police force was not politically neutral. The police have been criticized by pro-democracy supporters for brutality and the use of excessive violence.

Mike said moving to Britain was important as he believed the education system in Hong Kong will be affected by the political situation and it will be better for his daughter to study in the U.K.

Mike agreed to speak on the condition that he only be identified by his first name out of fear of official retaliation.

Lo said that with the new visa, the barrier to entry to move to the U.K. becomes extremely low, with no language or education qualification requirements. British National Overseas passport holders need to prove that they have enough money to support themselves for six months and prove that they are clear of tuberculosis, according to the U.K. government.

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Currently, Lo assists three to four families a week in their move to the U.K. About 60% of those are families with young children, while the remaining are young couples or young professionals.

Cindy, a Hong Kong businesswoman and the mother of two young children, arrived in London last week.

In Hong Kong she had a comfortable lifestyle. She owned several properties with her husband and the business she ran was going well. But she made up her mind to leave it all behind as she felt that the city’s freedoms and liberties were eroding and she wanted to ensure a good future for her kids.

Cindy, who spoke on the condition she only be identified by her first name out of concern of official retaliation, said it was important to move quickly as she feared Beijing would soon move to halt the exodus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week the visa offer shows Britain is honoring its “profound ties of history” with Hong Kong, which was handed over to China on the understanding that it would retain its Western-style freedoms and much of its political autonomy not seen on mainland China.

Beijing said Friday it will no longer recognize the British National Overseas passport as a travel document or form of identification, and criticized Britain’s citizenship offer as a move that “seriously infringed” on China’s sovereignty. It was unclear what effect the announcement would have because many Hong Kongers carry multiple passports.

Beijing drastically hardened its stance on Hong Kong after the 2019 protests turned violent and plunged the city into a months-long crisis. Since the security law’s enactment, dozens of pro-democracy activists have been arrested, and the movement’s young leaders have either been jailed or fled abroad.

Because the new law broadly defined acts of subversion, secession, foreign collusion and terrorism, many in Hong Kong fear that expressing any form of political opposition — even posting messages on social media — could land them in trouble.

“This is a really unique emigration wave – some people haven’t had time to actually visit the country they’re relocating to. Many have no experience of living abroad,” said Miriam Lo, who runs Excelsior UK, a relocation agency. “And because of the pandemic, they couldn’t even come over to view a home before deciding to buy.”

___

Hui reported from London.

GeneChing
03-05-2021, 10:28 AM
Rights and freedom
Hong Kong
'Hong Kong is crumbling': seven days that crushed city's last resistance (https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/05/hong-kong-is-crumbling-seven-days-that-crushed-citys-last-resistance?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1)
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/213fa9f4a2fbe983647f253e6166cdda86a6634b/0_123_5932_3560/master/5932.jpg/IMG]
Supporters comfort each other after hearing bail results at West Kowloon Court in Hong Kong Photograph: Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
Dozens of pro-democracy politicians and activists have been rounded up, charged and denied bail in fresh crackdown on opposition to China

Rights and freedom is supported by
Humanity United
About this content
Guardian reporter
Fri 5 Mar 2021 05.30 EST

The phones rang on Friday, one month earlier than expected. More than 50 pro-democracy politicians and activists across Hong Kong received a call from the authorities: they were to report to police on Sunday.

Expecting to be charged and held for lengthy jail terms, many spent the weekend making last-minute preparations. They picked out books to take into custody, arranged for pets to be taken care of, said goodbye to their loved ones. Tiffany Yuen, 27, spent the day at home, where she was photographed cuddling a Buzz Lightyear toy, before visiting constituents in Tin Wan.

“When the police called, I knew it’s bad news,” said one, who spent most of the weekend quietly hugging his child. “I probably won’t be able to hold my kid for some years. I said: ‘You might not see daddy for several years. You have to be brave and look after mummy.’”

“I never thought things would come to this,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, fearing his comments would be used as further evidence against him under the national security law. The legislation, introduced in Hong Kong in June, penalises acts seen by the authorities as subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces or terrorism with up to life in prison.

[IMG]https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9bdcf91470a1c752625f0f246f7aec50b87b0538/0_267_4000_2400/master/4000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&
An activist known as Grandma Wong, holds up an yellow umbrella outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Courts during the forth day of a bail hearing for 47 opposition activists charged with violating the city’s national security law Photograph: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
“I don’t know what sort of One Country Two Systems this is,” he said, referring to the policy meant to uphold Hong Kong’s freedoms and rights under Chinese rule after the 1997 handover of sovereignty.

“Now, even the mildest forms of opposition – chanting slogans and wearing certain colour masks – are seen as a potential breaches of national security law,” he said. “The red line is constantly shifting – we feel very insecure.”

In a dawn raid on 6 January that sent shock waves across Hong Kong, 55 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures, from former lawmakers, local district councillors to young campaigners and activists, were arrested over primary polls held last year. The sweeping police crackdown marked the single biggest operation conducted under the controversial national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year.

On Sunday, Hong Kong police charged 47 of them with conspiracy to commit subversion, and held them in custody before they appeared in court on Monday. Prosecutors alleged they had schemed to select candidates who could win a majority of the 70 legislative council seats in an election – subsequently postponed by the government – and then to indiscriminately block legislation to “paralyse” parliament and force the resignation of the chief executive.

They were detained in custody, appearing in marathon bail hearings that ran for most of the week. Some fainted from fatigue while others complained they were not able to change clothes for several days.

To show their eligibility for bail, some of the most prominent political figures announced their departure from their democratic political party. On Thursday, the judge denied bail to 32. As of Friday, 11 out of the 15 granted bail remained in custody pending the government’s immediate appeal. Those refused bail included veteran politicians Claudia Mo, Eddie Chu and Gary Fan, who were often criticised by younger activists as being too moderate.

The judge barred the media from reporting on arguments made by either side at the bail hearing, during which the defendants made speeches that drove families and even journalists to tears.

Accused of “conspiring to subvert state power”, the 47 face terms up to life imprisonment if convicted. The eight who have not been charged so far – including American lawyer John Clancey, pro-democracy legislators James To and Roy Kwong – had their bail extended to 4 May.

The operation leaves nearly every key voice of dissent in Hong Kong now in custody or jail.

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Supporters wave cellphone lights as they see a Correctional Services Department (CSD) vehicle following the forth day of a bail hearing for 47 opposition activists Photograph: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
The sudden detentions came a few days after Xia Baolong, the head of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said those who “opposed China and caused chaos in Hong Kong” should be banished from public office. Xia said at a high-level symposium on Feb 22 that the “extremely vicious ones”, including detained Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai, law academic Benny Tai and jailed activist Joshua Wong, should also be “severely punished,” according to a transcript published by the Beijing-backed Bauhinia magazine. Chinese officials also stressed that the new laws would ensure that only “patriots” could govern Hong Kong.

The speed and the magnitude of the crackdown on the pro-democracy camp has shocked even the most experienced politicians. Many had anticipated that the national security law would initially only target those involved in violent protests, or advocates of independence and believed China would tolerate some pro-democracy politicians for the sake of window-dressing.

“It was a big surprise to be charged with subversion,” said 79-year-old American lawyer John Clancey, who came to Hong Kong over 50 years ago as a Catholic priest. “I never foresaw this.”

“Obviously they are saying clearly they only want patriotic people to govern Hong Kong, … they want to rule out anyone from the democratic camp,” said Clancey, who was the first foreign national detained under a sweeping national security law. He was serving as the treasurer for Power of Democracy, an organiser of the primaries.

‘A free and safe city is degenerating’
Since the imposition of the national security law, the authorities have stoked pressure on the judiciary, media, schools and universities and the civil society at large, including churches and NGOs, as Beijing-backed media increasingly lashed out on judges, professors, school teachers and church pastors seen as pro-democracy.

Emily Lau, a veteran politician and former chair of the Democratic Party, lamented the muting of voices of dissent in the city that once prides itself as a bastion of freedoms in the region.

“The Hong Kong as we know it is crumbling before our very eyes,” Lau said. “It is disheartening to see a once vibrant, free and safe city degenerating into its current state.”

“Beijing may decide to snuff out the dissenting voices, but that would be a big mistake. Allowing different voices in Hong Kong is a part of the city’s strength and shows Beijing is willing to tolerate opposing views.”

As the National People’s Congress convened its annual meeting in Beijing this week, officials say a key focus is the overhauling of Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure the city is governed by “patriots”.

Kenneth Chan, a political science professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said the crackdown would send the message to the world that “the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy has been prematurely terminated.”

“There is no limit to a populist authoritarian drive for ‘political purity’ to bring the city under total subjugation,” he said.

“We have now ‘show trials’ to make the democrats examples of how the party-state fights and struggles with the enemies … To “legalize” the political struggle is the Leninist legal tradition, whereby the law is viewed by the Chinese Government as a mere tool to facilitate the Party agenda,” he said, citing party edicts that stress that “to implement the law is to implement the will of the party.”

“The message to the world is that Beijing will not succumb to pressure from the Western coalition about human rights violations in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet etc,” said Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, many still brave prosecution by protesting outside the courtroom this week, chanting “Give us justice!” amid heavy police presence.

“You can’t live in fear … I wouldn’t stop working because of fear,” said Clancey. “In perfect love, there is no fear.” I'm getting such varied reports from friend in HK.

GeneChing
03-10-2021, 10:44 AM
Hong Kong protests: martial arts athlete jailed for six months over taking part in unlawful assembly outside Legco in 2019 (https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/hong-kong-protests-martial-arts-athlete-jailed-for-six-months-over-taking-part-in-unlawful-assembly-outside-legco-in-2019/ar-BB1erry1?ocid=BingNewsSearch)
Brian Wong brian.wong@scmp.com 8 hrs ago
https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1ergal.img?h=832&w=1248&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f© SCMP Eastern Law Courts Building in Sai Wan Ho. Photo: Nora Tam
A Hong Kong martial arts athlete was jailed for six months on Wednesday for taking part in an unlawful assembly during an anti-government protest outside the city's legislature in 2019.

Kwong Yuk-ming's lawyer told Eastern Court his client believed the conviction would shatter his dream of winning medals at the 2022 Asian Games and other major events in the future.

Four co-defendants were also convicted and jailed for between seven weeks and seven months, as the presiding magistrate turned down their lawyers' pleas for non-custodial sentences.

The trial centred on the overnight chaos outside the Legislative Council between June 9 and 10, 2019, when protesters confronted police after a march on Hong Kong Island with an estimated turnout of 1 million.

After the mass demonstration, the government issued a statement insisting it would proceed with the now-withdrawn extradition bill, ignoring protesters' demands.

The court heard that after the government's response, around 200 protesters began dismantling barriers outside Legco and formed human chains in an attempt to storm the building. They also hurled water bottles and umbrellas at officers guarding the entrance.

Prosecutors charged 15 men with offences, including taking part in an unlawful assembly and assaulting a police officer. Ten of them were previously jailed or sentenced to community service after pleading guilty.

Four of the other five - Kwong, 23; restaurant employee Wong Lok-kwan, 23; nursing student Tsang Wing-cheung, 31; and former accountant clerk Liauw Tak-fai, 43 - denied taking part in an unlawful assembly. The fifth defendant, computer technician Wan Chun-ho, 31, denied obstructing a police officer during the incident.

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1erdeY.img?h=728&w=1248&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f© Provided by South China Morning Post The trial centred on the overnight chaos outside the Legislative Council between June 9 and 10, 2019. Photo: Handout
Lawyers for the five had challenged the identities of the alleged offenders captured in police footage, saying their clients were not seen in any of the video evidence.

But Magistrate Daniel Tang Siu-hung said on Wednesday police footage clearly showed the five defendants committing the respective offences.

In mitigation, Kwong's lawyer described his client as a decorated athlete who had the potential to be successful at the Asian Games and other major sports competitions, but said his career had come to an end after the conviction.

The court heard Kwong won his first gold medal at the age of 10 in spear art in the World Junior Wushu Championships in 2008, before being awarded the Hong Kong Junior Sports Stars Award in 2010.

He was arrested in August 2019 at the city's airport when he was about to leave to take part in the World Martial Arts Masterships in South Korea, but was later granted temporary release to continue with the competition. He eventually won a bronze medal in the xing yi quan category.

The magistrate set a starting point of nine months in jail for the four defendants found guilty of taking part in the unlawful assembly, but reduced their sentences by two months to reflect their previous clear criminal records.

He gave a further one-month waiver to Kwong in light of the impact the case had on him. He also jailed the fifth defendant, Wan, for seven weeks for obstructing a police officer. I imagine this will affect Kwong's results should he compete again.

GeneChing
03-17-2021, 09:37 AM
Mar 17, 2021 3:03am PT
China Tells Media to Stagger Oscars Telecast, Downplay Event (Report) (https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/china-tells-media-stagger-oscars-broadcast-1234932535/)

By Patrick Frater

https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DO-NOT-SPLIT-3-res.jpg?w=681&h=383&crop=1
Field of Vision
The Chinese government has reportedly told its local media channels not to transmit live coverage of the Oscars and to downplay the awards ceremony. The move follows the nomination of “Do Not Split,” a 35-minute chronicle of the pro-democracy struggles in Hong Kong, in the documentary short subject category.

The order reportedly came from the propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party and instructed Chinese media to only report on non-controversial awards.

Such instructions are not intended for publication or dissemination overseas and are difficult to verify. The matter was first reported by Hong Kong’s Apple Daily and Radio Free Asia, and subsequently also by Bloomberg.

Directed by Norway’s Anders Hammer and produced by Hammer and Charlotte Cook for Field of Vision, the 35-minute film shows footage of the 2019 street protests in Hong Kong against the city government’s planned extradition law. Two marches in June 2019 were reported as attracting one million and two million participants, respectively, from a population of 7.5 million.

https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Do-Not-Split-cr-res.jpg

Field of Vision is a company under the First Look Media umbrella, along with The Intercept, Topic Studios and the Press Freedom Defense Fund. “Do Not Split” is the company’s third Oscar nomination after “In The Absence” (2020) and “A Night at the Garden” (2019).

The film follows the increase in physical violence and growing desperation by the pro-democracy camp after the extradition law was abandoned, only to be replaced in June 2020 with a Beijing-imposed National Security Law. It also discusses the erosion of rights of freedom of expression and the media.

Oscar nominations were announced on Monday this week. The winners will be revealed at a ceremony in Los Angeles on April 26.

The gag order illustrates how politics are complicating almost every aspect of entertainment, culture and the arts in mainland China and former British colony Hong Kong.

The Oscar nominations contained two other pieces of news that might otherwise have been cheered by Chinese authorities: six nominations, including best film, for “Nomadland” by Chinese-born director Chloe Zhao; and the nomination of Hong Kong’s representative “Better Days,” in the best international feature category.

Since Zhao’s Golden Globe directing prize win in February, “Nomadland” has sparked a storm of controversy in China. State media and social media alike initially blazed with pride and sought to claim Zhao’s historic success for China. But within days, social media users unearthed two previous interviews given by Zhao to foreign news outlets.

In the first, Zhao told the Australian website news.com.au that “the U.S. is now my country.” Zhao’s last three films have been U.S. productions and Chinese netizens took her comments to mean that Zhao may no longer hold a Chinese passport. That section of the interview was online in December 2020, but had been deleted some time before Feb. 16, 2021.

The second interview appeared in New York-based Filmmaker Magazine in 2013. Explaining why she chose to make a film (2015 drama “Songs My Brothers Taught Me”) about a Native American teen on a North Dakota reservation, Zhao said: “It goes back to when I was a teenager in China, being in a place where there are lies everywhere.” She added: “You felt like you were never going to be able to get out.

“A lot of info I received when I was younger was not true, and I became very rebellious toward my family and my background,” said the director. The comments had been removed from the magazine’s website by Feb. 15, 2021.

“Nomadland” has been penciled in for an April 23 release in China. But it’s no longer certain that it will go ahead.

The trajectory of “Better Days” is less controversial, but just as twisty.

Directed by Hong Kong-based director Derek Tsang, the film is a mainland China-set melodrama that mixes up a school bullying tale with a story of mismatched love. It was set to have its world premiere in February 2019 at the Berlin Film Festival, but at the last minute it was withdrawn by its production team, amid messages of regret from Tsang. No meaningful explanation was ever advanced, but it seems likely that the gutsy telling of disaffected youth caused Chinese authorities to rethink the permission given for it to screen overseas.

After a couple more false starts, “Better Days” was allowed to release in Chinese theaters, where it proved to be a smash hit, earning RMB1.55 billion ($238 million).

That does not mean authorities were cool with the film. Mainland China favored an overtly patriotic sports drama “Leap” as its Oscar contender. That left Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Area belonging to China, to select “Better Days.”

In recent days, arts and culture have become the center of another storm in Hong Kong, where pro-Beijing forces are politically ascendant.

On Monday, under pressure from Beijing-loyal newspapers, cinemas and arts centers in Hong Kong canceled planned commercial screenings of “Inside the Red Brick Wall,” another award-winning documentary about the pro-democracy protest movement. It was accused of breaching the National Security Law by stirring up hatred for the Hong Kong police and for China.

On Wednesday, it was the turn of broadcaster RTHK and the West Kowloon Cultural District’s museums to be attacked by Beijing supporters.

New People’s Party lawmaker Eunice Yung claimed that upcoming shows at the WKCD’s M+ Museum are causing great concern to many members of the public, because they are “spreading hatred” against China. “How come there will be display of art pieces that are suspected to have breached the national security law and also are an insult to the country?” Yung asked in the Legislative Council.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam responded by saying that authorities will be “on full alert” to make sure museum exhibitions in Hong Kong do not undermine national security.

“I’m sure staff are able to tell what is freedom of artistic expression and whether certain pieces are really meant to incite hatred or to destroy relations between two places (Hong Kong and mainland China) and undermine national security,” Lam said.

threads
The-Academy-Awards (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?20798-The-Academy-Awards)
Hong-Kong-protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
03-29-2021, 09:45 AM
Mar 29, 2021 6:59am PT
Hong Kong Film Festival Cancels Opening Movie, Citing Unspecified Technical Reasons (https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/hong-kong-festival-cancels-opening-film-where-the-wind-blows-1234939989/)

By Patrick Frater

https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Where-the-Wind-Blows-still-cr-res.jpg
Shaw Organization
The Hong Kong International Film Festival has announced the cancelation of its world premiere screening of crime thriller “Where the Wind Blows.” The move appears to be part of the accelerating ‘mainlandization’ of Hong Kong’s entertainment industry.

The festival said Monday evening in a statement that screenings of “Where the Wind Blows” (previously known “Theory of Ambitions”) had been cancelled at the request of the film’s owner.

“Upon request from the film owner, the screenings of ‘Where the Winds Blows’ originally scheduled at 5.30 p.m. on 1 April and 2.30 p.m. on 4 April are cancelled due to technical reasons,” the festival said in a statement in English and Chinese.

The film was produced by Hong Kong’s Mei Ah Film Production in a co-venture with mainland Chinese firms Dadi Century and Global Group. Its production budget has been reported as $38 million.

The film is directed by Philip Yung, who made the acclaimed “Port of Call,” and stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai (“In the Mood for Love”) and superstar singer-actor Aaron Kwok (“Monkey King,” “Cold War”). Kwok was additionally named as the festival’s goodwill ambassador.

Rooted in the long-established vein of Hong Kong crime films, “Where the Wind Blows” “depicts the friendship and rivalry between two ambitious detectives who form dangerous alliances with organized crime,” according to the HKIFF catalog. The IMDd synopsis describes it slightly differently: “A corrupt police sergeant’s career is curtailed by the launch of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption.”

“Technical reasons” is widely understood in mainland China as a euphemism for censorship. It was the phrase used for the abrupt cancelation of Zhang Yimou’s “One Second” at the 2019 Berlin film festival and for the last-minute halt of “The Eight Hundred” which had been set as the opening film at the Shanghai festival later the same year.

Portraying corruption on screen has previously been difficult for filmmakers on the mainland. In contrast, Hong Kong filmmakers, including Johnny To, Andrew Lau, Longman Leung, Felix Chong and Alan Mak, have reveled in dramatic and exciting portrayals of crime, corruption and abuse of power.

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper had reported that Mei Ah previously aimed to release the film at the end of 2018. But it was then thwarted by the mainland’s National Radio and Television Administration because the film dealt with police corruption and Triad organized crime gangs.

What makes the latest case harder and more perplexing is that “Where the Wind Blows” is set in the 1960s and the period of British colonial rule; nor have Hong Kong films previously followed mainland edicts within Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, specifies that the Special Administrative Region has the ability to set its own policies on matters such as culture, education and technical standards. Hong Kong has never previously applied the mainland Chinese system of movie censorship, and instead operates the kind of ratings or classification system that is widely used in western democracies.

However, since Beijing’s injection of the National Security Law into Hong Kong law and the shutdown of the pro-democracy camp’s ability to act as legislators, the entertainment, arts and media sectors have increasingly become the focus of scrutiny.

Award-winning pro-democracy documentary film “Behind the Red Brick Wall” was pulled from cinemas earlier this month before it could get a commercial screening. Hong Kong broadcasters have followed the example of mainland media and ditched their plans to screen the Oscars ceremony, where another democracy movement film “Do Not Split” has been nominated in the short documentary category. And public broadcaster RTHK has been repeatedly sanctioned over matters such as satirizing the police and its investigative journalism techniques. In recent weeks, pro-Beijing lawmakers have asked for artworks by exiled Chinese artist Ai Weiwei to be removed from the new M+ Museum at the West Kowloon Cultural Centre.

The 45th edition of HKIFF is scheduled to run April 1-12, 2021.

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GeneChing
04-25-2021, 10:14 AM
It's nearly impossible to be a-political anymore, but when a doc is very political, well, we'll see what the Academy thinks tonight...


Film on 2019 Hong Kong protests vies for Oscars, riles China (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/25/do-not-split-exposes-emotional-toll-of-2019-hong-kong-protests)
Do Not Split does not shy away from the violence of the protests, but at its heart is the emotional toll on the young people struggling to protect the city they love.

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DO-NOT-SPLIT-3_courtesy-of-Field-of-Vision-1.jpg?resize=770%2C513
Do Not Split's Oscar nomination has riled China [Anders Hammer/Courtesy of Sundance Institute]
By
Kate Mayberry
25 Apr 2021
Growing up in Hong Kong, Joey Siu imagined she might become a secondary school teacher, but two years ago, as pro-democracy protesters filled the streets of the Chinese-ruled city, she found herself taking a different path.

Siu joined the rallies as a student activist, but quickly took on a more prominent role in the movement, advocating for international help and speaking regularly to the media.

Then, in June last year, China imposed the National Security Law – broadly worded legislation it said was necessary to deal with secession, terrorism, subversion and “collusion with foreign powers”.

Overnight, social media accounts were closed, pro-democracy groups shut down. The protests, already quietened by the coronavirus pandemic, evaporated.

Some chose exile. Siu agonised for weeks about what to do.

“I never really thought about leaving Hong Kong this soon,” the now-21-year-old told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC, where she eventually settled in October last year. “I always thought I would have a career in Hong Kong, and a future and that it would be the city I would live in permanently.

“[But] I realised if I chose to leave Hong Kong, I could do more for Hong Kong.”

The tumultuous political developments in the Chinese territory, Siu’s own growth as an activist and the emotional toll on the protesters as they struggle for the city they love are at the heart of Do Not Split, the 35-minute film by Norwegian director Anders Hammer that is in contention for best short documentary at the Oscars on Sunday.

‘No way to defend ourselves’
Described by Variety as “visceral, up close and personal”, Hammer went down to the streets to film alongside the protesters and capture not only the unpredictability of the protests, but their raw emotion.

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DO-NOT-SPLIT-5_courtesy-of-Field-of-Vision.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C433
A still from Do Not Split by Anders Hammer, which has been nominated for an Academy Award [Anders Hammer/Courtesy of Sundance Institute]
From its opening with a group of black-clad protesters breaking into a Chinese-owned bank, to a group of police officers pushing a protester to the ground, flattening his cheek to the tarmac, his shirt ripped off, and his belly exposed, the film does not flinch from the increasing violence of the confrontations between police and protesters.
Throughout there are clouds of tear gas, sprays of water cannon and the putt-putt of rubber bullets.

Siu remembers how the protesters struggled with how to deal with the police’s escalating response.

“When the movement first broke out most of the protesters, including myself, were new,” she said. “We did not know how to deal with tear gas, rubber bullets and everything.”

At first, the police gave the crowds the space to disperse and return home, but then their tactics changed, she remembers.

Protesters often found themselves boxed in under volleys of tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets. Some protesters were shot with live ammunition.

The government had also made clear those arrested could be charged with rioting, an offence punishable with a jail term of as many as 10 years.

“There was really no way to defend ourselves, other than by also deploying a certain level of force,” Siu said.

Emotional toll
Hammer arrived in Hong Kong in June 2019, and – apart from a quick trip back to Norway to collect more gear – spent weeks on the ground.

While some of the violence was disturbing – Hammer points to the standoff with police at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, which was besieged in November – it was the spirit and determination of the protesters that most affected him.

“Seeing the stress, the desperation and how protesters were trying to still keep hope even though it was becoming more and more difficult for them to protest and they could see very clear signs that Hong Kong was developing in the opposite way than they were fighting for,” he told Al Jazeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Director-Anders-Hammer-working-on-location-in-Hong-Kong-1-Courtesy-Oliver-Haynes.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C514
Anders Hammer on location in Hong Kong filming, Do Not Split. He decided to go onto the streets, build trust with the protesters and film alongside them [Courtesy of Oliver Haynes]
“They wanted to protect and keep the city as they knew it and they were fighting against this closer relationship with Beijing. And they were protesting because they felt their basic democratic rights were disappearing.”
Hammer gives space for the protesters to talk about their motivations and their sense of betrayal.

“The British handed us over to China like a bag of potatoes,” one says of the United Kingdom, which ruled Hong Kong as a colony until 1997.

Siu is shown wrestling with the psychological impact of the unfolding events.

“When our own city is decayed, [and] falling apart,” she tells Hammer. “What is the point of us thinking about our future.”

The 2019 protests began against a Hong Kong government plan to allow suspects to be sent for trial in mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

A million people marched through the streets of the city on June 9, and nearly double that the following week – the biggest protest in the territory’s history – but it was not until September that chief executive Carrie Lam finally withdrew the bill.

‘Dark times’
The rallies did not emerge out of nowhere, however. Hong Kong people had long been chafing at Beijing’s tightening grip.


At the handover, the country’s Communist Party leaders had promised to respect the territory’s rights and freedoms – unknown in the mainland – for at least 50 years.

Before the 2019 protests, the biggest demonstration in the territory had been 16 years earlier against plans to introduce a national security law, which were then dropped by the government.

Demands for universal suffrage – a key demand of the 2019 protests – and the right to choose the city’s leader have periodically erupted into mass demonstrations, notably in 2014 when tens of thousands joined a peaceful 79-day sit-in in the heart of the city, after Beijing declared the territory did not have autonomy.

“I felt this was one of the most important events in international politics at the time,” Hammer said of why he decided to go to Hong Kong in 2019. “I still think it is.”

The protests had already cooled even before the National Security Law was imposed, but critics have said the legislation has effectively criminalised even legitimate forms of political dissent. continued next post

GeneChing
04-25-2021, 10:14 AM
https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DO-NOT-SPLIT-1_courtesy-of-Field-of-Vision-1.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C433
Protesters with a petrol bomb in a still from, Do Not Split. While Anders Hammer’s film shows the violence of the protests, he says he was most affected by the emotional and psychological stress that the protesters felt [Anders Hammer/Courtesy of Sundance Institute]
In January, some 50 politicians, activists and academics were arrested in police raids over a primary election they had organised in July 2020 to help the democratic camp choose the strongest candidates for a Legislative Council election that was then delayed.

Since then, Beijing has rewritten the rules on the territory’s elections to ensure only “patriots” can hold office.

“I feel sorry for Hong Kong,” Hammer said, noting that two of those arrested appeared in his film. “These are dark times. The developments we are covering in the documentary in the sense that the room for democracy is shrinking have just continued.”

The continuing crackdown, which has even ensnared veteran lawyer and politician Martin Lee who helped draft Hong Kong’s post-colonial constitution, has further deepened divisions between China and western democracies including the United States, the UK and European Union.

China anger at Oscars
Unsurprisingly, the Oscar nomination for Do Not Split has caused upset in Beijing.

An article in the Global Times, a Communist Party-controlled tabloid, dismissed the film as a “fake” documentary that “lacked artistry” and was “full of biased political stances”. Nominating such a film would “hurt the feelings” of Chinese audiences, it said.

The Oscars will not be shown on the mainland, while the Hong Kong broadcaster TVB blamed “commercial” reasons for its decision not to broadcast the ceremony for the first time in more than half a century.

“Our main aim in making this documentary was to bring attention to the critical situation in Hong Kong,” Hammer said. “Ironically, the censorship of the Oscars and the attention brought to our documentary has resulted in more stories about the critical situation in Hong Kong so Beijing is helping us.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/063_1291655342.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513
Joey Siu testifies during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration in December. The hearing was held to examine Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement through US refugee policy [Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images via AFP]
Siu now works at international advocacy group Hong Kong Watch, where she has addressed politicians in the US and further afield on the situation in Hong Kong, which she is convinced China wants to make into just “another, ordinary mainland Chinese city”.
She is worried about the place she was forced to flee, but finds comfort in the new ways people in Hong Kong are resisting, and that democratic governments appear increasingly willing to defend and stand up for their values and way of life.

“I am pretty motivated and encouraged to see, that either here in the States or in other countries, like in Europe, people are starting to realise that this strategy we have been taking for years is wrong and that we have to be taking a much tougher and also more comprehensive approach to deal with China,” she said.

It is a long way from the quiet life of a teacher.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA


threads
The-Academy-Awards (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?20798-The-Academy-Awards)
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GeneChing
07-16-2021, 07:50 AM
Cannes Screens Bombshell Hong Kong Protest Doc as Late Addition to Official Program (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/cannes-2021-kong-protest-documentary-1234981760/)
The festival's inclusion of 'Revolution of Our Times,' a hard-hitting chronicle of police brutality during Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests in 2019, is certain attract the ire of China's ruling Communist Party.

BY PATRICK BRZESKI, ALEX RITMAN
JULY 15, 2021 5:00AM
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Umbrella-wielding student protestors clash with police on the streets of Hong Kong. DEAR BROS
The Cannes Film Festival made a bombshell, last-minute addition to its lineup this week, inviting select members of the international press to attend a “confidential” screening of Revolution of Our Times, a gripping, politically powerful documentary initially described only as being “about the protests in Hong Kong.” Until its unveiling in Cannes, the film’s existence was not publicly known.

Revolution of Our Times has been scheduled to receive just one official special screening in Cannes, at 11 a.m. on Friday. The semi-secretive manner in which the film’s inclusion was announced initially aroused more curiosity in Cannes than its origins and subject matter.

On late Wednesday, the festival sent an email to the international press stating that a “surprise documentary” had been added to the program. Earlier in the day, however, a small number of film reporters were invited to attend a “confidential” screening in the Palais’ Salle Soixantieme. The Hollywood Reporter‘s correspondent was among the approximately 10 people present at the discreet afternoon showing. The festival requested at the time that no news about the film be released until Thursday afternoon, Cannes time.

As it turns out, the sensitivity surrounding the film appears warranted. Revolution of Our Times is a forensic and hard-hitting chronicle of the mass street protests that erupted in Hong Kong in the second half of 2019 — protests that were met with a brutal police crackdown, hundreds of arrests of activists and pro-democracy advocates, and the eventual imposition of near-total Chinese Communist Party control over the once-semidemocratic former colony. Thanks to Hong Kong’s expansive new National Security Law, imposed by Beijing in 2020, those involved in the new documentary could be subject to arrest and charges of subversion.
continued next post

GeneChing
07-16-2021, 07:51 AM
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A group of protestors, wearing raincoats to protect against tear gas, march down one of Hong Kong’s main thoroughfares during the 2019 pro-democracy protests. DEAR BROS
Revolution of Our Times is directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Kiwi Chow, 42, best known as one of the directors who contributed to Hong Kong’s 2015 indie hit Ten Years, a sci-fi dystopian anthology film that gathered five shorts, each exploring different ways that Hong Kong might change under Communist Party rule by the year 2025. Chow’s contribution, titled Self-Immolator, was among the politically starkest of the collection, telling the story of an elderly Hong Kong woman who sets herself on fire in protest after witnessing a Hong Kong pro-independence protestor being brutally beaten by police. The segment was considered extreme at the time of its release, but the reality in Hong Kong quickly caught up with Chow’s vision.

Revolution of Our Times uses extensive footage taken from the tumultuous events on the ground in Hong Kong in 2019, as well as interviews with a number of the activists involved (mostly done anonymously and with their faces disguised), to chart the growth of the pro-democracy movement. It simultaneously documents the sharp increase in police brutality as Hong Kong became engulfed in deadly street battles, including the 12-day siege of the Polytechnic University in November 2019. In one of the film’s most shocking moments, a body is seen being pushed out of a high-rise window, with Hong Kong authorities accused of kidnapping and murdering several of the movement’s central figures. The film is said to have been put together entirely in secret.

“Over the past fifty years, Hongkongers have fought for freedom and democracy but have yet to succeed,” reads the synopsis for Revolution of Our Times. “In 2019, the Extradition Bill to China opened Pandora’s box, turning Hong Kong into a battlefield against the Chinese authoritarian rule.”

Chow, it says, made this documentary to tell the story of the movement, “both with a macro view of its historical context and up close and personal on the front lines.”

Aside from Chow, the film states that the majority of those involved in the making of Revolution of Our Times — understandably — use pseudonyms in the credits, with the producer going by “Dear Bros.” Ahead of the credits, it declares that Revolution of Our Times was made “By Hongkongers.”

So far, Cannes organizers have offered no official explanation for the secretive and last-minute nature of Revolution of Our Times‘ addition to the festival program. But sources close to the festival have suggested that precautions were taken to protect the filmmakers.

Industry attendees also have been quick to surmise that the screening of the film — however discreet — is all but certain to upset China’s ruling Communist Party, and could risk the attendance of Chinese films and filmmakers at future editions of the festival.

Chow himself offered a statement of appreciation to the festival, writing: “I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Cannes. It is our honor to have the World Premiere of “Revolution of Our Times”, a film documenting the struggle of Hongkongers, at Cannes; and receive great attention. Hong Kong has been losing far more than anyone has expected, this good news will be a comfort to many Hongkongers who live in fear; it also shows that whoever fights for justice and freedom around the world, ARE with us! And Hongkongers are staying strong!”

Cannes has frequently stood with filmmakers facing political persecution in their home countries, such as Iranian director Jafar Panahi (This Is Not a Film) and Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov (Petrov’s Flu), both of whom were under house arrest and unable to attend the festival when their films were screened.

But Hong Kong’s protest movement has found precious few allies over the past two years, as Beijing has leveraged China’s outsize economic clout to attempt to punish any companies or individuals who dare throw their support behind democracy in Hong Kong.

In October 2019, the NBA — the most popular and profitable U.S. sporting league in China by far — was banned from broadcast in the country for a full year after the Houston Rockets general manager at the time, Daryl Morey, put out a single, seven-word tweet voicing support for Hong Kong’s movement. (“Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”)

In August that same year, Chinese actress Crystal Liu, star of Disney’s China-set action tentpole Mulan, created an international backlash when she voiced her support for the Hong Kong police force’s crackdown on protestors. The activist movement in Hong Kong called for a boycott of Mulan, but Disney, an ardent supporter of social movements in the U.S., such as Black Lives Matter, remained completely mum on the topic of democracy in Hong Kong. Many analysts pointed out at the time that the entertainment conglomerate would very likely see its multibillion-dollar Shanghai Disneyland theme park shuttered by Beijing if it were to speak out on the issue.

Hong Kong politics also are believed to have resulted in the 2021 Oscars ceremony being totally blocked from broadcast in mainland China and Hong Kong earlier this year. Broadcasters and regulators never supplied a reason for the mysterious suspension of the awards show in Greater China, but many connected to the industry believe it was intended as retribution for the Academy’s nomination of the Hong Kong protest film Do Not Split in the best short documentary category (past critical comments made by Oscar best director winner Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) about her home country also irked the authorities).

Beijing has moved with alarming swiftness to crush the Hong Kong movement featured in Revolution of Our Times. The repressive National Security Law put in place in the territory last year has resulted in the arrest of over 100 activists and opposition politicians. The crackdown also has had the intended effect of driving protestors overseas or into a state of self-censorship, as a chill has swept through the city’s creative community and civil society as a whole. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong school curriculum has been rewritten to teach fealty to the Chinese Communist Party, books have been banned, and pro-democracy journalists arrested at their jobs.

In July, The Apple Daily, a popular Hong Kong newspaper that had allied itself with the pro-democracy cause, was forced to close after its offices were raided by Hong Kong police and five of its editors and executives arrested. The CCP said in a statement that the publication had abused “so-called freedom of the press.” The Apple Daily‘s outspoken founder, Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, was arrested last year and remains in prison facing charges of national security offenses that carry a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

A recent rewriting of the censorship rules governing Hong Kong’s film industry, once a bastion of cinematic vitality — and the home to Bruce Lee, Wong Kar Wai, Stephen Chow, Jackie Chan, Johnnie To and scores more — will ensure that Revolution of Our Times can never be screened freely in the city.

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Cannes[/URL
[URL="http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68640-Mulan-(2020)"]Mulan-(2020) (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?53853-Cannes)
Hong-Kong-protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
08-25-2021, 11:37 AM
This is what was feared when HK turned over to PRC in 97...


Aug 24, 2021 1:09am PT
Illegal Film Screenings to Be Punished With Three-Year Jail Terms Under Hong Kong Censorship Law (https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/hong-kong-censorship-law-jail-1235047547/)

By Patrick Frater

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Courtesy of Celestial Tiger Entertainment
Hong Kong is to introduce a new film censorship law that could send anyone responsible for illegal screenings to jail for up to three years. Offenders could also be liable to a HK$1 million ($128,000) fine.

The new law is intended to codify national security concerns that were introduced into the city’s film classification ordinance as recently as June.

The moves were announced by the government’s commerce secretary Edward Yau at a press conference on Tuesday.

As well as codifying the Film Censorship Authority’s powers and duties regarding national security, the new law will allow the government to appoint an official representative to the Board of Review and do away with non-official members.

It will also cancel a film distributor or exhibitor’s right to appeal against a board decision if the decision is made on national security grounds.

Although the government has said that the July 2021 National Security Law does not have retrospective effect, the new film censorship law appears to have retroactive impact and undo existing classifications of past titles.

It will “empower the Chief Secretary for Administration to direct the Film Censorship Authority to revoke certificates of approval or certificates of exemption previously issued for films if their exhibition would be contrary to the interests of national security.”

That means that films such “Ten Years,” a dystopian portmanteau film made in 2015 that predicted how everyday Hong Kong life would under the yoke of mainland Chinese rule, could soon be banned.
Hong Kong has witnessed unprecedented social and political turmoil since mid-2019 when the government attempted to introduce a law allowing extradition to mainland China. After a year of civil disobedience and violent clashes between police and pro-democracy forces the mainland government silenced protests by injecting the National Security Law into an annex of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.

Since that time, the city’s election and education systems have been upended and a trades union disbanded.

In the entertainment and media sector, pro-Beijing media have pressurized exhibitors to cancel screenings of a documentary about the 2019-20 protests, the public broadcaster RTHK has been neutered and the city’s leading pro-democracy newspaper has been bankrupted.

The film censorship law will receive a first and second reading in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council on Wednesday next week (Sept. 1). Opposition politicians have all resigned, meaning that the pro-government majority is certain to get its way.

Yau said the law was necessary for “more effective fulfilment of the duty to safeguard national security as required by the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as well as preventing and suppressing acts or activities that may endanger national security.”

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Chollywood-rising (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?57225-Chollywood-rising)
Hong-Kong-protests (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
11-03-2021, 09:18 AM
Hong Kong
Hong Kong protests: filmmakers decry new law that could censor a moment in history (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/03/hong-kong-protests-filmmakers-decry-new-law-that-could-censor-a-moment-in-history?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1)
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Protesters demonstrate outside the Hong Kong police headquarters in June 2019. A new law could see documentaries of the protests banned over national security concerns. Photograph: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
The 2019 protests spawned documentaries that may never see broad release amid growing intolerance of anything linked to the fight for democracy

Helen Davidson in Taipei
@heldavidson
Tue 2 Nov 2021 20.25 EDT

When the DVD came back shattered, it felt like a sign. The creators of Hong Kong protest documentary, Inside the Red Brick Wall, had sent it to regulators for a screening approval, as they’d done numerous times before without issue. But this time the returning envelope was filled with silver shards.

“We didn’t understand why, but it was intentional,” one of the anonymous creators says. “They said it was broken by the DVD machine but it was intentional – it came back in pieces. It felt intentional, like they were sending a message.”

The screening was approved, but with a higher rating restricting audiences to people aged 18 and over. But the moment marked a significant shift.

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Protesters march on the streets in June 2019 against an extradition bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland China to face their judicial system. Photograph: Vincent Yu/AP
A few months later, in March, the theatre hosting the first commercial screening of the protest film cancelled on the day. Then the government-backed funding body, the Arts Development Council of Hong Kong, reportedly withdrew a major grant from the independent film collective that had released it.

The incidents underline the growing intolerance from authorities to anything related to the pro-democracy movement, which wracked the city for much of 2019. In June 2020, Beijing imposed its national security law which vaguely criminalised acts as foreign collusion, sedition, secession or terrorism. Since then police have used it to arrest hundreds of journalists, politicians, campaigners and activists, and make risky the selling of particular books, artworks, and films.

‘Clear political censorship’
On Wednesday last week, Hong Kong’s parliament criminalised politically sensitive film-making, with a law allowing broad censorship under the guise of national security. The new law bans any films the government deems could “endorse, support, glorify, encourage and incite activities that might endanger national security”, and allows officials to stop productions and screenings. Any unauthorised screening of a banned film can incur three years in jail for those responsible, or a $1m fine.

“The goal is very clear: it’s to improve the film censorship system, to prevent any act endangering the national security,” commerce secretary Edward Yau told the Legislative Council.

Kenny Ng, associate professor at the Academy of Film at Hong Kong Baptist University told Reuters the bill was “heavy-handed”. “Adding national security clauses to the bill is clear political censorship,” he said.

Obvious targets of the law are the rush of protest documentaries released in the past 12 months. The documentaries show some of the protest movement’s most violent moments and follow individuals including some who were later arrested. Many were made by anonymous teams of likeminded people who met while filming on the frontlines of protests, and were inspired to tell a deeper story than international media.

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A promotional poster for When a City Rises, a documentary charting the Hong Kong protests that began in 2019. Photograph: Supplied
“I think that was the moment I personally felt like this is the time we should start doing what a documentary film-maker should do,” says Iris Kwong, one of seven directors behind When A City Rises, which screened at the Brisbane International Film Festival over the weekend.

“[Before then] I wasn’t going to make any films about the movement because it was something I felt like the whole world was already coming in to, so maybe I didn’t need to do it. It was a moment where I just wanted to be together with the rest of the city in this social movement.”

Several film-makers tell the Guardian the new law doesn’t affect them much more than the national security law already did. Some have already gone to ground, working anonymously, while others have fled Hong Kong.

‘Risks to everybody involved’
The biggest impact of the new censorship law, several say, will be on Hong Kong’s status as an international film hub and the city’s rich catalogue of lauded, thoughtful and often political films. Last week’s law allows Hong Kong’s security chief, John Lee Ka-chiu, to ban the screening of existing films if he determines they threaten national security. The one most often cited as a likely target is the 2015 film 10 Years, a dystopian and rather prophetic imagining of Hong Kong’s future, but there are many others.

“We have so many films critical of governments, especially from before 1997 when we were still a colony of Britain,” says the Inside the Red Brick Wall film-maker.

“It was OK to criticise the Chinese government at that time and many of our famous and iconic films are from before or around that time. So it would be a huge thing if they decided to ban those films too, because they’re very culturally significant.”

Many local productions were already partnering commercially with mainland Chinese companies, and there had been a trend towards complying with mainland sensitivities, some of the film-makers note. But what was once an issue of resources is now a matter of law.

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A national security law enacted in 2020 stifled major protests in Hong Kong. Photograph: Vincent Yu/AP
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“With Hong Kong being a hub for film-making, and most of which are really expensive to make, if your movie gets pulled that’s really bad,” says Kwong. “So I think what will happen is the impact of this law will mean more self-censorship for non-political films.”

The Inside the Red Brick Wall film-maker says even in hindsight she and her team still would have made their film.

When A City Rises won’t screen in Hong Kong because “there are risks to everybody involved”, says Kwong, but it will be shown in Australia and several European countries over coming months. Kwong hopes the film will help global audiences understand what happened in Hong Kong.

“I think with any social movements around the world, there often isn’t a tonne that people can do, but what is worse is when people don’t know that it’s happening.”

Any members here currently in Hong Kong?