Fighting Words (Part 1)

06 Apr, 2026

The HK pro-democracy protests in 2019-2020 had a myriad of slogans, way too many to count, and some became so ubiquitous it's hard to say whether they even count as slogans. Which slogans gained popularity and which 'died out' in the course of the protests says a lot about how the the movement and its hopes evolved through the months, so, let's take a look!

I tried to organize the following in loose chronological order, 'tried' being the operative word.

C: 不撤不散
E: "No withdrawal, no dispersion"

The 2019 uprising started out as marches against ELAB (Extradition Law Amendment Bill), so the early slogans mostly called for the withdrawal of that bill. These words set out a very clear demand, and a very clear consequence - unless the bill is withdrawn for good, the protests would continue. And boy, did they continue.

C: 四大訴求 缺一不可
E: "4 demands, not one less"

Those who know about the HK pro-democracy movement and the 2019-2020 uprisings would find this one weird. Everyone knows that it's supposed to be five demands, not four. Well, we started with four. Actually, no, we started with three. And we actually ended up with more than five... Anyway, the point is, the first draft said 四大訴求.

For those who are curious about the 5 Demands and their evolution, I wrote a long thread on Bluesky. Will eventually move and expand that over here.

C: 生於亂世 有種責任
E: "Those born into a time of chaos have certain duties"

This was a slogan from the very start of the protest and I think sums up why Revolution of Our Times happened, and indeed, why it was 'of our Times'.

When the world starts to crumble, what is a citizen's duty? What are our responsibilities to each other? What do we owe the future? Whether they know it or not, anyone who goes out to any protest must weigh their answers to these questions in their heads. And if you're out in the streets marching for democracy, for peace, for justice... Then you must already understand what 生於亂世 有種責任 means, and why HKers took to the streets.

C: 沒有暴徒 只有暴政
E: "No rioters, only tyranny"/ "There are no rioters, only a tyrannical regime"

This slogan was born from the government branding protestors on June 12th as 'rioters', a designation that carries a higher criminal penalty. On that day the tear gas buffet began, with the HK police firing more 'non-lethal' ammunition in one day at HKers than they did during the whole of the Umbrella Movement.

沒有暴徒 highlights an important point about that day, and all other protests from that point onward. It was the HK police who fired on protesters first. If there are 'rioters', it's because there are those who - for want of a better description, and said with a straight face - woke up and chose violence. There are no rioters, only an authoritarian government who labels protesters so. And there would be no protesters, if there was no tyranny.

The slogan would later be the set piece at the LegCo Occupation that occurred July 1st 2019.

C: 五大訴求 缺一不可
E: "5 demands, not one less"

五大訴求 ('Five demands') was officially born on July 1st 2019, the set of demands HKers wanted to achieve through protesting. It started with 3, or 4 (again, we can deal with the messiness later) but the 5th and most important one - universal suffrage - was added on July 1st. The full slogan with 缺一不可 ('Not one less') would enter the popular vernacular by mid-July. The rest is history.

C: 是你教我們和平遊行是沒用的
E: It was you who taught us that peaceful protests are useless.

The phrase originated from a piece of graffiti sprayed on a Legislative Council (LegCo) column after protesters broke into the building and occupied it on July 1st 2019. It ties into the events of that day, but also sums up the 'why's of the 2019-2020 HK protests very well.

Some may dismiss protesters occupying LegCo as just theatre, but the imagery of HKers literally breaking into the legislative building to make their voices heard is the kind of scene you want in a pro-democracy movement. Because by 2019, avenues for voicing real political dissent were getting narrower, or shut altogether. HKers have no say in their executive. Businesses' votes count more than any one citizens' when it comes to the legislature. And it had been like that for more than two decades. Peaceful protests, again and again and again, yielded nothing.

On July 1st 2019, HK snapped. Hey, if you can't move the heavens then you might as raise hell.

C: 香港人,加油
E: "HKers, add oil!"/"Go! HKers!"

加油 are words of encouragement that can be used everyday outside of the protests. However, 香港人,加油 will always be pro-democracy chant. I don't make the rules.

It probably has something to do with the iconic ambigram you see above. It says 加油 here, but flip it on its side and it says 香港. Together with the Black Bauhinia and the Flag-With-The-Verboten-Words, this completes the Black Flag Triptych (I just made this up) of the revolution.

This slogan would turn more grim as the protest wore on... but we'll get to that.

Be Water

Bruce Lee's very wise words have been expanded to become a full-on protest philosophy: Be strong like ice, be mobile like water, dissipate like mist...

C: 兄弟爬山 各自努力/ 齊上齊落
E: "Comrades each climb the mountain in their own way"/ "We rise and fall together"

This is our 'all for one and one for all'.

These slogans seem to be contradictory, but they are a good description of how decentralized protesting worked in HK. There were various people laser focused on what they did best - translating pamphlets, doodling, decorating Lennon Walls, lobbying foreign governments, 'engineering' - and none of it was coordinated in any meaningful sense. This is 'each doing their own best, at their own speed'. But everyone was working towards one goal, which is achieving the 5 Demands. This is the 'rise and fall together' part.

It turns out if up all aim to scale to the top of the mountain, somehow, people will find a way. You trust there will be those who devise ingenious methods to get to the summit faster or slower, depending on their need for speed. You trust there will be kind souls who help others find a way, whether it's drawing out a full map, helping strangers do warm-up exercises before the climb, or just throwing hikers a juice box and 'add oil' their way. You trust those who fall would find support and keep going. You... trust. And people trust you. That's what these words are about.

C: 核爆都唔割 (or some variation)
E: "Won't sever ties even in a nuclear explosion"

As much as I said 'all for one and one for all' and 'trust each other', there are bound to be disagreements in any political movement, especially if it's big tent like the HK pro-democracy camp. This slogan is to remind the warring factions they have to focus on the common cause. Left or right, it doesn't matter. The choice is between a democratic society - in which the left and right can cage match all day long - or an authoritarian one, in which... well, you can't do any of that.

Part 2 to come...

#slogans