Fighting Words (Part 2)

11 Apr, 2026

Part of the thread started in Fighting Words (Part 1). As I said, HKers had a lot of slogans, because we had a lot to get off our chests. After all, the city had been protesting Chinese rule for 20+ years by 2019. All that tear gas and police beatings just inspired a lot more angry words.

Most of the below appeared/ became prominent early August to November 2019. They mark a step-up in localist sentiments, a complete breakdown in trust towards the HK police, and fatalism that wasn't really there in the early days of the protests. Oh, and everything's on fire. Why is there so much fire.

That last point about fatalism is sometimes lost on outsiders looking in. I get asked often by non-HK friends why my city chose to rebel, did it ever think it was going to win against Beijing. And the answer is - we knew we were never going to win. Even before that moment HKers asked for universal suffrage in the 5 Demands, our fate was sealed. Even before we dared to call the uprising a revolution, HK was doomed to lose. The point of no return was 20+ years ago. And yet, the city fought anyway. 'But why?' I don't know, because we had a duty to? Not sure how to explain this, you either get it or you don't.

C: 光復香港 時代革命
E: Liberate HK, Revolution of Our Times

This started out as a localist slogan, but gained traction/ became more mainstream after the skirmish in Sheung Wan/ Yuen Long attacks on July 21, 2019. It still remained a loaded phrase for a while, but it would become ubiquitous as the pro-democracy protests wore on. The slogan is also why 2019-2020 is sometimes called 'Revolution of Our Times', which honestly is a bit of a mouthful.

Fun fact: There was never a settled translation of 時代革命, and the decentralized nature of the pro-democracy movement meant mansuen pods just went with what they thought worked best. I've seen 'Age of Revolution', 'Revolution Now', 'Revolution of Our Time'. For some, 'revolution' is such a loaded term it's just replaced by something watered-down like 'Stand With Us'. I go with 'Revolution of Our Times' because it maps best to how I understand 時代, but whatever works for you.

C: 願榮光歸於香港
E: Glory to Hong Kong

願榮光歸於香港 'Glory to Hong Kong' is the name of the protest anthem unveiled in August 2019 after LIHKG - often referred to as 'HK's version of reddit' - kind of crowd-composed it in July-August. And it shows, because it is a lovely rousing tune that is just impossible to sing without moving parts of the song down an octave. You can tell all those LIHKGers did not pass their ABRSM Music Theory Grade 5 exams.

Jokes aside. Even more so than 光復香港, 願榮光歸於香港 is whatever the city-equivalent of patriotism is. HKers would put a hand to their hearts as they belt this out (off-key) at malls and marches. They would sing this with tears streaming down their eyes. We made an MV for our anthem featuring a full orchestra and amazing production values. The song is ours. Just like the city is ours. Aaaaaand... that's why it's now banned.

See the video on Youtube here

C: 警察還眼
E: Police, eye for an eye

On August 11, 2019, HK police shot a bean bag round at a street medic in the face, rupturing her right eyeball.

The whole of HK saw photos of a young woman collapsed on the ground, respirator flung onto a sidewalk, goggles cracked by a 'non-lethal' projectile, a hard hat with the words 還我民主 'give me democracy' stuck on its side and so, so, so much blood.

The city went ballistic, Old Testament- style. While as just a few weeks prior some HKers were still trying to appeal to the police to listen to their conscience and not follow orders, by August people were just openly chanting for the HK police to pay back in eye, blood or more.

C: 解散警隊 刻不容褑
E: Disband the police force, now!

This slogan started popping up late August 2019 but appeared infrequently until ~late September/ early October. By then, HK citizens have witnessed the HK police working with the triad, rupturing eyeballs, gleefully pepper-spraying journalists in the face, descending into an MTR station to beat the shit our of commuters for no good reason, oh, and you know, all the tear gas. It would get worse...

I don't want anyone to come away with the idea that disbanding the police force was a mainstream view in the HK pro-democracy movement, because it's not. But the slogan is in the mansuen often enough, and gets included as part of the 5 Demands/ 6 Demands (another essay for another day) enough times to suggest there's some support of the idea.

This is also not the same as abolish the police, because it's not. The implication behind 解散警隊 is often 'disband, investigate, reform'. Either way, it's an extremely radical position for a hypercapitalist city to take after only about 3 months facing off against the police.

C: 我雖勢弱言輕 決不虛作無聲
E: I may be weak, but I won't be silenced

I regret to inform you this came from a song in Aladdin, the bad live-action one. Someone on LIHKG adapted the song 'Speechless' sung by Naomi Scott, and translated

I won't be silenced

You can't keep me quiet

as 我雖勢弱言輕 決不虛作無聲. This particular piece of lyric took on a life of its own and became one of the more important slogans of the HK pro-democracy movement. This is probably the only cultural impact Aladdin (2019) would ever have and let's keep it that way.

C: 寧鳴而死，不默而生
E: "I would rather die speaking up than to live but stay silent/ be silenced"

Pretty self explanatory. Note how like '我雖勢弱言輕...' above, imagery tends feature more woleifei peaceful protesters, than the valiants at the barricades surrounded by hell fire.

C: 寧化飛灰 不作浮塵
E: I would rather fly as ash than drift as dust

As others have pointed out this is translation of part of a Jack London quote:

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

It is unclear whether those who used this slogan knew it was a London quote, or that London was a self-professed Socialist*, or that he was extremely racist to Chinese people. And by 'unclear', I mean 'they definitely did not know'. (Exhibit B - most HKers did not know Pepe's connotations in English-speaking world).

*In the course of the pro-democracy protests of 2019-2020, HKers accidentally leaned into socialist and anarchist sentiments quite often, even if they would be appalled if you had told them that. What started as ironically quoting Mao became 'this guy had a point about revolutions' and by November 2019, your median HKer was all 'workers of the world, unite!'. Think hypercapitalist city accidentally coming up with socialism from first principles. It was a weird time.

C: 寧為玉碎 不作瓦全
E: I would rather be shattered jade than an intact pottery

A Chinese idiom, similar in sentiment to 寧化飛灰 不作浮塵 above. To die with one's pride than to live without it. To burn brilliant at both ends lighting the world than to stay bound by the dark...

Another phrase concerning jade sometimes used during the protests is 玉石俱焚 'burn both jade and stone', which means to perish together/ destroy all. It's a more poetic form of 'if we burn...'. But all these slogans circle around the same philosophy of dying for freedom, and if one doesn't succeed, taking everything down to hell with them.

C: 無自由 毋寧死 (or some variation)
E: "Give me liberty, or give me death"

This is pretty self-explanatory.

If we burn, you burn with us

The phrase of course comes from Hunger Games. It's a good English summation of 攬炒 - literally translates as 'hug fry'. The slogan gives its name to 'Burnism', which is the philosophy of mutually assured destruction you saw in parts of the HK protest movement. (Some PR-savvy HKer tried to rebrand it as 'Phoenixism' but it never truly took off.)

For more on Hunger Games' influence in HK protest art, see my thread on Bluesky that I will port over here at some point. Also worth pointing out the Mockingjay salute from the Hunger Games had been part of HK protest iconography on the periphery, but has now become a full-fledged symbol used across SE Asia protest movements.

#slogans