On Tears and Tear Gas
Source: Telegram (Jul 1 2019)
What this blog is
This blog is meant to be a collection of protest art, pamphlets, photos from the HK pro-democracy movement filled with tears and teargas. Having these in many places mean the images are harder to erase. And harder to forget.
The material are mostly from the 2019-2020 protests, with some of the essays written then, others with the benefit of hindsight many, many years later. I will try to be as impartial as possible - it's much easier after nearly 7 years - but for understandable reasons, I can't truly be neutral. Seeing blood all over your local mall and the fog of tear gas envelope your city apparently does that to you, who knew. Basically, think of this place as a project mixing history, sociology, political science. And also a place for me to vent.
What this blog isn't
This blog is not a call to start a revolution in HK or elsewhere. I mean, this should be obvious, but I just want to emphasize it, just in case I get dragged off to 'drink tea'.
In terms of the materials on tear gas and tactics HKers used in 2019-2020, treat them as reference materials only, rather than a manual. I say this because it's just stuff that was circulating during the protests, I never tested any of it out myself. More importantly - and this will become apparent as you read my essays - what is presented in the art or pamphlets should not be taken as the gospel truth. It's what HKers want to appear as, often not what they actually are.
What's the difference between this and your Bluesky?
Consider the stuff here as my threads on HK protest art on Bluesky, but expanded. Or consolidated. Some of my threads became leviathans (I'm looking at you, '5 Demands' thread) and it was clear I probably need to find a better home for my essays. There's also a lot more protest art I have not posted which I hope to share here.
A note on sources
This one is tricky. Almost everything I will use here were publicly shared on Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit during 2019-2021. Some was extracted then, others some time after. Where possible, I try to note when the images first appeared (as far as I can track them) and which public forum I found them in.
I also try where I can to only use materials from the 'open sea' channels rather than those from personal accounts, unless the artist/ writer is a known figure in the pro-democracy movement. Unless an artist's or author's handle/ name are shown on something, I will not post the who the creator is, even if I may know who it is by. This sounds weird, but there are many, many HK artists who have scrubbed their their Instagram of protest art they made in 2019-2020 for obvious reasons. I try to respect their right to be forgotten, because it's all very understandable.
A note on navigating through images
A lot of the protest art, pamphlets, photos from the HK pro-democracy movement will be either presented in the body of the text, while others will be in galleries like the below. Just click through them and you should be able to see a description and source for each. These will also be dumped into Gallery, but I have yet to figure out best way to organize them. I will at some point. I think.
Source: Telegram (Jul 1 2020) (Yes, these are all from that one day when the National Security Law was implemented)
For those who want to use the materials or text from the blog
Please ask nicely by DM'ing on Bluesky
For obvious reasons, the database and essays took a lot of effort to put together over the last 7 years. There was an instance when a non-HKer wanted me to deliver the whole database to them on Jul 1 2019 so they can 'safe keep' it and also, hey, it would help them with their Masters. Reader, I said no. But there have also been instances when I said yes to HKers or those I got to know in 2019 who I trust, and gave credit. So, basically, just ask.