'Umbrella movement' fires fair imagination

Memorabilia with political and current affairs themes may again dominate stall fronts during the annual Lunar New Year Fair at Victoria Park in February, with creators drawing inspiration from the "umbrella movement".

Visitors to the week-long event can expect merchandise based on the mass sit-ins and products parodying Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, as students and democracy groups scooped up spots at an auction yesterday.

Polytechnic University engineering student Dominic Cheung and other students clinched a dry-goods stall for HK$34,000 - within budget, but about 30 per cent higher than what they paid last year.

"We're not afraid of failing to break even. We designed our own products in the past and they were quite popular," he said. One of their bestsellers last year was a deck of playing cards with each of the 52 cards portraying a significant news event in the year.

For next year's fair, they planned to design handcrafted memorabilia related to the "umbrella movement". The humble brolly has doubled as a tool for Occupy Central protesters to fend off tear gas and pepper spray and is now a symbol of resistance.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China won its usual stalls, No 1 and No 2, near the park's Tin Hau gates again, breaking its record with a combined bid of HK$95,500.

The alliance paid HK$54,700 for both stalls last year.