Hong Kong families split over support for Occupy Central protest

It's not a student's job to meddle in politics: that's the message Kuby Chan received from her parents and one probably heard by many other young activists manning the Occupy barricades.

"My parents said students shouldn't take part in what the Hong Kong Federation of Students has organised, but instead, focus on their studies," said the 16-year-old, who has been out on the streets since the first day of the university class boycott on September 22. "They thought [students] were making a scene or staging a show," she said. "They had no idea why students had to do that."

Chan, who has been camping out on the streets every night over the past few weeks, said that after she decided to take a stance for democracy, her parents barely spoke to her.

But a transformation came after the most dangerous moment she experienced since she joined the movement.

A crowd had gathered outside Sin Tat Plaza in Mong Kok near where an anti-Occupy man was seen assaulting a protester. Chan was among the crowd that had the man surrounded by the time riot police arrived.

In the chaos, the teenager was hit on the back of the head by a police baton. Her parents found out the next day from her younger brother. "They asked me to take sufficient equipment with me [to protect myself]," Chan said. "Compared to their tough stance previously, their attitude has changed." .

Chan said the last generation who fought the same fight had not achieved reforms so it was now her generation's turn. "Maybe we will succeed," said Chan, who dropped out of school a year ago. "I won't succumb so easily this time."