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July 1 march
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Carman Lai, like many, said anger had prompted her to march. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Voices from July 1: protesters explain why they marched

Vanished Hong Kong booksellers and eroded freedoms among reasons cited

July 1 march

A few of the people who joined this year’s march explained what motivated them.

Carman Lai, 33, a service industry employee, said anger over what happened to Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee – who vanished in October upon crossing the mainland border at Shenzhen and returned last month to the city claiming he had been abducted – propelled her to march.

“I was really angry,” she said of Lam’s fears over his personal safety at the march Friday, leading him not to attend.

“This is not the Hong Kong we are familiar with,” she said. “We should not have this kind of fear. We should have freedom of speech.”

This is not the Hong Kong we are familiar with. We should not have this kind of fear
Carman Lai, protester

“We’re here to show the government there are still a lot of people who care about Hong Kong,” she added. “We’re really disappointed about what the government has done.”

Sheng Guanying, 85, came to Hong Kong from Shandong province 37 years ago and said his only appeal today was to ask for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to step down.

“I feel like my life has changed a lot, especially in terms of freedom of speech and personal safety,” he said.

Alluding to the saga of the five missing Hong Kong booksellers, Sheng said: “This shouldn’t be happening here.”

Sabir Butt, 48, an asylum seeker from Pakistan, said he joined the march because he believed the Hong Kong government did not care about asylum seekers’ rights.

“We’re suffering a lot here and the government sets so many barriers for us,” he said. “We’re here to raise our voice and also to show our support to locals.”

Sabir Butt. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Retirees Y.Y. Chang, 64, and Bill Tsui, 60, joined in what they called an annual outing.

Tsui gave a simple but forceful explanation of his reason for coming out.

“I want the chief executive to quit now,” he said.

Retirees Y.Y. Chang and Bill Tsui. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Tsui said he and Chang were angry and disappointed with the government, contending it was ignoring “the will of the people” and lacking credibility.

“We know it’s difficult to change the system, but we still came out,” Tsui said, adding he thought this year’s protest could force Leung to quit his post.

I feel very inspired. Democracy and human rights are the most important things
Beijing tourist surnamed Liu

A man who wished only to be identified by his surname Liu said he was a tourist from Beijing and decided to attend.

Liu, 38, took photos during the march and said he would share them with his friends back home.

“I feel very inspired,” he said. “Democracy and human rights are the most important things. I support Hongkongers. If a leader does a bad job, he has to step down.”

Vincent Kwong, 32, came with Cindy Sin, 34. The annual march coincides with Kwong’s birthday.

He said this year was his third time coming to the protest and that he was eager to call for Leung to step down as well.

“I think [being here] is more meaningful than going to a birthday party,” he said. “I want to express myself and I’m afraid I won’t be able to soon.”

Sin said she had attended the July 1 march almost every year since 2003. A former civil servant, she said she realised matters in the city “had gotten much worse” and that people were being deprived of their civil rights.

“I can feel the threat from the central government,” she said.

Cindy Sin and Vincent Kwong. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Now a barista, Sin said she understood why the younger generation felt disenfranchised as the government “did not listen no matter how many people came out.”

Michelle Pardini, 36, has been living in Hong Kong for 30 years, but this was her first time at the march. A California native, Pardini teaches at International Christian School and said she felt “fed up” with what was happening in the city, especially with the plight of the booksellers.

Michelle Pardini. Photo: SCMP Pictures

“Our rights in Hong Kong are being eroded,” she said. “ Just in the past few years, things have gotten much worse in terms of politics. I wish there was more unity because I think it’s sad there are so many divisions.”

Lawyer Ambrose Lau, 65, said he participated every year and brought along his family this year. Lau described the city’s political environment as deteriorating over the past 19 years, and hoped the administration could safeguard the city’s autonomy.

“Taking the booksellers incident as an example, Beijing has been eroding our freedom of speech in Hong Kong,” he said.

Ambrose Lau. Photo: SCMP Pictures

“I was afraid that if I didn’t come out this year, there’d be no more July 1 rallies in the future.”

He also called for stronger judicial independence, claiming Beijing officials and some local residents had been exerting undue pressure on judges in Hong Kong.

Sixty years Lau’s junior, Yip Ka-kei, 6, joined the march for the first time this year. She said she wanted to tell education chief Eddie Ng Hak-kim to scrap the Territory-wide System Assessment, also known as TSA, for all primary three students.
Yip Ka-kei. Photo: SCMP Pictures

“I don’t want any exercises, just more leisure time,” she said.

The primary one student said she needed to attend three-hour tutorial classes after school, and was overloaded with TSA exercises until she went to bed at 10pm.

She complained about having no free time on the weekends because she needed to go to piano classes, languages lessons and sport sessions.

“No TSA,” she said. “Let kids do what kids should do.”

Denise Chow, 24, who works at a local university, was one of the individuals carrying a 40 metre yellow banner expressing opposition to the government’s development plan for Lantau Island. She has been coming to the July 1 rally every year since 2003.

Denise Chow. Photo: SCMP Pictures

“The march is more organised now because they try to bring in different parties,” Chow said. “I want to let more people know there are these developments.”

Andrew Man, 22, from Lingnan University’s student union, turned out to protest tertiary education issues, including how Putonghua was being used to teach Chinese.

Andrew Man (centre). Photo: SCMP Pictures

He was unhappy with the chief executive’s leadership and felt Hong Kong’s future was “uncertain”.

“I hate him,” Man said, adding he felt Leung was illegitimate and did not represent young people.

Then there was Eric Wear, a permanent resident of the city who originally hailed from the US but arrived in Hong Kong in 1988. He said he came to the protest every year since it started.

“It’s not a very hopeful time,” the retired professor said.

“I think people feel a measure of hopelessness about the situation.”

Eric Wear. Photo: SCMP Pictures

He said relatives of his wife, a Hong Kong native, were gradually leaving the city as they saw no future for their children. “It’s a sense of losing your home,” he said.

Although Wear did not expect the protest to have an immediate impact, he said it was necessary to continue turning out.

“It’s a question of people’s dignity,” he said. “We’d like to see people recognised as citizens, not subjects.”

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