If Hong Kong is the ‘City of Protests’, this man is its mayor
Meet ‘Bull’ Tsang Kin-shing, creator of iconic demonstration props, including his classic cardboard ‘Tiananmen’ tank and last year’s giant white elephant
In 1990, a year after the Tiananmen crackdown, construction worker Tsang Kin-shing turned two bicycles and a few planks into a makeshift tank, the shameful symbol of Beijing’s bloody suppression of students calling for democracy.
He even installed a fire extinguisher inside the model to act as a cannon that puffed out bursts of smoke. Tsang and his “tank” drew a lot of attention as they moved from North Point to Xinhua’s headquarters in Happy Valley – China’s then de facto embassy in Hong Kong – with his fellow protesters.
The now 61-year-old activist is one of the leading pioneers in introducing creative props to the protest movement in Hong Kong, often dubbed the “City of Protests”.
“A prop to me is a single panel of a comic book,” Tsang, of the League of Social Democrats, told the Post ahead of the 28th anniversary of the crackdown.
“It can clearly reflect what the protesters are calling for in one go ... Sometimes it changes how people look at the issue.”