Echoes of Hong Kong in a musical refrain outside the White House
White House correspondent Alexis Simendinger draws parallels between the democracy protests in Hong Kong and the revolutionary France portrayed in the iconic musical Les Miserables
It was the soft, vaguely familiar music that caught my attention on Wednesday night as I exited the White House grounds in October darkness, and gazed past new barricades recently installed after a man leapt over the tall fence and sprinted into the famous East Room before he was apprehended.
On the edge of Lafayette Park, a small crowd had gathered. As I walked across Pennsylvania Avenue, where no cars are allowed, I could see lights illuminating something in the centre of a circle. Secret Service agents stood along the sidewalks, and tourists drew closer. On any other night, I might have detoured around the crowd but for that music – what was it?
A man holding a microphone politely informed onlookers, some with video and television cameras, that his group would sing in English and Cantonese. An open umbrella lay on the brick pavement. Young people, their backs turned against the glow of the White House at night, held up two large placards that read “Stay Strong Hong Kong!” And then, in a cappella, the group began to fill the park with refrains from the musical Les Miserables.
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of the people