Just SayingHong Kong’s ‘fishball revolution’ is a load of bull, but there’s no denying the dangers of marginalising angry young people
Yonden Lhatoo rejects any justification for the Mong Kok riot but argues that it’s become more necessary than ever to tackle the root causes of youth anger
Let’s get a couple of things straight: Mong Kok is not Tahrir Square and the “fishball revolution” is no Arab spring or anything of that sort.
This is Hong Kong. You can make all the clever-sounding, pseudo-revolutionary analogies you like and romanticise your developmentally disabled distortion of reality, but what happened in the heart of Kowloon’s retail hub on Monday night was a shocking disgrace.
It began with a poorly timed government crackdown on illegal – but harmless – hawkers trying to make an extra buck at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday selling fishballs and other snacks. A bunch of youngsters spontaneously took up the hawkers’ cause as self-appointed guardians of public justice at the scene.
Social media-savvy crowds responding to rallying calls online soon outnumbered frontline police officers, and what followed next was a riot featuring mob violence on a scale this city has not witnessed even during the worst of the Occupy Central clashes in 2014.
I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years reporting Hong Kong’s ups and downs. Hundreds of rioters started fires in the streets and fought pitched battles with police using bamboo spears, glass bottles and bricks ripped up from pavements.