Christina Chan
Outspoken activist Christina Chan shot into the public eye with her high-profile protests of the Beijing Olympics and the high-speed rail link. She is now considered by many to be the face of the young protest movement. She tells June Ng her story.
I was born in Hong Kong. I went to study abroad in Britain when I was 10. It seemed to be a sensible thing to do at the time, as we were approaching the Handover.
My mom treated me as her career. She used to be a career-driven woman but she quit her job and took care of me full-time. If I didn’t score above 90 marks in a subject, I’d get into trouble. My dad is a former civil servant.
It’s funny that it was actually my parents who got me into activism. When I was a kid, they used to point at the television at people like Long Hair, saying that activists give Hong Kong hope because they fight for the rights of Hongkongers. They’re so cool.
But now I’ve gotten to know these people more. I realize many pan-democrat icons don’t really fight the way I had expected them to. You know Tony Jaa, the Thai action actor? I’m just like him—I thought that everything that Jackie Chan does on screen was real.
My parents are still supportive, even though they keep asking me not to go to protests. They actually get a lot of pressure from my grandparents and extended family members as well. Thank God everyone doesn’t call me directly.
When young protesters say we’re going to do something, we’ll do it. Maybe that’s what sets us apart with the older ones.
The thing that really gets to me is that if we protesters want to hand a letter to an official, we will hand it to that person, not to the police. But a lot of older pan-democrats will just hand the letter to the police and let the media take pictures.