Activist Christina Chan
Christina Chan, 21, has been making headlines this week with her plans to stage a pro-Tibetan rally during the Olympic torch relay. The recent graduate in philosophy from Hong Kong University talks about why protests truly matter to Hong Kong.
HK Magazine: Tibet. Why should people care?
Christina Chan: It’s not just about Tibet, it's about many things that are happening in China. But Tibet is also a very important issue for us here because we too are administered by China in a special way. We were promised suffrage and a degree of self-determination, but we still don’t have these things. I’m not pushing for Tibetan independence but they should at least be able to select their own government if they want to.
HK: Surveys say 80-90 percent of Hong Kongers oppose protesting the torch. Has the reaction to your plans been pretty negative?
CC: I set up the protest on Facebook originally and I got a lot of negative messages, mostly from the mainland Chinese network, but also a lot from overseas Chinese. But since the media picked it up, I’ve been getting a lot of supportive messages. For example, I had originally created my own Tibetan flag, but then someone got in touch with me through Facebook with a real flag.
HK: Why do you think many Chinese people are personally offended when someone criticizes the Chinese government?
CC: I think people mistake protests, especially protests in the west, as an act “against Chinese people.” But it’s not. The protests are always against the wrongdoings of the Chinese government. The protesters genuinely care about Chinese people – they care about the human rights condition in China. They’re trying to help us. Sadly, the People’s Republic of China portrays it as westerners ganging up against us.
HK: Does your family support you?
CC: My mom has been crying all the time. My parents don’t want me to do it. My dad keeps reading the forums and he thinks everybody is going to come after us, dump a lot of shit on us.
HK: Facebook has suddenly taken down your profile page and the event page for the protest. What is going on?
CC: I have no idea why my Facebook account was removed. The protest group was removed, too. The Facebook team sent me an explanation, but it sounded pretty wonky.
HK: If you could change one thing about Hong Kong, what would it be?
CC: The direct election of all Legco members and the Chief Executive. People need to care more. And people need to be represented fairly – scrap the functional constituency and push for universal suffrage!