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Kimmy Chung

“Please take a biscuit and remember to vote!”
“Go home and vote this Saturday!”
At the Taipei National University of the Arts, students were handing out cookies bearing the Chinese words for “Safeguard Taiwan” and “Democracy and freedoms” to passing students and staff, urging them to vote in Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections.
But the students themselves have no right to vote on the self-governing island. They – and the cookies – have travelled 700km from Hong Kong, a city embroiled in social unrest since June.

The students were already enrolled at the school when the anti-government movement kicked off in their hometown, sparked by proposed extradition legislation which has since been withdrawn. When they returned to the Taiwan campus in September, they hoped to contribute to the movement even while abroad.
About 30 of them formed a concern group, holding various activities hoping to focus their classmates’ attention on the struggle in Hong Kong.
“We scored a landslide victory in the district council elections in Hong Kong. I hope Taiwanese people will not underestimate the vote in their hands,” said a core member, who gave her name as Y.
“No matter who they vote for, we just want to remind them to exercise their rights,” said the fifth-year theatre student.
Chinese university deletes study forecasting win for Tsai in Taiwan poll
In Hong Kong’s local council polls in November, record voter turnout helped pro-democracy candidates sweep nearly 90 per cent of seats, taking control of 17 of 18 districts.
The biscuits – made by another group of Hongkongers, who wanted to spread their message to Taiwan – were quite well received, with some local students offering encouragement to the movement in Hong Kong.
A group member who called herself C, a fourth-year student of fine art, said Taiwanese voters should treasure the right to elect their president, especially when Hong Kong voters can only directly elect district councillors and about half of the legislature’s members.
“We just hope Taiwanese people can take their responsibility and make the right choice. We envy the electoral system here in Taiwan, as universal suffrage is something Hongkongers have longed for. Who is satisfied to be ruled by an appointed puppet?” she said.


C was referring to Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, elected in 2017 by a 1,200-member committee dominated by pro-Beijing politicians and business elites.
Taiwan’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, has been using the campaign slogan “Hong Kong today, Taiwan tomorrow” in her fight to retain the presidency, playing up the Hong Kong protests as a cautionary tale of Beijing’s encroachment.
In Tsai’s latest campaign video, her team also pointed to the plight of Hong Kong youngsters, urging Taiwanese people to “stand with democracy and freedom”. Recent opinion polls have shown Tsai leading her rival Han Kuo-yu, mayor of the southern city of Kaohsiung from the mainland-friendly Kuomintang, and James Soong Chu-yu, chairman of the smaller People First Party.
Y and C said they saw a subtle connection between Hong Kong and Taiwan, two places not far apart geographically, and which both use traditional Chinese characters, as opposed to the simplified figures used on the mainland.
I am a Hongkonger. I have seen how Hong Kong has degenerated. Don’t give a chance to the Chinese Communist Party
Banner on display in Taipei
Y noted that, apart from linguistic similarities, both places are dealing with the influence of Beijing. As a result, she said, many Taiwanese students cared about the situation in Hong Kong, and six or seven had joined their concern group.
﻿In September, the group created an artwork named Lennon Ship, a model yacht about three metres long and three metres tall, made from wooden boards. Its sail bore the popular pro-democracy slogan “Revolution of our times”.
The students said the boat referenced the “Be water” philosophy of the Hong Kong protests and served as a movable “Lennon wall” adorned with artworks, pictures and messages of support for the anti-government movement.
One of the ship’s creators was a group member who gave his name as R, who also marked China’s National Day on October 1 by organising a protest in which 60 students carried the boat up a hill on the campus.

“It sounds impossible for a boat to sail onto the hilltop. But, with unity, imagination and perseverance, we succeeded. We believe the Hong Kong movement will succeed too,” he said.
The Hongkonger, who is studying for a master’s in film studies, said he drew inspiration for the protest from the 1982 German film Fitzcarraldo, whose protagonist leads a group of people in moving a steamship over a steep hill in the Amazon to exploit rubber trees that are inaccessible because of the landscape.
Lennon Ship is now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei.
The students were not alone in urging Taiwanese people to vote.
For Taiwan’s voters, election is about more than Beijing and Washington
In addition to online posters created by Hongkongers, and calls by different groups, Hong Kong actor Chapman To Man-chat posted a video message on Thursday, urging Taiwanese people to treasure, and use, the democracy they have.
On Wednesday, two Hongkongers were spotted holding up a banner with a similar message on the streets of Ximending, a busy shopping district in Taipei.
“I am a Hongkonger. I have seen how Hong Kong has degenerated,” the banner read. “Don’t give a chance to the Chinese Communist Party. Youngsters, please vote.”
In the city on Friday night, tens of thousands attended a campaign rally for Tsai. Among a group of Hongkongers there was a youngster who gave his name as Gary, and held a black flag bearing the words “Liberate Hong Kong; Revolution of our times”.
He said: “We want to tell the Taiwan voters about what is happening in Hong Kong; to not let Taiwan become the next Hong Kong.”


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Boats for votes: the Lennon Ship on the campus of Taipei National University of the Arts. Photo: Handout

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Hong Kong

Politics


Students from the city take their message to campus on the self-governing island
Others call on voters to cherish their democratic rights, as president warns ‘Hong Kong today, Taiwan tomorrow’



Students from the city take their message to campus on the self-governing island. Others call on voters to cherish their democratic rights, as president warns ‘Hong Kong today, Taiwan tomorrow’.


Hong Kong protests

Taiwan