Echoes of Hong Kong in a musical refrain outside the White House

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

Who will not be slaves again!

When the beating of your heart

Echoes the beating of the drums

There is a life about to start

When tomorrow comes.

It took less than a minute on my mobile phone to clarify the connection I’d missed between Hong Kong democracy supporters and the musical version of the Paris uprisings of 1832.

Will you join in our crusade?

Who will be strong and stand with me?

Beyond the barricade

Is there a world you long to see?

The umbrellas had arrived at the White House – minus the tear gas (the young man with the microphone wore cellophane wrap around his head to suggest Hong Kong’s suffocation).

In the briefing room used by President Obama’s spokesman a few hours earlier, the plight of the protesters re-emerged among the important news of the day. I was among the reporters who had heard US Secretary of State John Kerry warn Chinese authorities not to use oppressive means against the protesters. The correspondent for CBS News, sitting in the front row, asked about the president’s view.

Spokesman Josh Earnest, ready for the question, began to read from notes.

“The United States supports universal suffrage in Hong Kong, in accordance with the Basic Law, and we support the aspirations of the Hong Kong people,” he said.

“The United States is watching very closely the situation in Hong Kong,” he continued. “Around the world, the United States supports internationally recognised fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression. We urge the Hong Kong authorities to exercise restraint. We also urge the protestors to express their views peacefully. We have consistently made known our position to Beijing and will continue to do that.”

As I left the park, the familiar Les Miserables anthem had burrowed into my brain. It’s an easy tune to hum without remembering all the lyrics.

By the time I arrived home, a Washington radio announcer was in the midst of a long report about the demonstrations. The news anchor pointed to the meeting earlier in the day between Kerry and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, where the two men expressed opposing views about events.

“We have high hopes that the Hong Kong authorities will exercise restraint and respect the protesters’ right to express their views freely,” the secretary of state said, throwing US support behind the young demonstrators.

“Hong Kong affairs are China’s internal affairs,” the foreign minister replied. “No one will allow those illegal acts that violate public order.”

The question got a lot louder in Washington on Wednesday:

“Do you hear the people sing?”

Alexis Simendinger is the White House Correspondent for the website RealClearPolitics