【SHARED】Jessica & Steven | Lending their voice in Norway standing in solidarity with Hongkongers
Born in Hong Kong, residents of Norway, Jessica (Chairperson) and Steven (Vice Chairperson) set up Hongkongkomiteen | Norge to give a voice to what is happening in Hong Kong.
“Some locals joke that if that happens to Norway, the entire government would have collapsed since the Norway population is just 5 million.”
Journalist: Kanice Yan (Published in HK Feature)
Editor: TS
Translator: Whatever1tTakes
Photos: Kanice Yan, provided by interviewees
Photo provided by HK Feature
As chance would have it, a social movement in Hong Kong has the inadvertent effect of connecting two Hongkongers overseas.
Jessica, 30-year-old, has lived in Oslo, Norway for six years. Having fallen in love with Norway during her time as an exchange student in Bergen, she decided to continue her post-graduate studies there, and has subsequently become an engineering geologist.
Steven, on the other hand, is 40 years old, born and raised in Hong Kong. He met the love of his life online, who happened to be a Norwegian, and moved to Norway in his journey to marry him. Having been in Norway for 16 years, he tried his best to assimilate into the local culture - hanging out with locals, learning Norwegian, with little involvement in the Chinese community.
Photo provided by HK Feature
As the social movement intensified, Jessica and Steven’s TV screens were constantly playing videos of protests and clashes. Despite being physically miles away, they wish to play a part to help Hong Kong in any way they could. This is how the Hongkongkomiteen | Norge was formed. The advocacy group strives to connect Norwegians and Hongkongers, so that protesters can get more support in Northern Europe. White collar employees by day, Jessica and Steven became heavily engaged in the social movement in their off hours: Setting up Lennon walls in Oslo, printing protest-related materials, running assemblies and university forums, meeting congressmen or even bringing Hong Kong protesters to Northern Europe, doing anything in their power to spread Hongkonger’s struggles and demands to Europe.
Photo provided by HK Feature
First lesson - “What is Hong Kong?”
Norwegians did not know much about Hong Kong, as coverage of the protests on NRK (Norway’s government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company) or any major newspaper is rather superficial. According to Steven, newspapers generally just do translations of Reuters. But Reuters usually produce opinion pieces, with a neutral to slightly pro-establishment lean. Youngsters might learn more about Hong Kong via social media, but the more mature group rely on traditional media, limiting their scope of information.
Hence the challenge of promotional materials is to make sure readers have enough back story to understand the situation clearly. “It usually starts from explaining ‘What is Hong Kong’, introducing the idea that Hong Kong is not China due to ‘One Country, Two Systems’, what ‘One Country, Two Systems’ is supposed to mean and how it works, how the current establishment is depriving us our promised freedom and democracy, and, of course, talking in detail about the five demands. What we initially were trying to do was just to raise awareness, and locals are indeed showing interest in the matter. The protest is high profile with the locals getting more exposure to news coverage during summer holidays.”
Photo provided by HK Feature
Western media often fixate on why the protesters are resorting to violence, which is a common question that Steven and Jessica receive. “We’d try to answer by showing them the nuanced reality. Hong Kongers are extremely frustrated with the government’s tone-deafness, and that is why the matter escalated. Even within Hong Kong, local opinion is divided , some can understand the sentiment, others consider it illegal”.
Steven mentioned that Norwegians are particularly impressed with Hong Kongers’ concept of “Be Water” – a philosophy populated by martial artist Bruce Lee to “be formless, shapeless, like water”, so to be able to change swiftly and adapt to any situation to gain the upper hand eventually in this long fight. Norwegians are sympathetic to Hong Kongers’ disappointment of the government trying to push the unpopular legislation, going against the wishes of millions of people who went out to the streets. “Some locals joke that if that happens to Norway, the entire government would have collapsed since the Norway population is just 5 million.”
Photo provided by interviewees
The struggles of the Norway-China relationship
Basic human rights and freedoms are carefully protected values within Norwegian society. Despite this, Oslo has kept quiet on human rights issues in Hong Kong and China, due to a number of past incidents with the laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize: Beijing was infuriated when the Prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama in 1989 for "the struggle of the liberation of Tibet and the efforts for a peaceful resolution". Similarly in 2010, the Nobel committee awarded the Prize to Liu Xiaobo and other human rights activists who helped draft the Charter 08 manifesto. Liu was in prison and could not attend the ceremony, where an empty chair was placed on stage in the absence of the laureate. In reaction, China ceased a number of exchange activities and put bilateral trade talks on hold, even restricting exports of Norwegian salmon to China.
After the Conservative party’s huge gains in the 2013 Norwegian parliamentary election, Oslo has pledged to smooth over tensions in the China-Norway relationship. No officials met with the Dalai Lama during his 2014 visit, while in 2016, the Norwegian government normalised its diplomatic and political bilateral relations, stressing in the statement that the “Norwegian Government reiterates its commitment to the one China policy, fully respects China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, attaches high importance to China’s core interests and major concerns”. Many criticised the statement as a signal that Norway would choose to stay silent on China’s violations of human rights.
Photo provided by interviewees
Jessica and Steven, like a lot of Norwegians, have taken keen notice of the signs of Chinese aggression like the Huawei 5G controversies, the Confucius Institute’s attempts to influence academic freedom, and China eying the North Pole’s great resources. With Hongkongkomiteen | Norge, Jessica and Steven are trying to bring in Norway as part of the frontline in the movement, with Steven proposing the inclusion of clauses of human rights protection in the upcoming trade agreement. “Norway should demonstrate its high expectations on human rights by standing its ground and include the clause”.
While Northern Europe hasn’t been the spotlight area of battle for Hong Kong, Jessica and Steven have decided to continue being one important voice on Hong Kong issues. As Jessica said, “I’d be standing with Hong Kongers. I greatly admire their resistance, despite all the difficulty they face. Even if the future is grim, it gives me hope that it might not be as pessimistic as I originally thought”.
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Original article: 將香港聲音衝出北歐 港手足拿諾貝爾和平獎- 誌HK Feature
(This story is supported by HK Feature and has been modified.)