Mavis | Spending time reading sad news? - "I should think about how I can help."
A PR professional based in Vancouver, Canada
“I still cannot say that we have sent out the right messages to ‘click’ with most Canadians to their heart. Some people say they support Hong Kong; others wonder why. We just have too many stories to tell; there are too many things happening. That’s the real problem.”
Journalist: Coalhada
Illustrator: Tendarken
My family and I immigrated to Canada when I was 15 years old, in 1993, because of the 1997 handover. In 2000, I came back to Hong Kong for work for six years. I'm now 41 years old. My family all came back to live in Hong Kong - I'm the only one still living in Vancouver.
Their thoughts on the Anti-ELAB movement are completely opposite to mine. Take my mom as an example, she pretends that she is politically neutral, but, in fact, she is 'deep blue (ribbon)'* judging from her use of language when she expresses her thoughts out loud. Then there's my brother who is probably 'light blue', but he usually stays silent about these political matters. When they try to talk about the movement, I always try to be kind, and I would also say some things to defend our 'yellow (ribbon)'** side. Because I could already feel the tension in my family, I'm just staying in Hong Kong for two weeks this time.
In the very beginning, I couldn't say that I was an organiser (of the Vancouver protest) - I was more like a supporter of the event. After 12 Jun, there was a rally in Vancouver, in front of the Chinese consulate. A few of my friends were going, so we met up there. I bumped into some of my other friends whom I never thought would be also 'yellow'. Since I’m a PR specialist and event organiser - not specifically for the protests - I know a lot of people in media. During the protest, I bumped into a lot of the people I know, including the Vancouver correspondent of Xinhua news agency, who wanted to interview me, but I said no.
I guess, I was not feeling so sure (about the movement) during that time. Plus, at the time, I hadn't really started getting involved. We have some Facebook pages for Hong-Kong-Vancouverites who support the protests to communicate - I joined some of these groups. I started commenting and liking the posts online, or sharing those posts. There was a group of university students who noticed, and one of them private messaged me. He told me that they were a group of students who would like to start their own rally. They thought having a rally in front of the Chinese consulate was not very smart since it's a narrow street, and the local traffic would interrupt the rally. So I asked him, "What can I do to support you guys?" They asked, "Well... what can you do?"
I said, "I can help you by drafting a press release. I can share my media contacts with you to find the right person that you should reach out to. Tell them that you're going to have your own event, and tell them your event's message. I can personally and financially sponsor you for, let’s say, printing." So, I slowly started from there.
I have some friends around Vancouver as we began to know each other’s political stance. For those who share sentiments as me, we started gathering and buying material that the Hong Kong protesters need. A few friends have even organised sending things back to Hong Kong.
In a way, I am also contributing and supporting to the movement in terms of spreading information and raising awareness. Some friends from media who follow my Facebook and Instagram saw my posts about Hong Kong, so they often asked me, "What's going on?" They wanted to know about news and updates on the situation. I always tried to feed them the information they needed. Of course, I have to be unbiased and neutral when providing information about the situation to the media. I have to tell them the truth about what's really going on in HK. When the people in media need me to help, for example getting prominent people in Vancouver to be interviewed, I help them find the right person.
There are all kinds of people involved in these Vancouver protests.
There are some who had some political history in HK before, but I can't describe them as 'anti-China' because they weren't anti-China. They are older; they always have this group of people here. Now, there are new people coming from the university who are born in Hong Kong and are now studying in Vancouver. There are also people around my age. We're all trying to support and help the protest as much as we can. And I know that some were politically active and out there as well, when we had the Umbrella Movement five years ago.
From what I can see, there are a lot of different people, but we all have one thing in common - we are all connected to Hong Kong.
I did not see any white Canadians working with us for the protests. But when we have a rally, we can see there are a few white people attending - they come to support us. I remember one time, it was really interesting, when we had a rally in front of the Vancouver art gallery. I was helping my friends to distribute papers and Post-It notes for people to write on to create the Lennon Wall. A few mainland Chinese came up to me and gave me what they had written. They wrote 'Free China and free Hong Kong.’ Of course, they were wearing sunglasses and a cap to hide their identity. But at the time, I got goosebumps.
Not all the mainland Chinese are pro-Beijing. Some of them value freedom. Perhaps, some things happened to them. Or maybe, they have seen something, like the real side of China. That could be why they came to Canada. I think that, for this whole movement, it doesn't really not matter whether you are a Hongkonger or Mainland Chinese.
Right in the beginning, many people in Canada were not really informed about what was going on in Hong Kong from the news in Canada, and even in Vancouver. Obviously, some don't really read the news. It was not until everyone saw 2 million people protesting on the streets - it was impressive - and pictures of tear gas being deployed, did people finally start to ask 'why'.
You know what? I remember bumping into my neighbour when I left my condo to go to the airport with my mom in Vancouver. It must have been around June or July. She saw our luggage and asked us where we were going. I told her, "I'm taking my mom to the airport. She's leaving for Hong Kong." Then my neighbour exclaimed, "No. Please don't go back! It's so dangerous!" She said something along the lines that it's risky to head to Hong Kong. While I was trying to explain the situation to her, I also tried to figure out what her understanding was about Hong Kong. Is this how she sees the protests - as violent?
I have encountered some stories from Vancouver's media that do not fully inform their audience on the actual events happening in Hong Kong. Some of the media, probably a few I suspect, are getting paid under the table by the Chinese government. I can tell because most of the time their headlines are very misleading.
I still cannot say that we have sent out the right messages to 'click' with most Canadians to their heart. Some people say they support Hong Kong; others wonder why. They would wonder what is going on in Hong Kong when Carrie Lam had already announced the extradition bill is 'dead'. They ask, "Why are you guys still on the streets?" They never hear about the other things happening around the protests. We just have too many stories to tell; there are too many things happening. That's the real problem. So, I cannot say that we have got the right message out there yet.
When we had the protest by the SkyTrain station in Vancouver last month, the pro-Beijing Chinese had already sent out the protest's details on WeChat. Of course, I have a lot of mainland Chinese connections in my WeChat account as well. We all knew that those pro-Beijing Chinese were going to do something to interrupt the Hongkongers' protest that day. As expected, the SkyTrain station protest got interrupted. It was a huge news because the pro-Beijing Chinese included some young people who drove in Ferraris with the Chinese national flag - the Vancouverites just hated it!
Vancouverites hate this kind of show off attitude, so I felt that it was really helpful to the Hong Kong protests. What was featured in the news was a group of red T-shirts, singing the Chinese national anthem, waving the Chinese flag (not the Canadian flag). Now, bear in mind that these people may have already became Canadians, so shouldn't they be loyal to Canada instead? In contrast, with the Hongkongers, we sang the Canadian national anthem, we waved the Canadian plus the Hong Kong flag. So, it made a difference.
I feel that Canadians should care about Hong Kong. Since most of the Hongkongers have moved to Canada in the 1990s, and the 1980s, I can say that we have already built quite a good friendship with the locals. Canadians know a lot about Hong Kong food and Hongkongers - we have a connection.
Canadians value democracy and freedom of speech. However, they probably never thought about being suppressed, about losing democracy, and on losing the freedom of speech. Some may just have no feelings about the concept of losing their freedom at all. I saw different responses on how they see Hong Kong.
Some say, "That this is not a matter for Canada. Take the issue back to Hong Kong. Why protest in Vancouver?" Some of them are nice. They support a free Hong Kong and freedom of speech. Quite a few say that they thought the pro-China people driving flashy cars on the street with the Chinese flag was pretty disgusting.
Soon, there will be a Canadian federal election in November. The Liberal, Conservative, and other parties are using Hong Kong as a tool to get votes in their favour from the Hongkongers in Canada right now. If you look at the Conservative party, the leader Andrew Scheer said that he is going to support the Hong Kong people... All I can say is that politics are complicated.
I never thought I would help out on anything to do with politics, and on protests. I always set a boundary for myself in my career that I would not do any PR work that ties in with political matters. I couldn't sleep properly for the first two months since June. But one day, I don't know why, I had this revelation, all of a sudden. I told myself it's not worthwhile to spend my time reading a lot of sad news. I should think about how I can help.
After all, I'm an ordinary person. I'm just a small potato in the whole movement. But, what I can do with my knowledge and with my capabilities, is to help people understand about the protests in Hong Kong - we're still trying.
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*Being a blue ribbon is a term that means being pro-establishment. The description of how light/deep represents how strongly you feel about your political stance.
**Yellow ribbons are supporters of the movement.