TAIPEI, TAIWAN Artist and democracy activist Kacey Wong is one of the many Hongkongers who have fled abroad after China suppressed the autonomous region’s democracy movement with a heavy hand.
Wong put his protest artwork in a container and traveled to Taiwan.
– Generally, people fight for their homeland, for concrete ground that they can step on. My country has already disappeared, Wong thinks in his studio outside Taipei.
He says he is still fighting for ideology, democracy.
Wong doesn’t think he’ll ever return home. For him, Hong Kong is no longer safe, and it no longer exists for him.
– Hong Kong is now just an empty shell without a soul, Wong puts it.
China’s harsh law stopped the protests
Kacey Wong fled Hong Kong in 2021. The national security law pushed by China had entered into force in the city, which stopped the long-running protests like a wall.
Based on it, the authorities arrested 47 well-known opposition representatives and democracy activists.
They are accused of organizing illegal primaries and anti-state activities under the National Security Act. The reason was that the opposition held an election among themselves in July 2020 to choose their candidate for the Hong Kong Legislative Council elections. According to those in power, they tried to destabilize the state. A large number of the accused have been awaiting trial in prison for a couple of years. Verdicts are expected this spring.
When the arrests started, Kacey Wong knew the only option was to leave. The authorities had noticed his protest art.
Among other things, Wong was dressed as Moses and carried a sign on the street demanding democracy from China. He played the Chinese national anthem on an accordion in a red cage.
It would only be a matter of time before he was arrested. In the legal system controlled by China, the best lawyer couldn’t help.
– I thought that if I got caught, the trial would probably be held behind closed doors and the lawyer would also be arrested, Wong describes.
Many Hong Kongers headed west, especially to Hong Kong’s former colonial host country, Britain. More than 140,000 people have already moved there in the last two years. Wong left for Taiwan, where there is a familiar language and culture.
Llama is a swear word when the censor strikes
Wong has not forgotten his past. The large spatial art works that fill the studio take care of that. Most of them have walked the streets of Hong Kong in protests with the artist.
The visitor’s eye is caught by the life-size llama on wheels, which Wong rolled onto the street in 2011 to oppose the famous artist Oh Weiwei detention in Beijing. At that time, hundreds of Hong Kong artists took to the streets to demand freedom of expression.
– It was my first political work of art. That was the first time I realized that Hong Kong’s freedom could crumble, says Kacey Wong.
China had promised to respect Hong Kong’s special status as well as democratic freedoms when Britain handed over the city to China in 1997. However, the rights began to crumble little by little.
The national security law that entered into force in 2020 is strict and gives the authorities room to interpret what constitutes terrorism, anti-state activity or scheming with foreign countries. Even playing the theme music of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement can land you in jail.
According to Hong Kong authorities, about 250 people have been arrested for violating the National Security Law in the past two years. Thousands of protesters have been arrested and imprisoned under other laws.
Kacey Wong sees China’s current leader Xi Jinping which accelerated the strengthening of China’s grip.
Wong felt that there was no other option but to become politically active. The llama is an example of the inventive ways of the Chinese to express their opinions in the midst of censorship. On social media, they use innocent terms that sound like censored words, such as “grass mud horse”, which in Chinese sounds like harsh sniffing.
Wong built a grass mud horse and rolled it down the street.
– In 2011, there were not many big protests. The police were not completely controlled by the Communist Party and did not know what to do with us. They didn’t even know who Ai Weiwei was and why we were protesting, Wong recalls.
Protest songs now go to jail
Hong Kong is a completely different city now, says Wong. The protesters do not dare to show civil disobedience. No longer would the police just drag people sitting on the street to the sidewalk. The threat is a long prison sentence.
According to Wong, China’s censorship aims to ensure that when no one dares to speak out, the protests will be forgotten over time.
Wong’s art keeps the memory alive. A time machine made from an old-fashioned television shows Hong Kong in August 2021.
In the video, Wong is dressed as a Chinese police officer. Next to him is a loudspeaker, from which the song of the protest movement is blaring. The protesters form a human chain and sing along.
– The video reminds us that this really happened.
“The culture war destroys the way of life”
Wong says he never thought he would become a refugee without a homeland.
Taiwan does not have a refugee program. People coming from Hong Kong can buy a “golden visa”, i.e. make an investment of around 200,000 euros. Even that does not guarantee a lifelong right to stay in the country.
Wong finds it strange to call himself a refugee. He considers himself rich because he has his art.
– In the new warfare, refugees are like me. They are cultural refugees. I went through the war, but there were no missiles or bullets, says Wong.
– The culture war tried to destroy my language, my way of life, everything I value and enjoy, the whole of Hong Kong, he continues.
Wong continues to make art. He shows a large flashlight, the light of which shines from behind a street stone embedded in resin.
– This is one of my latest works about hope and resistance, he says.
Wong believes that art outlives any political orientation.
– Just go to a museum and have a look. There is a 500-year-old painting on the wall. The artist and the politicians are dead, but art still lives. My beloved Hong Kong will always live in my heart, he says.