Pro-democracy protesters early yesterday hauled a 4m statue known as “Lady Liberty” to the top of a famous Hong Kong mountain, announcing the peak would be its “final resting place.”
The statue depicts a female protester in a gas mask, protective goggles and helmet, an umbrella in one hand and a black flag in the other, proclaiming the protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.”
It was a regular feature at larger, more peaceful rallies this summer, eliciting cheers when it was wheeled in by volunteers and transported around the territory on the back of a truck.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Kwang Kung Temple handout
However, organizers yesterday said Lady Liberty had made her final journey as they unveiled her at the top of Lion Rock, a 495m peak overlooking a forest of skyscrapers that is intimately linked to the territory’s democracy movement.
Alex, a 32-year-old protester who created the statue, said volunteers used the cover of night to carry the 80kg artwork up the steep path to the summit.
“We had a team of 16 climbing professionals carrying her in two main pieces all the way to the summit, while another 16 members carried equipment and supplies,” he told reporters, only giving his first name.
“Lion Rock will be the final resting place of the Lady Liberty of Hong Kong,” the team said in a statement, adding that it would be up to authorities to what to do with it.
Named because its shape resembles the big cat, Lion Rock has been a symbol of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement for years, with large banners demanding freedoms or criticizing Beijing frequently unfurled by hardy protesters.
“Lion Rock spirit” is used by Hong Kongers to summarize the territory’s can-do attitude — as well as its reputation for liberty compared with authoritarian China.
The mountain overlooks Kowloon’s densely packed working-class districts, where many escaping communist China during the worst excesses of the era of Mao Zedong (毛澤東) settled.
During 2014’s “Umbrella movement” pro-democracy protests, demonstrators unfurled a huge yellow banner down one of the rock’s cliff faces, linking the mountainside to modern-day acts of civil disobedience.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival last month, hundreds of protesters gathered on Lion Rock and other peaks surrounding the territory shining laser pens and lanterns.
Alex said it was inspired by the “Goddess of Democracy” statue that pro-democracy protesters erected in 1989 inside Tiananmen Square before the Chinese government crushed the movement.
A version of the Goddess of Democracy is a feature of the annual June 4 Tiananmen vigils in Hong Kong, the only place in China where commemorations of the crackdown can be held.
However, with the territory rocked by unprecedented protests aimed at halting sliding freedoms under Beijing’s rule, advocates wanted to create a Hong Kong version of the Goddess of Democracy.
Much like the protests themselves — which are leaderless and organized online — the design for Lady Liberty was crowd-sourced.
“We invited design proposals on LIHKG, organized a universal vote asking people to pick their favorite design,” Alex said, referring to the most popular forum for Hong Kong protesters.
Asked why they had chosen Lion Rock to be the statue’s final resting place, he said it was “a symbolic gesture to infuse a refreshed mindset for the fight for democracy.”
The mountain and the statue represented “the fundamental values and beliefs” of the protest movement, he said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS