If you can’t beat them…

Pro-democrats rubbing sore feet probably sigh with relief as Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Dept refuses the movement permission to use Victoria Park on SCMP-SuppressionOctober 1. The aim was to use the place as a starting point for what would be (I think) the third march since July 1. Perhaps officials are sending the pro-dems a message: overly frequent marches, inevitably accompanied by declining turnouts, are embarrassing and suggest a lack of imagination. The police are also fussing about the planned protest; meanwhile, officials are creating problems over other pro-dem activities outside the government’s Tamar HQ.

Rather than get into a major, morose huff about the unfairness of it all (that’s what the powers of darkness want), the pro-democrats should open their minds and come up with a creative answer: subversive guerilla street theatre. The LCSD says that the Victoria Park location has already been reserved for patriotic citizens celebrating National Day. Fine – turn up to that instead. Gatecrash it.

A couple of thousand joyful lovers of freedom and democracy would totally wreck the soulless and contrived United Front gathering. They could wear ‘Zombies for Communist Party’ T-shirts, sport masks (Gao Zhisheng? Bo Xilai? The sky’s the limit), carry placards (‘Be patriotic – support censorship’), hand out copies of the 1944 Xinhua editorial on democracy, and sing classic Mao-era hits like The Night Soil Collectors are Coming Down the Mountain. No need for such provocation as British colonial flags (though the Queen whose statue graces the park entrance would surely be amused). Mockery and hilarity are a hundred times more effective. Bring a picnic. Fun for all the family.

I declare the weekend open with the best bit: you won’t have to walk so much.

An 1830s selfie

An 1830s selfie

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5 Responses to If you can’t beat them…

  1. Maugrim says:

    Perhaps they could emulate the sad and sorry charade held at Tamar on July 1st at the Goverments’ free concert, something that resembled a monkeys’ tea party with a couple of hundred bused in mainlanders. It worked as media reported in glowing terms the turnout, embellishing things a bit more than a tad. Thus, the Dems by sending 200 agents of social mischief might achieve more publicity than if thousands marched. Worth a try .

  2. gumshoe says:

    @maugrim Hell, my mother in law bought it. Then my wife got into a shouting argument with her parents about the whole thing and I just got drunk. Taking a page out of the Scots playbook, I guess.

  3. john says:

    another march for what, achieve what, any meaning in all of this – it seems they refuse to bow-down and admit defeat .. tired of blocked roads and shouting – Beijing lied, HK have no choice

    last several years, the world saw over hundreds of marches in 90 or 95 countries – only iceland obliged, all other places saw mass arrests, rubber bullets, gassed and killings, then die out or out interference-created-turmoil, the government, elites are having replaced kobe beef, can raise damascus blade at will & we, must go thru caesarean without anesthesia to fight for birth right, on-going since …

  4. gweiloeye says:

    Scotland says no.

    Beijing sighs with great relief.

  5. Reader says:

    I notice that this SCMP story is buried deep online – not on the main landing page, or even the ‘Hong Kong’ one. Our ”paper of record’ tilting the table as usual.

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