Could commemorating Wang Wang be subversion?

Following a notorious animal-cruelty case in the Mainland, Hong Kong people line up to lay flowers in memory of the dead dog Wang Wang and launch publicity campaigns calling for better protection for animals in China. But will the authorities see such activism as yet another national-security threat? HKFP reports…

Kenneth Chan, associate professor in the Department of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, said that even advocacy campaigns for causes as politically innocuous as animal rights are inherently treated by the government “with suspicion.”

“It is hard to ignore the perceived arbitrariness” of what people or businesses believe to be permissible in the eyes of the authorities, he said.

The experiences of the boxing gym and the transport advertisers, he added, “show how a ‘better safe than sorry’ mindset exerts strong yet equivocal impacts on every aspect of the public domain.”

“Nothing can be ‘non-political’ in clear terms in a place where the authorities talk about being vigilant towards threats arising anywhere, anyhow, anytime,” Chan said.

The Guardian on Chow Hang-tung’s prison writings…

In another essay, she describes being handed a white Mickey Mouse t-shirt to wear in court because she is not allowed to wear clothing that carries the branding of her protest group, the Hong Kong Alliance.

“The Mickey Mouse t-shirt may seem innocent on the surface, but isn’t it still a prison uniform provided by the correctional facility? Even before the Alliance has been convicted, its clothes have already become contraband,” she writes.

While some writings are breezy and irreverent, many are deeply considered essays on defending civil rights in the face of a powerful and oppressive Chinese Communist party. As a highly regarded barrister who has been representing herself in court, she also dives into legal philosophy.

(Translations of her writing at Brian Kern’s blog.)

For enthusiasts – a description of ‘New Qing History’, and why the CCP hates it…

Traditional historiography often holds that the Qing dynasty’s success stemmed from the Manchus being highly “Sinicized.” New Qing History scholars, through Manchu-language and other archives, have proven that Qing rulers deliberately maintained Manchu ethnic identity and did not permit Manchus to be assimilated by Han culture. There is ample historical evidence from aspects such as official systems, power structures, territories, and cultural customs. At the same time, these frontier ethnic groups played active, interactive, and cooperative roles in the Qing Empire’s expansion and governance, rather than being merely passive objects of conquest or assimilation. Thus, the Qing Empire ultimately implemented a pluralistic system of “governing according to local customs”: adopting the traditional Confucian bureaucracy in the interior heartland, forming a Manchu-Mongol alliance with Mongolia, and establishing a patron-priest religious relationship with Tibet—demonstrating the flexible, multi-centered governance strategies of the Great Qing Inner Asian Empire.