Commentary
In mid-April, 2022, a friend introduced me to a U.K. Hong Kong community head, who talked to me about shooting a special program on Queen Elizabeth II and Hong Kong for the Platinum Jubilee celebration. After going through that, we shifted the topic to the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre (June Fourth). I was told that a candlelight vigil would be held on June 4, 2022, outside the Chinese Embassy, in London, and I was asked what else might be done for the June Fourth commemoration, a taboo now in Hong Kong and only possible abroad.
Half seriously, I shared an idea that I thought wild. ‘Forum. Got to be a forum, like the City Forum that used to be held every Sunday at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park.’ It is my wish to inherit the cultures of Hong Kong in the U.K., and the ‘Victoria Park culture’ is really essential to mark the rise of the civil awareness coming with the historical June Fourth candlelight vigil and City Forum. The National Security Law (NSL), imposed on Hong Kong by China in 2020, has ruined all of them. Can we bring them back to life in the U.K.? We also have Victoria Park here in London, whose speakers’ corner—known as the Forum—was more popular than that in Hyde Park at a time….