Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink

Columbia Global Reports

by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

On the frontlines of the battle for democracy in China

The rise of Hong Kong is the story of a miraculous post-War boom, when Chinese refugees flocked to a small British colony, and, in less than fifty years, transformed it into one of the great financial centers of the world. The unraveling of Hong Kong, on the other hand, shatters the grand illusion of China ever having the intention of allowing democratic norms to take root inside its borders. Hong Kong's people were subjects of the British Empire for more than a hundred years, and now seem destined to remain the subordinates of today's greatest rising power.

But although we are witnessing the death of Hong Kong as we know it, this is also the story of the biggest challenge to China's authoritarianism in 30 years. Activists who are passionately committed to defending the special qualities of a home they love are fighting against Beijing's crafty efforts to bring the city into its fold--of making it a centerpiece of its "Greater Bay Area" megalopolis.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, one of America's leading China specialists, draws on his many visits to the city, and knowledge of the history of repression and resistance, to help us understand the deep roots and the broad significance of the events we see unfolding day by day in Hong Kong. The result is a riveting tale of tragedy but also heroism--one of the great David-versus-Goliath battles of our time, pitting determined street protesters against the intransigence of Xi Jinping, the most ambitious leader of China since the days of Mao.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, Politics, Asia

111 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 11, 2020

About the author

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, a Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, is a modern Chinese social and cultural historian, with a strong interest in connecting China's past to its present and placing both into comparative and global perspective. He has taught and written about subjects ranging from gender to revolution, human rights to urban change.

His work has received funding from the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation.

Reviews

[Woman Reading (is away exploring) · Rating 4 out of 5]

almost 4 ☆

Democracy is and has always been the dominant issue in Hong Kong politics.

Vigil provides historical background about Hong Kong's political situation and its recent years of civic unrest. On July 1, 1997, the United Kingdom's possession of Hong Kong as a colony ended, and it officially became the People's Republic of China's "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" (HKSAR) in the event known as the Handover. Its designation as a SAR was in recognition of its special political status within China as party to its "one country, two systems." Hong Kong would be allowed to retain its capitalist market system and enjoy its political autonomy, but it would be subject to the Basic Law.

It is difficult to overstate how strange and enigmatic the Basic Law of Hong Kong is. By stipulating that elections will be "specified in the light of the actual situation," it is if Beijing has dared its small territory to the south to constantly and never-endingly fight for every inch of political self-determination. Every political battle [since the Handover] has had to do with Beijing gaslighting on universal suffrage, even if the massive protests of 2003 and 2012 have been ostensibly about something else.

The governance of Hong Kong includes a chief executive and the 70-member Legislative Council (aka LegCo). Many people are confused by the obscurity of America's electoral college system for our presidential elections. I find the LegCo equally mysterious as half of the seats are reserved for "functional constituencies" and are not elected into position. Nor is the Chief Executive position subject to the popular vote as Beijing had installed Carrie Lam on the 20th anniversary of the Handover.

According to the government agreements negotiated prior to the Handover, Hong Kong was granted a reprieve of 50 years. Until 2047, Hong Kong is supposed to retain its freedoms of speech, protest, and assembly.

The epic David-and-Goliath struggle currently underway in Hong Kong... can be seen in part as rooted in contrasting views in the meaning and significance of borders and what happens as they blur or disappear.

Mass protests in pursuit of universal suffrage have grown in scope and have taken place in 2003, 2012 - 2014, and resumed with even more vigor in 2019. The responses from Beijing have escalated in response as well, and they have been chilling. Booksellers have disappeared and then reappeared months later making televised apologies. Many protest leaders have been arrested and imprisoned. Several pro-democracy candidates won seats in LegCo in the 2016 election, but Beijing prevented these candidates from assuming their new offices. And then Lam proposed an alarming extradition bill in February 2019. Peaceful protests turned violent as police used tear gas and then in October 2019 even live ammunition.

Wasserstrom finished this manuscript in October 2019, months before the Covid-19 pandemic led to more restrictions on people's movements. He is a journalist who visited Hong Kong multiple times during the past several years. He wrote that he could still observe how different Hong Kong is compared with its closest mainland Chinese neighbors. But simultaneously, he had noted how these distinctions have narrowed. He included possible comparative points in history. Will Hong Kong come to resemble Shanghai after its 1919 protests for similar objectives or will Beijing treat Hong Kong the same way it did Tibet, also a SAR? Will the rest of the world even care about Hong Kong's fate?

History does not repeat itself. Even the most attractive analogies must be used with care. 2019 will clearly go down in history as a year that, like 1919, makes an important turning point in the history of protest, repression, and imperial projects in East Asia.

Vigil is informative and provided useful political and economic context. I would have liked cleaner organization of his topics.

[Alexander Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Water, Wasserstrom explains, is deeply associated with Hong Kong. In Mandarin, Hong Kong is written 香港, 港 means harbor. Umbrellas became the symbol of the 2014 Occupy movement. The protestors who filled Hong Kong's streets demanding the right of universal suffrage in 2019 channeled the most famous of all Hong Kongers Bruce Lee's famous phrase "be like water" as they dodged the jackbooted police intent on silencing them.

Today, water once again defines Hong Kong. Tears.

This is a book to cry for. This years Two Sessions, held in Beijing (Hong Kong's new colonial capital), have as one of its focuses the implementation of a new National Security Law for Hong Kong, which will allow the CCP's own police and enforcement agents into Hong Kong to crush dissent. Wasserstrom's depiction of 2019 Hong Kong is all the more poignant as his book has become a literary vigil for a movement and a city that seemingly has no hope.

Almost 250 years ago, Thomas Paine published The Crisis. He wrote, "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." Wasserstrom reminds us that predicting Hong Kong's future is a losing game. I pray that 2020 is but a cruel crucible in Hong Kong's glorious triumph. 光復香港，時代革命！

[Silvana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a good primer on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. Fewer than 100 pages. I would love to have more local perspectives but this has whet my taste for more. Been a while since my last read on civil disobedience. After all, it is already part of the daily life in my country, albeit on different issues.

The book also introduced me to an interesting analogy by local artist and businesswoman, Chani Leung Chi-San, who wrote a reflection on ‘Frogs in Boiling Water’ about 2019 Hong Kong Protest Movement:

"Over these years, the Frogs of Hong Kong have all been in one big pot and the water temperature has gradually been rising. Early on, some Frogs jumped out of the pot; others have struggled to cope with the increasing heat; and then there are the Frogs who have gone mad in their death throes — nothing I’m saying should be surprising; it’s simply the way things have unfolded...

.... We’ve all been in that pot of hot water for twenty-two years. Now and then, they suddenly turn up the heat to see how the Frogs will react. If we don’t struggle too violently they know they can apply more heat next time around. That’s why it’s been getting hotter and hotter and the heat has been turned up with ever greater frequency.... "

Complete translated version: http://chinaheritage.net/journal/like...

[xkdlaej · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear and concise book explaining why Hong Kong becomes how it is today. By showing how Hong Kong's history and the different perceptions owned by different generations influenced their actions and mindsets, this book is very helpful in understanding Hong Kong and Hongkongers' mentality. Although only recording the events up to October 2019, it was still an interesting and informative read.

"When the snow starts melting, it melts quickly." --Chris Patten

The situation in Hong Kong will only deteriorate more quickly.

[Sheldon Chau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concisely breaks down the situation in Hong Kong from the Handover to the 2014 Umbrella Movement to the 2019 protests of the extradition bill. Essential reading and ultimately, a disheartening cautionary tale of what is to come between HK and China in the coming years.

[Wendelle]

'Hong Kongers are like frogs in a pot: the temperature is rising to a deadly level'

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good primer on HK's dire situation

He text didn't go as deep as I would have liked, but it was a swift and well reasoned vignette of HK as of October 2019. Since then, things have somehow gotten even more dire. There's an extensive collection of suggested readings and films at the end of the book.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink was published by Columbia Global Reports, which it turns out specializes in publishing novella-length books on various important topics as I too was wondering about the length of this book at only 98 pages (Kindle version). Just thought to get that out of the way first as I noted some readers commented how 'short' the book is. Well, this book is short in length but definitely not short on substance.

The author was finishing this book around October 2019 before it went to print. Since then, the National Security Law was passed in July 2020 in Hong Kong. Joshua Wong is behind bars (along with around 1,200 other people including journalists, students, Cantopop singer Denise Ho, political activist Martin Lee, former academic at HKU Benny Tai, Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai, there are too many to name).

Today Apple Daily is defunct. And the June 4 vigils are no longer allowed in Hong Kong where they were carried out every single year since 1989 in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Freedom of speech and press are non-existent. The Covid-19 pandemic has more or less inflicted long-lasting damage on Hong Kong's economy and it will take months to recover. But its international reputation certainly has been hurt, not to mention its fight for democracy has been totally suppressed.

More and more infrastructure and real estate projects are in the pipeline to further integrate Hong Kong with the Mainland. An already jarring example of how China just basically wants to wipe out the physical border between the Mainland and Hong Kong is the Express Rail Link: "Late in 2018, the West Kowloon station of the Express Rail Link opened, with parts of the station considered mainland Chinese territory and governed by mainland Chinese laws, instead of Hong Kong laws." It might not be so disturbing if the bordering country was another democracy, but China is a totalitarian state that is succeeding in slow motion in simply absorbing and 'integrating' Hong Kong further and further into its orbit.

Financial Times article: https://www.ft.com/content/f691dbb1-3... is a long but important read and outlines numerous projects including another new and vast project called the 'Northern Metropolis'. And this is just one of the many examples listed in the article.

Other articles have described Hong Kong as the Monte Carlo of the East, where rich people reside with their yachts and drive their fancy cars. "The degree of inequality in the territory is staggering. While 18 percent of Hong Kongers lived under the poverty line in 2016, the net worth of Hong Kong’s top ten billionaires represented 35 percent of the city’s GDP, compared to 3 percent in the U.S. Hong Kong’s Gini coefficient, a measurement of income distribution, is one of the highest in the world at 0.533." Fast forward to 2023, the percentage of Hong Kongers living under the poverty line has likely risen even further thanks to the pandemic.

"It is difficult to overstate how strange and enigmatic the Basic Law of Hong Kong is." This is the sentiment expressed by Wasserstrom in his very articulate novella-length book about the precarious situation of Hong Kong's future.

It takes a legal expert to try to make real sense of the Basic Law (its mini constitution), but as Wasserstrom explains in his book, "...it is as if Beijing has dared its small territory to the south to constantly and never-endingly fight for every inch of political self-determination. One thinks of a parent...who drives a child crazy by promising candy that he never delivers. And that’s exactly what has occurred ever since the Handover. Every political battle has had to do with Beijing gaslighting on universal suffrage, even if the massive protests in 2003 and 2012 have been ostensibly about something else. Democracy is and always has been the dominant issue in Hong Kong politics."

But fast forward to today, is there any hope of Hong Kong ever achieving universal suffrage? That is a big question. Experts need to weigh in, but my gut feeling is that this hope is all but gone. And look anywhere such as the media, books, all kinds of apps for weather, travel, etc. and Hong Kong used to be known as 'Hong Kong SAR (special administrative region)'. Today it is 'Hong Kong China'.

Having said that, it is still an important book to read if not to recognize just how swiftly more changes and developments have taken place since the book went into print. Mark Clifford's 'Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World" is another important book written in a similar vein.

But unfortunately, unless someone has lived or worked in Hong Kong or is keenly interested in matters related to China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, it is difficult for books like these to garner widespread attention, even in America where we have had our moments of political turbulence rock the nation's psyche (and more to come).

"One of the things that studying the history of social movements has taught me is how hard it can be to tell if a struggle is over or whether it has merely entered a period of temporary dormancy," Wasserstrom writes.

Well, is the struggle over? Maybe not. That is a big question. Biden's administration recently sought to allow political asylum seekers from HK continue to remain in America for another couple of years while they do their important work as the "Davids" fighting Goliath.

We live in interesting times.

[Darris McNeely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short book that sets last years Hong Kong protests in historical context. Contains a good bibliography for further reading. I'll select two of those to learn more about the city we recently visited.

[Dillon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last summer I spotted “Be water my friend” spray painted on the water line of the Jin in Chengdu. It felt like I was getting away with something, and that maybe change was actually coming in some form.

[Elsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“When the Occupy zones were finally abandoned late in 2014—something that was widely interpreted as a success for the government’s strategy of waging a war of attrition against the protesters and simply waiting them out—some protesters made final statements of defiance by writing on banners, posters, and blackboards a simple phrase: “We’ll Be Back.”

“But the bill’s many critics believed its real impetus lay not in Taiwan but in mainland China. That Hong Kong currently has no extradition agreement with the PRC speaks to the hallowed place the territory’s judicial independence holds in the infrastructure of semi-autonomy guaranteed by the Basic Law. The new bill would change that, allowing Hong Kong to extradite people accused of certain crimes by the PRC across the border to the mainland. For many, the prospect called to mind the fate of the five abducted booksellers three years prior—people who had broken no Hong Kong laws, but faced draconian penalties under the nominally distinct mainland legal system. ”

“Over the summer, the plan of attack on activists expanded to include gatherings in settings not associated with demonstrations in the city’s past, ranging from shopping malls to airport arrival halls.”
“There were not just new Lennon Walls put up at protest sites, in a repetition of what took place in 2014, but many variations on the Lennon Wall idea appeared—including “walking Lennon Walls,” created when protesters covered their clothing and faces with Post-it notes.”

Songs:
“A song that can help us understand the continuity of the struggle is “Do You Hear the People Sing?” As the poet, translator, and editor Tammy Ho noted in the immediate aftermath of the Umbrella Movement, there is an interesting difference between the lyrics to the English and Cantonese versions of the song, both of which were sung on the streets of Hong Kong in 2014 and have been sung there again this year. ”

“Another song, “Glory to Hong Kong,” was written midway through the current movement, and gradually took on a dual role as an anthem of the struggle and a song for the city—a counterpart to the Chinese national anthem. One thing that can end a movement is ennui and boredom. New tactics—including forming the “Hong Kong Way,” a human chain thirty miles long, inspired by and staged on the thirtieth anniversary of the “Baltic Way,” when two million people formed a human chain spanning more than four hundred miles across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in support of independence from the Soviet Union—”

“What the current movement has achieved is to put Beijing on notice, to show that if Hong Kong’s autonomy is wilting so, too, is the grand experiment of “One Country, Two Systems” dying. Much depends on how China handles the civil disobedience as it stands in the global spotlight. ”

liberty without democracy:
“What is clear is that “liberty without democracy” has torn Hong Kong apart, and that this Special Administrative Region cannot survive in its current state. China might not occupy the territory as it did in Tibet, or send in tanks as it did in Beijing. It’s become clear, however, that there is little stopping Beijing from destroying many of Hong Kong’s institutions, even if it continues to be frustrated, as other colonizers in Ireland and many other places were in the past, in its inability to stamp out attachment to signs of local identity and crush the Lion Rock spirit.”

Be Water:
“While the city teetered on the brink in 2019, activists, striving to create a new alternative world in the streets and in malls and in airport arrival and departure halls in the midst of scenes of destruction, urged one another to “be water,” to adapt their tactics continually to changing circumstances. To resemble “water” means to be flexible in one’s actions, going one place but quickly heading to another if there is too much resistance. The idea can be traced back to long-standing Chinese philosophical traditions, especially Daoism (though metaphors linked to water are important in Confucian texts as well). It has a more specific referent, though, to perhaps the most famous Hong Konger, martial artist and movie star Bruce Lee. “Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow. Be like water,” he said. “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless—like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash! Be water, my friend.”

[Yan Sham-Shackleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would be nice that a western publishing house invites someone from HK to write about HK instead of another old white man who has never lived there.

Outside of that, this is an ok short history of Hong Kong democratic movement through the lens of British history books and western press articles.

There is ZERO mentions of the democratic movement in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s and the men and women who spear headed them in the book.

It’s egregious that he only interviewed Chris Patten and not Martin Lee, who founded the Democratic Party who speaks fluent English btw if the writer is too lazy to get a translator. For that I should probably give this book zero stars.

The book also doesn’t bother to interview Joshua Wong but instead describes an encounter in an event where the author then reads into Wong’s mind and explains why Wong was happy to see him instead of asking the man instead. This is also an extremely offensive moment in the book where the writer interprets for the subject.

Which maybe is a metaphor for the book.

This is Wasserman’s attempt to interpret what happened in HK through his western lens and makes little to no attempt to see it through the lens of Hong Kong people with the exception of asking a few people which movie or book they feel describes the HK situation in the opening paragraphs.

Listen, I want you to read this book because I love my city and wishes more people cared about what happened to us. I just wish it was through a voice of someone who knows HK instead of someone who visited a few times.

Also FYI the book doesn’t include any reference to the NSL or the morning dawn raid that arrested all of HK’s opposition and made them political prisoners because it was published in Feb 2020. So it tells an extremely incomplete story.

[Samuel Guthridge Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coming into this book knowing next to nothing about the situation in Hong Kong, I found it extremely readable and informing. Jeff Wasserstrom is an experienced expert in the field and his proficiency shines brightly in this important and moving introduction into the dire situation of democracy in Hong Kong. Beautifully written, this short read was insightful, researched and eloquent. I especially admired the epilogue in which Jeff shows off the true extent of his writing ability by inspiringly intertwining symbols of water throughout the protests since 1989. Although in a conference call with Wasserstrom days after I finished the book, he was apologetic for the book's dire ending, however I believe that the true value of the ending is a wake up call. Democracy matters, and it is clear that on this side of the Pacific, we have forgotten how truly special it is that we have the rights that we do. During the conference call, Jeff talked about how the PRC is systematically reducing freedoms in Hong Kong and by avoiding a Tiananmen Square-like event, they are able to strip Hong Kongers of their freedoms without threat of sustained global outrage. This is due in part to the difficulty in which factual news can be found at a time with unprecedented saturation and polarization of media outlets. But I believe that another cause of this inattention goes deeper. The atrocities to personal liberties in Hong Kong are not receiving sustained attention because of an innate self-importance in the American psyche. More today than ever, it is paramount for Americans to wake from our self-imposed stupor, put down the phone and pick up books like this one, so that those who fight for their freedoms in the streets of Hong Kong do not fight alone.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 2047, Hong Kong will formally be absorbed by mainland China, with no current likelihood that Hong Kongese will have any more say in the government's decisions than mainlanders currently do. Under Xi's rule, Beijing has expressed little interest in honoring the terms of the handover negotiated with England in 1997, at least within the 50-year time frame of the agreement.

Is it, then, a done deal, the absorption of Hong Kong by the so-called Communist Party? Are protesters able to at least slow the rate of absorption? The Hong Kongers most directly involved in the anti-Beijing protests will be reaching retirement age when 2047. They can look across the river and see what mainlanders are subject to, the protesters' own future.

Wasserstrom reports on the latest bout of protests in Hong Kong—with demonstrations producing historically high turnouts—their history, the players, and the stakes.

[Audacious Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who are unfamiliar with Hong Kong's convoluted political landscape would find the book useful, as the author did a fantastic job of relating HK's history to its political struggles, and he sometimes drew upon useful historical analogies.

He observed from his trips to HK & China how the distinctive freedoms that we had been able to enjoy were diminishing. What I like in particular is his attention to the cultural landscape of our civil society - the exhibitions & literary events that were cancelled or censored; the content that he read on the democracy walls of various local universities; the books & films that his interviewees chose to describe the situation of HK (e.g. Ten Years); the subtle but telling differences between the original lyrics & our Cantonese rendition of the protest song "Do you hear the people sing?", etc.

I enjoyed this book a lot even as a local who was born and raised in HK and already familiar with the city.

[Evan Milner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink is a brief but illuminating primer on the Hong Kong protest movements of the last decade. It is not a chronological history but rather a discursive essay on how Hong Kong has become a geopolitical flashpoint in the 20+ years since the handover. Wasserstrom strikes a nice balance between the political and cutural contexts, offering valuable insight into how the various participants of the Umbrella and related movements see their predicament, one that often looks quite hopeless to an outsider such as myself.

Especially helpful is the extensive annotated bibliography, something that should be a requirement in introductory books of this type.

Highly recommended.

[Wing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in October 2019, this very short book gives the reader a brief summary of the background and events that culminated in what happened in Hong Kong in 2019. To those who are already familiar with the topic, it adds nothing new but it does highlight certain details that are indeed worth emphasising. Naturally the author has his very own perspective and the reader needs not and should not just accept it without fact checking and critical thinking. In any case, it reads more like a newspaper article than anything. Three stars for being precise and to the point.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was assigned to read this book for a class entitled "Hong Kong on the Brink". The author himself admits that the book was written quickly do to the rapidly changing situation in Hong Kong. I would have preferred a bit more background information about the handover but a vivid picture was painted about what has been happening in Hong Kong the last couple of years. I feel much more informed about the situation after reading the book and that is exactly what I was looking for when I started the book.

[Shell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book packed full of facts about how people live in Hong Kong today and how increasingly unsettled their situation is. The author also gives a concise overview of what has happened to people who have tried to take a stand and to the various demonstrations and riots that have taken place. It is not a particularly light read and required concentration due to the fast pace of the writing. I also don't think that the reader of the audio book helped as his voice was quite hard to listen to. I am glad that this was a short read. More informative than entertaining.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect short little book explaining Hong Kong's colonial past, complicated political system and the recent protest movements fueled by a young generation that's not old enough to remember China's brutal crackdowns on protest in the past, and young enough to experience 2047 and the end of one-country-two-systems in their future.

History moves fast in Hong Kong, as this book went into editing end of 2019, a whole additional chapter on 2020 would now already be in order.

[Kimfu]

A very good book! It gave me lots of background on the situation in Hong Kong. I plan to read another book on protests in the area in the very near future, this time, discussing in more detail the protests that took place in 2014. This is all good for helping me form my own thoughts on the matter!

二零二零年：第十四本书

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short (less than 100 pages of text) introduction to the Hong Kong democracy movement. Very good for learning the basics quickly, but also including details that even someone familiar with the situation may find helpful. However it may be lacking deeper analysis that expert-level audiences may be looking for.

[Bella Levavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read about real revolutionaries who are younger than me. I am interested in hearing about this from a less western lens. Great background, and I really benefitted from the chapter about how the protests in 2019 were related to the ones in 2014.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to Hong Kong's pro-democracy movements since the end of British colonial rule. However, the book is very short (less than 100 pages) and could have had a bit more depth, but offers a good bibliography for further reading.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good overview of the history, handover, and protests of Hong Kong.

[megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

succinct & thoughtful, very good QUICK read if you want to brush up on hong kong's political past

[Mingsze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informational.

[Murray Johnson]

It was an interesting read to help understand what is happening in Hong Kong.

[Julie Wakefield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, quick, concise perspective and the present-day geopolitical situation of Hong Kong.

[เนติวิทย์ โชติภัทร์ไพศาล · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant succinct report