Hong Kong without Us: A People's Poetry

Georgia Review Books

by The Bauhinia Project (editor)

Hong Kong without Us is a decentralized book of revolutionary poetry. Drawn directly from the voices of Hong Kong during its anti-extradition protests, the poems consist of submitted testimonies and found materials―and are all anonymous from end to end, from first speech to translated curation. This collected poetic documentation of protest is thus an authorless work that brings together many voices.

The editors themselves are anonymous poets acting through the Bauhinia Project, an organization created to bring Hong Kong’s struggles to the stage of transnational activism through lyric and language, in the same spirit of leaderlessness as the protests. This book is a glimpse into the movement’s lives and voices. The poems here were either submitted as testimonies to the Bauhinia Project at an encrypted email address or collected as “found poems” from testimonies and protest materials on the streets, on social media, and on the news. Each was from an anonymous source in Chinese. They are a people’s nameless, lowbrow, temporally bound, squeezed out from moments of gravity and strife. They are meant to reach out across the silence of oceans, through differences in language and culture.

Genres: Poetry

126 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2021

Reviews

[Ignorant meow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thank the friend who gifted me this book. Otherwise, I wouldn't be aware of its existence as many things are slowly disappearing in Hong Kong. They're quite literally a people's poetry and allow you to see fragments of the people's experience and solidarity during the protests. I would prefer the book to include the original text because I feel like sentiments were lost in translation. Nonetheless, I'm grateful that a book like this exists.

[Janice Hom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although a number of pieces are by anonymous writers, knowing that these recorders had laid their lives down on the line at the nightly protest, humbles the reader.

[Driscoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential book for an emotional understanding and memorizing of Hong Kong's 2019

[KT]

It’s hard to give a collection like this a review because there’s no comparison to it. It was raw and gutting and it translated really nicely to convey what it was trying to. Excellent.

[Lindsey Beat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tried to read this at work but couldn't keep from crying. Powerful.