Odd Indeed to Arrive

The simple pathway from Shenzhen to Hong Kong, not so simple any more. Walking through is easy.  But considering this cop there and that officer there can no longer be the same benign Hong Kong that people knew from the 90s and the naughts.  On the China side, I note a young kid who looks about as threatening as a software engineer, pulled over randomly for questioning, and wonder.  Odd to be on the MTR and consider the recent videos of thugs charging in and swinging clubs at defenseless people.  I used to be here with my little girls and always felt unquestionably safe.  Parents surely don’t feel safe about their kids just now. 

The subway itself is, completely devoid of anyone of the foreign persuasion.  Some people obviously look like they’re from the mainland.  Others have that indescribable but unmistakable Hong Kong mien.  And then, there’s me.  Me and the people whom you can’t quite tell where they’re from in the greater Chinese universe.  Hong Kong had always been the place to come to and exhale from the pressures of the mainland.  The PRC was chaotic.  Hong Kong was ordered.  Odd indeed to arrive in Hong Kong and wonder about things like safety, after having left the comparatively placid and orderly, predictable mainland. 

Freedoms, certainly worth standing up for.  Freedoms I take for granted.  Freedoms you may not need until you suddenly need them.   Freedoms people in the mainland have not ever really enjoyed.  I look at all the young people on the subway.  Which side are they on? - as the old song says.  The guy beside me has an arm full of tattoos.  He’s with what appears to be his girlfriend.  (Later they kiss!  I was right.)  Which side are they on?  I look at the older people and if things got hot, I don’t know which way anyone would go. 

Across from me everyone is staring up at the screen.  The train is broadcasting some version of the news.  Many eyes turn to consider.  Is it Carrie Lam being grilled in her town hall meeting?  It's too far up behind my shoulders and I cannot see.  I imagine that what is being shown is some bad news of violet protest here in town and I want to check my phone.  Once upon a time the news was necessarily fatuous in Hong Kong, stars and glam and food and conspicuous consumption.  You realize just what a constructed veneer that had been.

Carrie Lam had a thoughtful editorial in the New York Times today.   It was measured, hopeful.  That’s appropriate.  It was well written.  But it isn’t clear that she’s the one who will lead the reconciliation.  It isn’t clear that people are ready to forgive and forget.  If I or someone I loved had been roughed up by the cops I wouldn’t likely forgive so easily either.  If my brother was a cop dodging bricks and petrol bombs I wouldn't have a reflective posture either.  I wonder just how inflammatory this weekend, so close to the National Holiday will end up being.  Hong Kong: my old friend.  You provided a safe, (if expensive), home for my family for three years.  I am here in part today to wish you and all your citizenry well and to wish you a peaceful evolution.

Friday 09/27/19