Music and art in a time of protest Denise Ho

it has become a common see in Hong Kong

to find people on the streets suddenly

stopping in the tracks coming together

to proudly sing a song this song glory

to Hong Kong it’s also deemed as the

Hong Kong anthem has made its appearance

in the most unconventional waits it is

sung in protest in graduation ceremonies

and even in shopping malls together by

thousands of Hong Kong is written and

released anonymously this very song

embeds the spirit of our 2019 Hong Kong

movement spontaneous creative

translating passion into quick action

and in this largely anonymous and

leaderless movement it is exactly this

creativity that has sustained us even

differentiates us from other protests

and as someone working in the creative

fields I have been amazed by the way

that we have renewed this embrace of the

music and the arts whereas five years

ago during the pro-democracy umbrella

movement art was labelled as useless

this time round we have seemingly found

a new understanding of the role of the

imagination through our own mistakes we

have come to this realization the soft

power of creativity is essential in this

very difficult fight against

authoritarian regimes as a

singer-songwriter from Hong Kong I have

since 2014 chosen to stand with my

fellow Hong Kong s in our fight for

democracy

it was the moment when I saw the first

tear gas fired into the peaceful crowds

that I decided regardless of all those

so-called consequences that I had to

speak my mind I stayed on the streets

with the people for the 79 days of

occupation and I was arrested in the end

in this era of self-censorship people in

my industry thought I was insane

they would ban you they were censor you

this is career suicide well they were

right fell only partially I was of

course immediately banned in China my

name was censored all my songs were

taken off shelves the authorities made

sure that no brands whether in China or

in Hong Kong would dare to work with me

other celebrities stayed away even

refused to take photos with me and fear

of being associated with me and in

recent days at a rally in Taiwan I was

attacked

splashed by red paint by a pro-beijing

group but in my career end absolutely

not in 2016 when brands avoided me and

would not sponsor me for my concert I

instead created a crowd sponsorship

campaign I chopped up the sponsorship

into smaller sums so it made it

affordable for local companies in the

end we gathered support from 300 local

businesses amounting to more than 3

million Hong Kong dollars which was

actually way over what I would have

expected with a corporate sponsorship I

built my own record label and my own

system with tools on the Internet

with my very small team we improvise

local tours in districts of Hong Kong

since I could no longer tour in China we

sang on trams in local shops on

sidewalks even on mountains and we even

self funded and organised a six-day

music festival all this would not have

been possible had I submitted to the

notion of fear of this notion that there

is only one way to do things all this

would not have been possible had I not

believed in the power of creativity as

of our present movement in Hong Kong it

is also the level of innovation and

flexibility that has wowed and surprised

and inspired the world what started out

as a million people protests morphed

into something that no one not even

ourselves thought was possible

by rethinking the tools that they

already had on hand

the youngsters fully utilized phone apps

online forums and even airdrop to

consolidate and gather people they

improvised new ways to counter the

excessive amount of tear-gassing

by using traffic cones steamed fish

dishes thermos

leaf blowers and even tennis rackets

they built the most impressive and

artistic of road blocks and organized

lunch protests in the financial district

of central the lemon walks which went

from posted memos into two-story high

murrow’s and the human chain with people

holding hands covering all corners of

Hong Kong even the iconic lion rock

mountain and let’s not forget all these

beautiful illustrations and designs made

anon

which helped people express their

thoughts in very critical moments all

these innovative ways of turning

emotions into art into humor into

protest made detestable moments bearable

for the people so by reconnecting with

our flexibility we created a movement

that brought out the best in Hong Kong’s

the bravery and the selflessness of

those in face of police brutality

brought people together in new levels of

solidarity and with that we overcame six

months of challenges we overturned a

district election with more than 85% of

the seats the Hong Kong human rights and

democracy Act was passed in US Congress

and recently signed into law and our

fight is so going strong creativity is

what the tyrants cannot control nor

repress with their very powerful but

slow machine it takes time for them to

react to new ideas whether it is the

protests on the streets that is taking a

new fluidity or the way that people

reinvent themselves the system needs

time to counter it and to find solutions

and well when they do we would have

already moved on to the next idea and

let’s face it being in a fight against

tyrants can be extremely draining so by

having diversity in our modes of protest

by injecting creativity we reveal

ourselves we become flexible and with

that we are not only creating

possibilities for ourselves but also

opening up a new world

those who thought it impossible

therefore keeping the fight alive thank

you

[Applause]

so thank you I would like to invite my

very good brother Harris because we want

to sing you a song in Cantonese so do we

know any songs in Cantonese here this is

a song that I wrote two years ago it was

something of a imaginary future it is

about people going onto a mountain

trying to find that very first glimpse

of light in the very dark polar nights

and surprisingly it has become a reality

and so this is for the freedom fighters

in Hong Kong and all around the world

[Applause]

[Music]

before sanity your table oh joy songs

have fun I do the mopping finger see you

Sunday

who done turned her whole hot Sun yoga

no sadly r1 joy time I’m sorry but I’m

talking a lady hurt any of second time

time I tell you take how are we - hey no

[Music]

one’s in trouble teaching

[Music]

so T from type off means all done so T

some hunting him down though we love the

bomb satsang how to woods are you

I see gone sick Jensen the student Oh

Sam far from Tony hey Toby Oh God seven

Dayton’s like on the game young golfer

[Music]

[Laughter]

[Music]

you tell me

one games on ice Tom 13 yard line go

[Music]

Hey

[Music]

see sometimes they buy a home

[Music]

engage

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]