Before protests erupted across Hong Kong five months ago, 31-year-old Pino was a dancer, taking various types of evening classes for years, from jazz to hip-hop and pole.
Now, the slight information technology worker, who wanted to be identified only by her first name, is learning to fight.
“I stopped dancing, I’m fighting now,” she said.
Photo: Reuters
Once a week, Pino joins a self-defense class where instructors give lessons on how to fight police officers, evade arrest and navigate the unrest on the streets of the territory.
Lessons sometimes incorporate videos of real protest clashes.
The classes are one of several that have sprung up in the past few months, protesters say, pitched at demonstrators and others concerned about getting caught in the chaos.
The rallies have been marred by violence which flares mostly during weekends, with demonstrators throwing Molotov cocktails, destroying shops seen as pro-Beijing, vandalizing train stations and engaging in running battles with police.
“Not only the frontliners or the youngsters, we all need to learn these skills to protect ourselves,” said William Cheung, the organizer of one self-defense class held regularly at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
On a recent morning outside the university’s library, about a dozen students fenced with foam sticks, representing the black batons used by police officers, and practiced shielding blows with their backpacks.
“The topic of today’s lesson is escaping,” said R, a 19-year-old participant who asked to be identified only by his first initial for fear of retribution.
“It looks like the fight is not coming to an end soon and I don’t know for how much longer it will last,” he said, explaining why he felt the classes were necessary.
Demonstrators have also been fearful of attacks from other groups, particularly after suspected triad members set upon activists and commuters at a train station in Yuen Long District in July.
“If you don’t protect yourselves well, then you don’t know whether you’ll be beaten to death, or something bad may happen like being injured and hospitalized,” Cheung said.
Police did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Pino, who volunteers as a medic during protests and attends to those injured, said that she has learned how to disarm an attacker.
It might be some time, though, before she goes back to dance classes.
“I think in this society, we need to fight, not dance,” she said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was