An exhibition featuring scenes and memorabilia from pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong opened on Wednesday in Taipei, featuring work by artists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia and other nations.
Some of the 66 participating artists, including 45 from Hong Kong, used posters, the front pages of newspapers and other items to recreate scenes from the Hong Kong protests, which started in June last year.
Among the 100-plus exhibits is a drawing by Hong Kong artist Kay Wong, which shows two photojournalists wearing helmets, on the otherwise blank front page of Apple Daily’s Hong Kong edition on July 4 last year.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The idea for the exhibition originated from the public response to the February edition of the Creative Comic Collection (CCC) magazine, which featured images associated with the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, CCC project manager Huang Guan-hua (黃冠華) said.
“I thought that because of Taiwan’s place at the center of freedom and democracy in the Chinese-speaking world, this [exhibition] was something we could and should do,” Huang said at the opening ceremony at Taipei Comic Base, which organized the exhibition jointly with the CCC.
The exhibition’s curator Chen Yi-ching (陳怡靜), a freelance journalist who went to Hong Kong four times in the past year to cover the pro-democracy protests, said there were some notable differences between that campaign and the 2014 “Umbrella movement” in the territory.
In 2014, protesters occupied Hong Kong’s Central district from late September to mid-December with sit-ins, but the current demonstrations are more like an urban guerrilla action, as protesters have staged gatherings that resemble flash mobs at locations throughout the territory, she said.
Chen said the central strategy of the ongoing leaderless protests is to remain fluid, as reflected in the images posted on “Lennon walls” and shared on Instagram, Telegram and other social media sites, which helped create a bond among the protesters.
Some of the protest scenes are highlighted in the exhibition, including a Lennon wall in an underpass at the Kwai Fong railway station, and a replica of the Hong Kong police headquarters.
The free exhibition also offers a virtual reality experience of the protests, as well as guided tours every 30 minutes between 1:30pm and 4pm, which are available in English and Japanese with a one-week advanced booking.
The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10am to 9pm, through July 26.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and