One of Hong Kong’s best-known artists yesterday confirmed that he had moved to Taiwan in search of “100 percent freedom” from the Hong Kong government’s crackdown on dissent.
Kacey Wong’s (黃國才) departure is the latest blow to Hong Kong’s reputation as a regional haven for the arts and free speech as government critics face growing scrutiny from authorities.
Wong, 51, posted a black-and-white video on Facebook in which he sung a rendition of Vera Lynn’s wistful ode We’ll Meet Again.
Photo copied by Chen Cheng-liang, Taipei Times
“Leaving is not easy, staying is also difficult,” he wrote.
In an interview with the Hong Kong Free Press Web site, Wong confirmed that he had fled Hong Kong for political reasons, citing the diminishing space for artistic freedom since China imposed a National Security Law that criminalized much dissent.
The Cornell-educated artist is known for his contemporary visual arts focusing on social activism and politics.
In one 2018 performance art piece called The Patriot, Wong performed China’s national anthem on an accordion while inside a red metal cage.
Last year, authorities passed new laws making it illegal to mock China’s national anthem or flag, meaning any repeat of such a performance would be fraught with risk.
“I want and I demand 100 percent freedom, with no compromise,” Wong told Hong Kong Free Press.
“I always appreciated Taiwan’s culture and art, I think it’s very mature and deep and the society is sophisticated and raw at the same time, which I like,” he added.
Earlier this year, Wong distributed hundreds of candle stubs from previous vigils marking Beijing’s deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown after Hong Kong authorities banned public commemorations.
The arts have been heavily affected by the security law, which was introduced to quash dissent after pro-democracy protests two years ago.
All films must now be censored for any content that breaches the law and multiple books have been pulled from shelves.
On Monday, Cantopop star Anthony Wong (黃耀明) was charged with “corrupt conduct” for singing at an election rally of a pro-democracy politician three years ago.
Two authors of a children’s book that likened democracy supporters to sheep surrounded by wolves were charged with sedition last month.
Despite this, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) has insisted that freedom of speech remains intact in the territory.
“I would honestly ask you, what sort of freedoms have we lost, what sort of vibrancy has Hong Kong been eroded?” she said in a radio show late last month.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater