The third edition of the Hong Kong Human Rights Art Exhibition opened in Taipei on Tuesday, with organizers hoping the artwork by Hong Kong, Taiwanese and overseas creators will highlight the importance of protecting freedom, human rights and historical memory.
Titled “Protection, Hope and Resistance,” the exhibition is being held at the National 228 Memorial Museum and features more than 50 works, each accompanied by an introduction in Chinese and English.
At a press event marking the exhibition’s opening, Taiwan-based Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Tong Wai-hung (湯偉雄) said he had faced serious disruption to his life in Taiwan after the Hong Kong authorities issued a wanted notice against him last year. He subsequently experienced incidents of intimidation.
Photo courtesy of the New School for Democracy
Tong was referring to two incidents in which his Taipei Thai boxing studio was splashed with red paint, which he and Taiwanese civil society groups have described as acts of transnational repression.
He said the experience had shown him that when authoritarian regimes use fear as a tool of rule, what helps resist darkness are civic forces, such as citizens willing to support one another and defend shared values.
Tong, founder of the Hong Kong Human Rights Front, one of the exhibition’s organizers, said he hopes the exhibition will tell human rights stories through art and help bring people together to safeguard Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.
Cecil Kung (龔欽龍), secretary-general of the New School for Democracy, said Taiwan’s ability to continue hosting exhibitions and events related to Hong Kong human rights issues not only demonstrated support for the people of Hong Kong, but also showed how civil society can put democratic values into practice.
Since Beijing imposed the National Security Law on Hong Kong in 2020 following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, similar art exhibitions addressing human rights issues and memories of the protests have become increasingly unlikely to be held in the former British colony.
Taiwan has since become one of the places where Hong Kong artists and activists can continue to explore such issues more freely, with events such as this exhibition offering a platform to preserve memories of the protests and reflect on broader human rights concerns.
The exhibition will run until Aug. 30.
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