Christina Chan (陳巧文) discovered the price she has to pay as one of Hong Kong’s most high-profile young activists when she was brushing her teeth in her T-shirt and thong at home one morning.
Hidden behind her neighbor’s window was a paparazzo, who had followed her all the way to Cheung Chau, a tiny, tranquil island an hour by ferry from the city center.
The next thing she knew, photos of her in her skimpy morning outfit were splashed across the front page of a tabloid.
PHOTO: AFP
“It is unbearable to be in the spotlight all the time,” the 22-year-old said. “Now, whenever I come out of the shower, I think that someone might be watching me.”
Chan, who is majoring in philosophy at the University of Hong Kong after attending boarding school in England, was thrown into the limelight when she protested for Tibetan independence at the Olympics torch relay through Hong Kong in 2008. Images of the petite part-time model waving a giant Tibetan snow lion flag and being carted away in a police van were soon published all over the Internet and newspapers.
Chan has become a regular guest on talk shows, university forums and mass rallies, speaking on democratic reform in Hong Kong. She is portrayed as the face of the so-called “Post 80s” movement, a label given to a rising group of activists born after 1980 who campaign for a transparent and accountable political system.
To her dismay, however, the focus of the media has gradually shifted from her campaign to her physical appearance, dress sense and relationship with her Australian musician boyfriend. She has also described herself as a victim of cyber-bullying.
Getting a criminal record could be another price the university student will have to pay for her political fame — Chan was arrested over an alleged assault of a policewoman following a scuffle at a New Year’s Day pro-democracy protest. She has been released on bail.
“They may charge me next time I report back to the police,” she said. “I don’t want to go to jail, but we can’t just stop doing everything because of that.”
Growing up, Chan had often regarded “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄) as her role model. Leung, a maverick activist-cum-lawmaker has been arrested many times for his political stunts, including burning the Chinese national flag and clashing with police.
“He’s one of the most outspoken, liberal people inside the Legislative Council. He even changed people’s view of what a legislator should look like,” she said.
Chan considers herself different from Leung as she is free of the political baggage imposed on an elected lawmaker. Despite her Westernized outlook and her complaint of the lack of room for imagination and individuality in Hong Kong, she says she feels a strong sense of belonging to the city.
“I feel a really strong Hong Kong identity. I don’t feel British at all,” she said.
Chan is one of the latest entries to a growing list of Hong Kong activists who are banned from entering Macau. She said her friends had warned her not to travel to the mainland, as she “probably can’t get out.”
“I love the mainland. It’s a shame I can’t go back,” she said.
She considers herself patriotic, saying she felt strongly every time a Chinese dissident was jailed.
“I really think any patriot should hate this Communist Party because it has brought so much suffering to the people in the mainland,” she said.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
RSS