The recent death of a student in Hong Kong has provided new fuel to the pro-democracy street protests that have erupted around the city during the past eight months. Protester Chow Tsk-lok, also known as Alex Chow, 22, died on November 8 after allegedly falling an entire floor in a parking garage and sustaining head injuries that proved fatal. Protesters reacted by occupying universities across Hong Kong, including Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The face of this year’s Hong Kong protests has certainly been that of young Hong Kongers and students, but many of the internationally known figureheads are male. Not as much attention has been given to the young women on the front lines. They have ignited a discussion about public perception of Hong Kong women, increased awareness of sexual vulnerability of female and male protesters through the feminist-led movement #ProtestToo, and brought up issues of gender bias and sexism in Hong Kong society. Teen Vogue spoke to several of these young women about why they’re taking to the streets.
Young women began to make waves this summer following reports that police abuse of power and violence toward protesters involved sexual violence. Allegations surfaced of rape, inappropriate police conduct, and abuse of power, including strip searches of young female protesters. Linda Wong, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities, a coalition of multiple women’s rights organizations in the city, said in a statement: “In the name of law enforcement, [the] police is using sexual violence as an instrument of intimidation. They intend to silence women through sexual shame and humiliation, violating women’s right to bodily autonomy, as well as every person’s right to lawful assembly. Our Coalition makes the strongest condemnation of police use of sexual violence as a means to intimidate protesters.” The anti-sexual harassment and assault protests were dubbed #ProtestToo, in reference to #MeToo, a worldwide movement that has called attention to gender-based sexual violence.
Chinese University of Hong Kong student Sonia Ng is the only woman who has revealed her identity after alleging sexual abuse by Hong Kong police in a detention center in mainland China. Amnesty International republished a statement that she wrote for The Lily, a Hong Kong women’s rights organization, that demanded an independent investigation into the use of force by Hong Kong police.
An independent investigation of police abuse is just one demand of protesters, who are fighting for universal suffrage and other democratic freedoms. The allegations of sexual violence have helped fuel anti-police anger. “I believe the cases of sexual harassment and assault," Fiona Ho, 34, told Teen Vogue. "They’re assaulting men and women [in detention centers].”
The sustained, dedicated action of young female Hong Kongers has subverted the Cantonese term "Gong Nui," or “Kong girl,” a term used to describe a materialistic, spoiled Hong Kong girl. As Quartz recently reported, the term is now used to express respect for the young women who have helped fuel this movement, especially in the face of rape threats and sexual harassment online. Kong girls are also part of the front-line protesters using increasingly violent tactics as tensions have escalated. Protesters have created homemade weaponry including Molotov cocktails, roadblocks, DIY slingshots, and even bows and arrows, which Hong Kong police have repeatedly pointed to as justification for returning the use of force.
“What else can we do? The government isn’t listening to us. We were peaceful. This is what has escalated for the past few months, ” Ho told Teen Vogue, adding that police were the ones “using too much violence.” Amnesty International investigated police behavior in the context of this year’s protests and found that police were violent even toward many largely peaceful protesters. Recently, police have escalated their use of more harmful weaponry, reportedly firing more than 100 rounds of tear gas onto university campuses, for the first time since the protests started, and using live ammunition, stun grenades, rifles, and water cannons for the first time. According to Bloomberg, more than 88% of Hong Kong’s population has been exposed to tear gas since June.
Since October, the Hong Kong police have reportedly changed their guidelines for what is defined as “acceptable force” in the context of the protests. The updated guidelines remove a line about individual officers being held “accountable for their own actions,” according to Reuters, granting them “their own discretion to determine what level of force is justified in a given situation.” With university students and university campuses in the limelight, some told Teen Vogue that they believe the police force are intentionally using disproportionate force on young people.
“I believe that the police is targeting all students and young people. If it is a young man or woman and they walk in front of the police, they have a bigger chance of getting arrested," said a 27-year-old female protester, who preferred to remain anonymous, as she threw bricks onto the road in Central, Hong Kong Island’s main commercial district. "If two people are in the same clothes, with the same bags, with just a difference in age, the younger one is more likely to get arrested. Younger friends of my friends have been arrested, all under 30. I’m sad because the government is targeting young people here.”
Cathy Yuen, 16, agreed: “I believe that the police are targeting young protesters and also young women. They’re easier to arrest. Young women don’t seem so dangerous to them,” she told Teen Vogue during November 19 protests in the Jordan neighborhood. Protesters had come out by the hundreds, forming a human chain to try and carry supplies into the besieged Polytechnic University. But they failed to break police barricades, and police soon cornered the protesters, deploying tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protesters after a tense standoff. “Most young women in the protests are respect[ful],” Cathy continued. “They don’t want to fight the police. But they also know that the protests can’t be peaceful now. I also think that the protests can’t be peaceful.”
As of November 29, 5,890 persons had been arrested in connection with the Hong Kong protests, according to the Arrested Persons Concern Group. On December 4, Secretary for Security John Lee released a demographic breakdown of arrestees by age: A large majority of the arrestees are age 30 and under; over a quarter of the arrestees age 30 and under are young women and girls; a total of 902 underage protesters have been arrested; and those charged with rioting can face up to 10 years in prison.
This scenario doesn’t seem hopeful for young protesters. Coco Wong, 16, says she goes into the front lines every day and hopes to make it home every night, despite not being able to talk about politics with her family. “My family doesn’t know where I am, but [it doesn’t compare to some peoples’ experience.] Lots of people cannot go home because their families are blue and they are yellow,” she said, referring to the colors favored by pro-government and pro-protest factions, respectively. “They stay out on the streets…. I don’t care if I get arrested. The police can come this way or that way, we do not have anywhere to run, and we must just face that we may get arrested.”
Strong undercurrents of misogyny persist throughout the protests. Female journalists covering the protests have also been sexually harassed and trolled online. As Professor Petula Sik Ying Ho wrote in an op-ed about the protests for GenderIT: “If this is 'a revolution of our times' (a key slogan of the protests) there should be a place for feminism within it — otherwise it is not a revolution, merely a shift in power from one sector of society to another.” Hong Kong lacks strong feminist movements and discourse, but, against all cultural expectations, gendered stereotypes, and even sexual harassment and violence, female protesters are slowly being recognized for their crucial role in the protests.
As Ng, the only woman to use her name in connection with police sexual abuse, wrote in her op-ed, “Some people are suggesting that female protesters shouldn’t go to the front line because of the risk of being sexually assaulted by the police. This decision is up to individuals, but I wouldn’t advise women against going to the front. The protests need people. We all know that Hong Kong is our home, and we have to stand up bravely, regardless of our gender.”
Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Hong Kong Is Burning. Here’s What Youth Activist Joshua Wong Wants You to Know.
