The November 12 clashes at the Chinese University of Hong Kong: An eyewitness view · Global Voices
Student activists protect themselves with umbrellas on the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong on November 12, 2019. Photo by the author. Used with permission.
<PERSON> is an Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUKH). This story is an edited version of a post published by Lokman on Facebook, bearing witness to the events surrounding the clash between student activists and police on the CUHK campus on Tuesday, November 12.
On Tuesday, November 12, I was supposed to teach my undergraduate morning class, “development of mass communication,” but classes were all suspended because of the protests.
As I write this, I am sitting in my office. It’s 9am Hong Kong time on November 13. I’ve just brushed my teeth, washed my face, and got myself some tea. Yes, I slept in my office, on the couch. My body feels a bit stiff and tired, and it reminds me of the days I’d go out clubbing until sunrise—except of course I am not that young anymore, nor was I exactly dancing last night.
I shouldn’t complain, because at least I had a couch to sleep on. I don’t know how many students slept outside last night, but by the time I left, around 3am, many were still outside working the supply lines, literally holding down the fort.
The day of November 12 was completely nuts.
It started with the 11am press conference in which I participated. In “normal” times, taking the Department of Justice to court over an injunction seeking to censor online speech would be newsworthy. But yesterday, only a sprinkling of journalists were present. The conference was live-streamed on the news portal HK01, and it got coverage from Apple, RTHK radio, Unwire and some others. But on a day like yesterday, this was not news—and understandably so, with everything else that was happening.
After the press conference, which was held in the Legislative Council Building, I looked for a place to sit down and calm my nerves. I was walking towards Central district. It was almost lunch hour; for the second day in a row, office workers were coming out to protest against the Hong Kong government and the police. In front of Louis Vuitton, people wearing suits and high heels were trying to occupy the road, shouting slogans. Some were kneeling to leverage bricks so we could use them as roadblocks. 341
Others stood on the sky bridge looking down at us, and many were yelling at them to come down and join us, that this is not a movie.
At some point, five high school girls showed up, visibly excited. They started shouting slogans and the rest of the crowd followed suit. Then members of the press started photographing the high-schoolers—inappropriately, as such a record could haunt them later. The girls giggled with embarrassment at first, then moved away; but the photographers followed them. In the end, several of us took out our umbrellas and shielded the girls. We held our umbrellas up for a while until my arm started getting sore. I told the girls to remember not to neglect their studies (when did I become this person?), and we went our own way.
As 2pm neared people began retreating. The lunch hour was over. Only moments before, we’d been standing strong, facing down the police, then abruptly “reality” kicks in, and it is time to go back to the office. I got myself some food and headed home.
That was when I began seeing footage of the scenes at Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)—the university where I teach. Some of my students were tweeting things like “where is the university president, where is the management, where are the teachers?!” I felt terrible. As I responded to friends who were asking me if I was okay, I decided, fuck it—I’m going to campus.
But how? I’m in Sheung San, Hong Kong Island, and my university is in Shatin in the New Territories, some distance away. Traffic is disrupted. Then a friend offers me a ride. We pick up several others along the way, and, with the car loaded, we are off on our way to CUHK, talking along the way about the people we know who have been arrested.
The traffic jam is huge, partly because of road blocks by protesters or police, and partly because it seems like a massive part of Hong Kong is mobilizing to go to CUHK to help out. At a certain point we cannot drive any further as the road is blocked by people and cars all trying to unload and distribute materials, helmets, water, etc. “Please help move stuff, this shit is heavy! 341