Jaime Chu is a critic from Hong Kong and a former contributing editor at Spike.

“The most famous leak in recent history – when Edward Snowden revealed evidence of mass surveillance by the American government on private citizens in 2013 – took place in a room at the Mira in Hong Kong, a hotel above a Swarovski and a short walk away from the Tsim Sha Tsui police station and the Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Centre. In late October 2019, a police water cannon sprayed a jet of blue dye at the mosque, hitting several pedestrians nearby. The police commissioner apologised for the accident the next day, claiming the aim of the police operation was to protect the religious site from protesters, who had been out on the streets for twenty consecutive weekends since the anti-extradition bill protests in June morphed into a city-wide pro-democracy protest movement by fall.”

FIELD NOTES

Hong Kong: the stage and symbol for non-violent, organised, pro-democratic protests since last year, but pictures don’t tell the whole story, or at least the one experienced by those participating. JAIME CHU introduces us to the work of a young Hong Kong–based artist, TIFFANY SIA, who’s been busy with just that.