Umbrella Revolution leader enjoying life back on campus
Monday March 9, 2015 —Nathan Law paused before taking his next bite of fried pork in Lingnan University's upper canteen dining area. Law's face has become familiar to millions of viewers around the world who have followed Hong Kong's pro-democracy Umbrella Revolution.
Nathan Law, one of the student leaders in the recent Umbrella Revolution, dines with his friend Tiffany in Lingnan University's canteen. Photo by Akash GhaiToday, he's just another 21-year old eating dinner. After serving as an active leader of the Hong Kong Federation of Students during the protests, the transition back to everyday student life has taken time.
"To be honest, at the very beginning, I was not very comfortable or familiar with [college] life. Because the occupation lasted for three months," said Law, a social sciences major. "It's just like drastic change. But after a short period of time, I began getting used to it. Before you knew it, I was like an ordinary student."
Law has enjoyed a break from the spotlight.
"I play computer games. I play football, and I watch football. I play FIFA," Law said. "I play League of Legends, and I watch a lot of Premier League games."
Nathan Law, one of the student leaders in the recent Umbrella Revolution, during an interview with Penn State student John Stuetz in Lingnan University's canteen.Just a few months ago, Law's days were far less ordinary.
Starting September 28, thousands of Hong Kong citizens followed the lead of pro-democracy student organization figureheads, such as Law and Joshua Wang, who began setting up continuous protests in main city streets.
When Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China in 1997, after being handed over by Britain, its citizens were promised an opportunity for true democracy. Hong Kongers are free to elect any candidates the ballot, but rose names are controlled by mainland China. Annual protests for universal suffrage grew into massive and prolonged demonstrations in 2014. The Occupy Central movement pushed back against Beijing's emphasis on the "one country" aspect of the parties' "one country, two systems" agreement.
The pro-democracy movement was successfully ordered to clear the streets in December, allowing Law and other students to return to school.
But Law's days as a typical college student may be numbered.
He predicts further protests could resume following government ruling on the 2017 Chief Executive election voting details.
"America definitely has two parties that dominate the political scene. You guys are not very hopeless in the political environment. But we need that," Law said. "The influence of the political parties in Hong Kong are very weak. That's why the students have to be the center of the spotlight for the movement. But you have to work hard at what you believe for very long, to get what you believe in."
Law has been summoned by the police to explain his role in the protests and said it's "inevitable" he will be charged in the coming months. In addition, he said he will face limited employment opportunities, because he's been banned from entering the mainland.
"It's worth it," Law said. "At least I think."
~ Story by John Stuetz
Chicken Feet and Democracy
Monday March 9, 2015 — Having come to Hong Kong planning to write about the Umbrella Revolution, I was thrilled to have the chance to sit down today with Cleo Tse, an active participant in the movement and a former student of Dr. Bu Zhong, one of the Penn State journalism professors who helped organize this trip.
Chicken feet tast like wings, but they're chewier. Photo by Matt Allibone
After getting in touch with her minutes after getting off the plane on Sunday, Cleo suggested we chat at a Starbucks. Though I initially planned to avoid going to American eateries while in Hong Kong, dining on a lunch of chicken feet (sort of like chicken wings but chewier) softened my stance on the matter.
Prior to our conversation, I didn’t know much about Cleo’s specific role or thoughts on the student protests against Hong Kong’s eroding democracy. As it turned out, she was not only highly supportive of it, but also very involved. Despite having just started a full-time gig as a marketing executive for an art company, she still spent nearly every weekend this fall at the protest site.
We spoke for about 40 minutes, but what really stuck out to me was how Cleo described the mindset of the youth in Hong Kong in relation to the protests. According to her, few involved really thought their stated goal of convincing the Chinese government to change Hong Kong’s voting laws was really attainable. To them, protesting was about making history and doing something more productive than, she said, “scrolling through Facebook all day.”
I left the interview with a better understanding of the democracy movement. Overall, my conversation with her was the highlight of my first day, more so than those chicken feet were.
~ Story and photo by Matt Allibone
Role Reversal
Monday March 9 — While dining in the canteen of City University of Hong Kong, classmate Katie McKenna and I were approached by a student to participate in her psychology study. Karen Yau, a student at Shun Yan University in Hong Kong, was doing a study on listening skills related to each ear. However, the catch was that the participant had to be a native English speaker, which Katie and I are.
After spending four hours and asking all the questions are at Hong Kong Sze Yap Commercial & Industrial Association Wong Tai Shan Memorial College, it was nice to have the roles reversed and to have to answer some questions.
The hearing questionaireIt didn’t take more than five minutes to complete the study. First, we filled out a form about which hand is dominant in 10 categories. For the second portion, we listened to four voice tracks, two in English - one on the left and the other on the right - and two in Cantonese - same with one on the left ear and one of the right - and were asked to repeat each word as we heard it.
As it turns out, Katie has a more drastic difference in hearing between her two ears than I do. However, helping Karen out taught us more than just the difference in our hearing. We weren’t strangers to asking directions or asking for wifi passwords all day, but to have someone come up to us for a change was a nice change of pace. Helping a fellow student do her study was as much fun as doing our interviews all day.
~ Multimedia reporting by Megan Flood
Catch of the Day
A fisherman tosses a net full of fish from a boat into a netted holding area Monday evening at Sok Kwu Wan on Lamma Island. Photo by Shuyao Chen
Monday March 9, 2015 — As the sun began settling low on the horizon, a fishing boat pulled into a transfer dock off Lamma Island, west of Hong Kong. It was the end of a long day of fishing, but the catch -- all still alive -- had to be moved from the boat into netted holding areas. Lamma Island, also known as Pok Liu Chau, is the third largest island in Hong Kong and it has Hong Kong's largest fishing farming zones at Sok Kwu Wan.
~ Photo by Shuyao Chen
State College to Newark to Hong Kong, the adventure begins
Saturday March 7 and Sunday March 8, 2015 — Penn State’s International Reporting Class (Comm 402) began their journey by bus, at 8:30 a.m. yesterday morning from State College to Newark Airport.
Students and faculty gather for a group photo before boarding the bus at Rec Hall.
To get students ready and excited to travel to Hong Kong, Professor Katie O’Toole divided the bus in half and quizzed the class in a Jeopardy-style game. Jerry, our bus driver, proved to know quite a lot about Hong Kong and unexpectedly led the left side of the bus to a win!
Professor Katie O'Toole leads a spirited session of Hong Kong Jeopardy on the bus. (Photo by Megan Swiatkowski)The flight from Newark to Hong Kong was delayed by an hour, but students and professors made the best of the time by grabbing a bite to eat and sharpening their skills on camera equipment.
The plane landed around 8:52 p.m. Hong Kong time, 12 hours ahead of East Coast time. The airport was filled with fashion and electronic ads both in Chinese and English, which started to give students a feel for Hong Kong.
It took 16 hours to fly from Newark, NJ, to Hong Kong following a route north through Canada, over the Arctic Circle then south through Russia and China to Hong Kong, which is on China's south coast.
The bus ride from the airport to the NTT International house gave everyone a glimpse of the skyscraper-speckled skyline Comm 402 would explore tomorrow.
Students will be Tweeting, Facebook-ing, and Instagram-ing photos and experiences during the trip. You can find these by searching the hashtag #PSUinHK on social media.
~ Story by Megan Swiatkowski