Ad

HOME L ATEST FINANCE ECONOMICS TECHNO

POLITICS AND POLICY

A refresher course on
Hong Kong’s 2014
Umbrella Movement
By Qripti Lahiri
9/27/19 12:YZAM

A more peaceful time.

Image: Reuters/Tyrone Siu

Hong Kong is in the midst of its second mass protest

movement in five years—and there are many
differences between 2019’s demonstrations and the
street occupation that began on Sept. 28, 2014.

As a sequel, this year’s protests are built upon the

foundation of those five years ago, while also
propelling the story forward. While the recent unrest
initially began in opposition to a bill that would have
allowed suspects to be sent from the city to mainland
China to face trial, they have since revived the key
demand of 2014: democracy.

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

IQ test - What is your

IQ?
test-iq.org

Related Stories
• The US Mint gave Hollywood legend

Anna May Wong long overdue

recognition

• Candy prices are up 13.1% with

Halloween right around the corner

• The Memo: Special Edition on

Workplace Technology

And they’ve gone further, with cries of “Liberate

Hong Kong” in the air and on posters, and a
“national” anthem being sung all over the city.

Here’s a recap of how 2014 unfolded.

What was the Umbrella

Movement about?
The protests of 2014 were about getting the universal
suffrage that Hong Kong was promised in the Basic
Law, the constitution that lays out how the city is to
be governed after its return from Britain to Chinese
sovereignty in 1997:

G/O Media may get a commission

24 HOURS

Wayfair - Flash
Deal Fridays

Deals for only 24 hours

If you need to make a big furniture or home
purchase, this is your chance.

Buy at Wayfair

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

The method for selecting the Chief Executive shall be

specified in the light of the actual situation in the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and in
accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly
progress. The ultimate aim is the selection of the
Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon
nomination by a broadly representative nominating
committee in accordance with democratic
procedures.

While the Basic Law didn’t include a date for that to

happen, and nor did the agreement between Britain
and China for Hong Kong’s return, the standing
committee of China’s legislature said in 2007 that in
2017 the chief executive “may be” elected by
universal suffrage. (Prior to the handover, the top
office in the city was the governor, appointed by
Britain.)

On Aug. 31, 2014, Beijing proposed that all eligible

voters could vote in 2017, but only for two or three
candidates who had been nominated by more than
half of a 1,200-person nominating committee, most
likely similar to the one that at present chooses the
chief executive. That is made up of people who
disproportionately represent business elites and
other groups close to Beijing.

Hong Kong was bitterly disappointed, seeing the offer

as hollow of the true meaning of having a universal
vote.

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

How did Umbrella begin?

In the months leading up to Beijing’s announcement,
many in the city were already aware that the
question of candidate nominations would be a
sticking point, and had organized regular protests
around the issue. The night of Aug. 31, 2014 also saw
people in the streets, banging pots and pans—and
democracy activist and legal scholar Benny Tai
warned (paywall), “Hong Kong is now entering a new
era—a new era of resistance.”

The Occupy Qrio leading a crowd shouting

protest slogans on the night of Aug. 31, 2014.
Image: Reuters/Bobby Yip

The previous year, Tai had published an article

advocating mass civil disobedience in Hong Kong’s
business district if true universal suffrage was not
granted. Later, he, along with fellow academic Chan
Kin-man and reverend Chu Yiu-ming, fleshed out the
idea in a manifesto called Occupy Central With Love
and Peace. Tai hinted the action would begin on Oct.
1, China’s national day.

But after student strikes in the last week of

September that culminated in a protest on Sept. 26—
Joshua Wong, then just shy of his 18th birthday, was
among those storming a closed-off public square
next to the city’s government complex—Occupy
Central was moved up.

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

“We choose our own government”: Students

carry a banner through Hong Kong’s business
district on Sept. 24, 2014.
Image: Reuters/Bobby Yip

Over 1,000 young people listen to a 14-year-old

high school democracy activist on Sept. 26,
2014.
Image: Reuters/Bobby Yip

A protester leaves a restricted area at the city’s

government headquarters that hundreds
stormed into on the night of Sept. 26, 2014.
Image: Reuters/Bobby Yip

Police responded with pepper spray and tear gas on

the first day of Occupy, prompting floods of irate
Hong Kongers to come out in the next 24 hours.

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

Thousands of protesters aYtend a rally outside

the government headquarters in Hong Kong as
riot police stand guard September 27, 2014.
Image: Reuters/Tyrone Siu

Over coming days, they established a protest city,

complete with tents where protesters camped
overnight and did homework, and a stage where
protest anthems were sung to a cheering crowd.

Oct. 28, 2014: One month in.

Image: Reuters/Tyrone Siu

How did it get the “Umbrella”

moniker?
The mundane objects had proved themselves
unexpectedly useful in shielding protesters from
pepper spray and (to a lesser extent) tear gas, and so
when the street occupation began, participants came
prepared. In a media-saturated age, they made for
striking images—a sea of black, as protesters often
wore, punctuated with yellow, the preferred color for
protest umbrellas.

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

A protester in central Hong Kong a]ter police

fired several rounds of tear gas, sparking Hong
Kong’s “Umbrella Movement.”
Image: Reuters/Stringer

As Quartz wrote in 2014: “The image is a poignant

one, and emphasizes the asymmetry of force: an
innocuous household object held up against
helmeted police officers wielding poisonous
substances for crowd control.”

Given Hong Kong’s love of puns, it’s not surprising

the words for the Umbrella Movement in Cantonese,
the city’s lingua franca, contain double meanings,
including a reference to one of the streets occupied
at that time.

An Umbrella Movement demonstration in Hong

Kong in October 2014.
Image: AP Photo/Kin Cheung

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

How did the 2014 protests come

to an end?
As the protests dragged on, some scenes occurred
that look awfully familiar today, including attacks by
pro-Beijing gangs on protesters and their tents.
There was an offer of dialogue by the government—
the current hated chief executive Carrie Lam was the
face of that effort—and a public debate. But as the
weeks wore on and support for the sit-in waned,
some left the streets on their own, while the trio
behind the Occupy manifesto also urged people to
leave as police tactics became more aggressive.

Dec. 8, 2014: Still preYty occupied.

Image: Reuters/Tyrone Siu

Businesses, such as bus companies, turned to the

courts for injunctions to clear the rest. The 79-day
occupation officially ended on Dec. 15, when the last
of the three camps were cleared away.

What did that protest achieve?

The protests didn’t achieve full universal suffrage.
The chief executive “election” in 2017 saw Carrie
Lam chosen by the same committee of 1,200 people
as in past contests, winning with all of 777 votes, a
number that inspired off-color jokes in the city.

A DV E RT I S E M E N T

But Umbrella left lasting effects. It’s unlikely this

year’s protests would have been as enduring as they
have been if not for the experience Hong Kong’s
young gained five years ago, when they learned not to
let themselves be hamstrung by a single method or a
single location.

Events between then and now, including the

prosecution of many of the most prominent faces of
the Umbrella Movement, are also why the protesters
of 2019 express a deep sense of urgency, and even
desperation, that they are running short on time to
preserve—some say “liberate”—the Hong Kong they
grew up in.

And they meant it.

Image: Reuters/Bobby Yip

Sitemap About Accessibility

Privacy Terms of Use Advertising

Jobs

Do Not Sell My Information Privacy SeRtings

More from our network

© 2022 G/O Media Inc.