Throughout last week’s mass protests over a controversial extradition law in Hong Kong, one prominent feature stood out: the almost continuous singing of the hymn “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord.”
"Hong Kong has been rocked by mass protests that began on June 9 when an estimated one million people marched to urge Hong Kong authorities to scrap an amendment to an extradition bill that would allow suspects to be sent for trial in China’s Communist Party-controlled judiciary. In China’s courts, the conviction rate is often as high as 99 percent."
"The singing first started at a prayer meeting staged by a group of pastors and young Christians outside the government headquarters on the night of June 11, when protesters began to gather to call for the retraction of the bill the night before it was scheduled to be discussed in the legislature."
"A pastor who helped organize the prayer meeting, the Rev. Wu Chi Wai, the general secretary of Hong Kong Church Renewal Movement, told America that the demonstrators were hoping that their singing and praying could defuse the tense atmosphere between protesters and police."
“We hoped to bring the presence of Christ there. We saw our roles as peacemakers placed between protesters and police to calm emotions," said Mr. Wu."
"...Mr. Ying said the Chinese government is now likely to reassess its relationship with Hong Kong churches and Christian leaders. Beijing authorities may reinforce their liaisons with pro-Beijing Christian leaders while further alienating those who have been openly critical of the government."
"But pastors who have spoken out say even though there might be repercussions, it was still important to speak the truth during the protests."
I had never heard the particular song, "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord", which was being sung by the protestors. So of course I had to look it up on youtube. I found it to be lovely and haunting. And as is usual when I find music that I like, I play it over and over and drive my husband crazy and it becomes a brain worm.
Here is the version that I liked best:
I am not optimistic about the ultimate situation of Hong Kong's freedoms vs the Mainland. But I am glad that they are not going down quietly. And I am also glad that a Christian song and the witness of Christians are playing a part. Possibly the peaceful protest and the fact that the international community is watching will mitigate their situation.
Update: From an editorial originally appearing in the Washington Post:
Update: From an editorial originally appearing in the Washington Post:
"...with the protests comes anxiety: How will the protests translate into results, and how will the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing and its de facto subordinates in Hong Kong react?"
"The sea of people across the length of downtown Hong Kong undoubtedly sent shivers down the spine of Chinese President Xi Jinping. His principle of governing since 2012 has been to enforce the party’s supremacy as the paternalistic guiding force, stamping out independent thought and action. This is a direct legacy of the brutal force that was used to squelch the 1989 democracy protest in Tiananmen Square that remains a major factor in the thinking — and nightmares — of China’s leaders."
"They fear people power more than anything else. Throngs of independent-minded Hong Kong people on the streets, directly and openly opposing a policy of the Beijing overlords, is a challenge to everything Xi stands for. It comes after a years-long attempt to whittle away the freedoms promised to Hong Kong in the 1997 handover, which envisioned “one country, two systems” for 50 years."
"The half-measures of Carrie Lam, the embattled Hong Kong leader, suspending the bill and issuing an apology, were not enough. She should abandon the legislation as drafted, which could open the door to China grabbing dissidents or others from Hong Kong and bundling them off for prosecution and punishment on the mainland."
"Xi ought to realize that the Hong Kong protests are tangible evidence that Chinese people can and do understand democracy and do not have to live in an authoritarian straitjacket. Just look at Taiwan. He should see that China would reap greater rewards from an open and prosperous Hong Kong than if the city-state were transformed into a sulking, embittered prisoner of Beijing. However, this would require Xi to finally shake off the ghosts of Tiananmen and the party’s dread of freedom of expression, assembly, press, conscience and movement. His record unfortunately suggests that he is more likely to wait until things calm down and then try again, gradually suffocating Hong Kong in the bosom of China’s unfreedom. Already, Beijing has tried to wave away the protests with the old canard that it is foreign meddling."
"Hong Kong enjoys special economic status with the United States under a 1992 law that recognizes that it is different from China. This offers leverage for the Trump administration and Congress to urge China to let Hong Kong breathe, or risk losing the benefits."
Thank you. The Chinese version of We Shall Overcome -- in English!?!!
ReplyDeleteOf course, the people on Hong Kong won't overcome in the end because there is a date certain, 2047 in the British handover when the Beijing can assert full sovereignty. Chris Patten, who negotiated the handover, knew Beijing would start whittling away at the 50-year Basic Law they agreed to as soon as the Brits weren't around to protest any more. Brexit has sort of sidelined Great Britain for this round of whittling.
Patten turned up as an advisor to Pope Francis early in Francis's reign. Don't know what he's doing lately, but he has had a long and often interesting career as a Parliamentarian and lawmaker. I suspect Thatcher sent him to do the deal to end Britain's 156 years in Hong Kong because he was a "wet" Conservative and not a dedicated Maggie follower. I also find it interesting that the veddy conservative Mrs. T, great chum of Ronald Reagan, etc., etc., etc., presided over that bit of the dismantling of Her Majesty's empiah, since if a liberal had had to do it there would never be the end of hearing about the sellout to the Chicons. As a dry rightie, she got away with it without a mumbling word being uttered. Compare with Jimmie Carter doing the same thing -- handing over territory that had long been agreed would be given back to the country where it resided -- with the Panama Canal.
The Chinese Rulers are the ultimate despicable control freaks. The people must be controlled. Religion must be controlled or eliminated. Now they want to deploy AI assisted facial recognition to track their subjects and actually give them individual ratings. Effing nightmare. Thank you, American capitalist whores, for building them up to what they are today.
ReplyDelete"...ultimate despicable control freaks", yeah, pretty much. Consider their treatment of the Uighurs (not sure I spelled it right). As far as I am able to determine, their only crime is being different. Of course the PTB couldn't have that. Just wait until they annex Taiwan; they're already saying that it's really part of the mainland.
DeleteThat this Christian song is being used as a protest song (one of a number of different songs, apparently - one can also find on Youtube a couple of videos of Hong Kong protesters singing "Can You Hear The People Sing" from Les Miserables) casts an interesting light on Francis's decision to recognize the legitimacy of the Chinese Catholic church that has Chinese state approval. On the list of conservative qualms about Francis, that one is near the top. This Chinese government crackdown on Hong Kong protesters is not a good look for that agreement.
DeleteMy feeling about that agreement was that the situation of having two Catholic Churches in China was untenable in the long term. I think anything Francis does is going to make the conservatives b*tch, so he might as well do what he thinks is right. The situation was going to arise, (and probably had already) the longer time went by, of having to sort out who had valid holy orders and who didn't. Some, maybe a majority, of the clergy in the state approved group would be considered to have valid ordination by canon law definition. So it would be hard to maintain that they weren't "real" Catholics, and how were the people in the pews supposed to sort it out anyway?
DeleteKatherine, I don't think the core issue is the validity of orders. It's that the Chinese government is pulling the strings of its state-approved church. Its bishops are approved by the Chinese government, and, it must be presumed, are taking orders both from Rome and Beijing.
DeleteBy way of context: during Communist rule in Poland, the government tried to compromise many priests and bishops (successfully, apparently) by putting them on the payroll to spy for the government.
Suppose you are a regular person in Hong Kong, not particularly an activist, but you value liberty, and you are risking your livelihood and perhaps your well-being by showing up at these peaceful protests with some other parishioners from your local parish. Your Beijing-certified parish priest approaches your little group and says, "I'd like to be part of your group." How much should you trust him?
It would be hard to trust anybody, under those circumstances. Even if someone was supposedly from the "real" church, you wouldn't know for sure that they weren't infiltrators. But the two church situation couldn't be anything but schizophrenic for the people in the pews.
DeleteWhat's missing from the WaPo's editorial in the update is the "tangible evidence," as the Post puts it, that the people of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia DID understand democracy and are content to go back under a paternalistic straitjacket. Britain, in its own marmalade way, and France are not far behind, and Italy is (as usual) who-knows-where in terms of democracy. The Donfather, Mike Pompeo and Steve Bannon, who are all pushing the movement away from democratic freedom, aren't going to use anything as "leverage," in the Post's terms, to let Hong Kong "breathe." One of those guys is lusting to replicate Poland/Hungary here.
ReplyDeleteThe Post's editorial, redolent of the crumbling world order and oblivious to its crumbling, seems like a call from the 1950. Hong Kong is an outlier.
Do you think it's a frog-in-the-hot-water thing, that people don't realize what's happening until it's too late; or is it a more active hankering to return to some mythical "good old days" that they perceive as more secure?
DeleteI think it is both. Democracy is hard, and Instagram is easy. Some people think democracy should be like Instagram. Other people think there must be something more than Instagram and want a guru to show them what it is. Mostly, though, I think it is fear. My parish is about 50% Hispanic by now, and I would guess that 15-25% of the Hispanics are without proper documents. Yet the old white folks, who have no trouble with their fellow parishioners, are in mortal terror of the "hordes swarming our borders."
Delete