香港デモはまだ終わらない。民主化運動を伝える写真展と写真集

The Hong Kong protests are not over yet. A photo exhibition and photo book to illustrate the movement towards democracy.

 

 

 

▶Outline of this project

 

Hello, I am a photographer Noriyoshi Shibata. I first traveled to Hong Kong to take photos at the end of June, 2019. After that, I went back and forth a total of three times to take photos on the scene.  

 

 In June this year, it will be the first anniversary of Hong Kong's demonstration of 2 million people. To keep this from being forgotten, I plan to hold a photo exhibition and publish a photobook, highlighting the current situation in Hong Kong to the general public of Japan. Thank you for your support.

 

 

Excessive police suppression with indiscriminate tear gas firing. 

I continued taking photos to reveal the "reality of what is occurring."

 

 At first, I didn't have the know-how about covering frontlines, and I worried that from the perspective of the demonstrators I might be mistaken for a spy from the government or Mainland China. I learned how to take photos safely while I was actually doing it. They were so kind to me as a Japanese, and while I was moving around alongside demonstrators, strangers would call out to me from behind: "Arigato!" (thank you) and "Ganbatte!" (keep it up). 

 

While they’re called demonstrations, there were peaceful demonstrations which were held with permission, and then there were combative demonstrations started by the Valiant Frontier. I came across scenes that showed more than I needed to see, like a police squad spraying pepper spray on an old man and surrounding him with several officers. And when the general public raised their voices in resistance, police would often fire tear bombs; I felt that this was a huge problem.

 

 

When I took tear-gas attacks,I didn’t feel like doing anything for a while. Fundamentally, members of the press were not supposed to be attacked, yet there were stray bullets, intentional attacks, accidents and so on. So I prepared what I would need, like a helmet, goggles and masks, and I took great care when taking photographs.

 

Sometimes Japanese TV stations and major overseas media outlets shoot footage on-site, but they also have limitations in terms of personnel. But there is an element of luck in gathering footage, and amateur Hong Kong student cameramen and camerawomen sometimes shoot important scenes. Personally, I'd like to see more individual cameramen and camerawomen come on-the-ground. It's important to tell the truth about what's happening, whether you're a pro or an amateur. I'm just an ordinary person, but I continue to shoot, because I want to help tell the truth.

 

 

A sense of danger, that freedoms we take for granted could be lost.

This isn't just "an event that's happening in another country".

 

The large-scale demonstrations in Hong Kong were covered quite frequently in Japan. But in Japan it felt like this was just something happening to other people elsewhere. Although we knew about it, we felt like it had nothing to do with us, irrelevant to our own lives or future, and it wasn't something we wanted to be involved in either. 

 

However, in this globalized world, thinking about this as "an event happening somewhere else" (as we have in the past) isn't enough anymore. If you don’t take what is happening in Hong Kong now seriously, it will eventually become a problem here in Japan too. When young people are rising up and fighting like this, from a sense of a crisis that those rights which we consider to be "fundamental human rights" are threatened - freedom of thought, expression, and freedom of body  – I think this is really worth thinking about carefully. 

 

 

The "freedoms" that were once guaranteed in Hong Kong are in danger of disappearing before our eyes. If something like this happened in Japan…. It’s hard to even think about, but I would like you to think about what is happening in Hong Kong with a sense of urgency and assume that it could happen in Japan one day too. 

 

If you are now unable to recall the memory of the "Hong Kong protests," it will become a "past event."

 

 

I would like to share with you some facts on the ground, and let's think about the Hong Kong Democratization Movement together.

I am holding a photo exhibition and am publishing a photobook.

 

It makes sense to hold the photo exhibition and publish the photobook simultaneously. A photo exhibition is a "place", while a photobook is a "memory"; together, these comprise one project. We’ll soon reach the one year anniversary of the 2-million-person-strong demonstrations of June 2019, but with the global news of a new pandemic, the interest in Hong Kong's important issues continues to wane. They have similarities in that they both relate to China,but I think that if we stand by while human rights are repressed overseas, then the day may come when it catches up with us, like a coronavirus.

▶︎ Details of estimates

 

Lastly

 

I hope that through this project, the supporters of the Hong Kong demonstrations will increase in Japan. I think that many Japanese have traveled to Hong Kong, but the youth of Hong Kong grew up in an environment that respected freedom, human rights the rule of law and so on - just like we do. And now, these shared values are under serious threat.

The Hong Kong government which represses Hong Kong demonstrators are merely a puppet of Beijing. If we ignore the violence taking place in Hong Kong now, the pressure of the Chinese government will soon be directed at Taiwan and Japan. In that sense, Hong Kong's movement for democracy is not unrelated to us Japanese.

Through this project, I wish to convey what I saw and felt on-the-ground when I visited Hong Kong several times since June last year, through the media of photos, videos and words. I hope that this photo exhibition will create a place where people from Hong Kong and Japan, and even Mainland Chinese living in Japan, can discuss issues surrounding Hong Kong. It would make me very happy if something would start again because of these small encounters.

I am truly grateful for your support.

 

 

 

▶About the "Hong Kong Protests" (Hong Kong pro-democracy movement) 

(About the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill counter protests)

 

On February 17th, 2018, a Hong Kong resident killed his girlfriend in Taiwan. He then returned to Hong Kong and was arrested by the Hong Kong police. However, there was no criminal extradition agreement between Taiwan and Hong Kong, so he could not be extradited to Taiwan. 

 

In response, the Hong Kong government proposed amendments to the fugitive laws in February 2019. However, under these amendments, criminal extradition could be enabled from Hong Kong to mainland China, and Hong Kong citizens could be subject to regulation by Chinese authorities. An opposition movement broke out against the amendments amidst concerns over weakening the "one country, two systems" principle that guaranteed Hong Kong's autonomy. 

 

Starting with a protest of about 12,000 participants on March 1st, 2019, there were several large-scale protests held in June, and the June 16th protest of 2 million participants was the largest in Hong Kong's history. 

 

On September 4th, Chief Executive Carrie Lam officially announced a full withdrawal of the extradition bill, but she did not show any sign of conceding to the other four demands among the "five key demands" of the protesters (*1). 

 

The protests continued, and clashes between the police and the protesters intensified in November, as students participating in the protests were arrested and detained. The pro-democracy camp gained more than 80% of the seats in the November 24th Hong Kong District Council election, reflecting the popular desire for the government to respond to the five key demands.  

 

Since January 2020, the effects of the novel coronavirus have led to a suspension of protests involving large gatherings of people, but protest actions are continuing in other forms, such as through healthcare worker strikes. 

 

*1 Five Key Demands

(1) Full withdrawal of the extradition bill

(2) Retraction of the Hong Kong government's characterisation of the protests as "riots"

(3) Establishment of an independent investigation committee on police brutality 

(4) Release of all arrested and detained protesters 

(5) Implementation of universal suffrage for the elections of the Legislative Council and the Chief Executive