Joshua Wong, the student who risked the wrath of Beijing: By Tania Branigan
Cometh the hour, cometh
the boy. Very much a boy: 17 and looking even younger behind his black-rimmed
spectacles, with baggy shorts accentuating his skinniness and shaggy hair in
need of a trim. Bright, well-mannered and slightly geeky, everyone’s son was
about to become an international celebrity. In September 2014, an
unprecedented wave
of civil disobedience swept Hong Kong, with tens of thousands of people
pouring on to the streets to call for democratic reforms. The shock wasn’t just
seeing riot police deployed in the heart of a city regarded as apolitical,
money-focused and essentially conservative. It was the numbers and sheer youth
of these peaceful demonstrators, umbrellas held aloft to ward off teargas and
pepper spray, as they confronted – peacefully, tidily and very, very politely –
the wrath of Beijing.
The Face of Protest, in
the words of Time’s cover, was teenager Joshua Wong. Fortune named him one of
the world’s greatest leaders. It was the detention of Wong and other
student protesters – for storming into the blocked-off government complex –
that first brought sizeable crowds to the streets of Central district, and the
heavy-handed response of police that catalysed that extraordinary, exhilarating
moment known as the umbrella movement. But when I
tracked him down after his release he dodged personal questions and,
indeed, most others. He didn’t like the idea of movements getting hung up on
stars.
Two-and-a-half years
on, the battle has shifted from the streets to the polling booths. Wong, now
20, has co-founded a new party, Demosisto, and is studying
for a politics degree, although, he says: “Sometimes it feels as if I major in
activism and minor in university.” Earlier this month he was in Washington,
testifying before the cameras to US senator Marco Rubio’s congressional-executive
commission on China. When I meet him, in London, he is promoting the modestly
titled Netflix
documentary Joshua: Teenager vs Superpower. “Being famous is part of my
job,” he suggests in the film. He’s even smartened up, with shorn hair and a
rather dapper jacket… read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/14/joshua-wong-the-student-who-risked-the-wrath-of-beijing-its-about-turning-the-impossible-into-the-possible
