Antony Dapiran: The Hong Kong Way protest shows enchantment is a powerful weapon
The feeling of “enchantment”, according to political theorist Jane Bennett of Johns Hopkins University, is something that stops you in your tracks, leaving you transfixed and spellbound – a suspension of time and movement. Places or moments of enchantment can inspire a sense of wonder or awe, even fill us with overwhelming feelings of generosity and love for the world. But enchantment can also serve a political purpose.
It almost felt like
magic. A few people standing on the street were joined by a few more; people
lining the footpath of one block connected to those on the next block. And
suddenly, there they all were. Hand in hand, chanting slogans and singing
songs. On 23 August, the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way – a human chain
linking the capitals of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to demand the Baltic
republics’ independence from the Soviet Union – more than 200,000 people came out on to the streets of Hong Kong to
form the “Hong Kong Way”. From the crowded streets of Wan Chai on Hong Kong
island, to the famous waterfront of Tsim Sha Tsui, to the suburbs of the New
Territories, to the peak of Lion Rock, people linked hands in a continuous
human chain that some said measured 60km
in total.
This was just the
latest action in Hong Kong’s ongoing anti-government protest movement calling
for democratic reforms. As a protest action, it was incredibly effective:
entirely peaceful, a striking visual spectacle, and a very physical
manifestation of the broad support for the movement from across the community.
People of all ages and from all walks of life, families with young children,
the elderly – all joined the chain and put paid to any suggestion that these
ongoing protests were just a few hot-headed young student agitators. But
perhaps most importantly, the Hong Kong Way
created a moment of enchantment.
It was a sharp
contrast to the scenes of the weekend that followed: violent clashes between
protesters and police on two consecutive days, which culminated in police
deploying water cannon for the first time on Hong Kong’s streets and one
officer firing a warning shot from his service revolver to fend off an angry
mob police said threatened their lives. As the city continues to reel from
months of protests, moments of enchantment such as Friday night’s Hong Kong Way
offer a reprieve from the escalating cycle of violence and rays of hope for the
protest movement... read more:
