June
A day is vast,
Until noon,
Then it renews itself like a roaming godㅡ
broken in half, bewildering and
a new
~Duality: Hirshfield Intervention, Bob Black
When June was invited to the march by Heather, the first thing she thought was not about the purpose of the march, but which pair of shoes she should wear. She had just bought a pair of new heels and she really wanted to wear them for important events, especially when she was told that Eason, among other boys from the architecture department, also would be going.
The mary jane shoes were dark green with 2-inch heels, a flower of the same color on each side where the buckle was. But they were mostly for looks, not really comfortable if one wanted to walk for a long time, they would make one’s feet sore. June couldn’t afford high-end shoes, and she bought this pair online without the chance to try them on first. June was not unsatisfied with them, with the money she paid, it was reasonable to have a fancy looking product of passable quality. Should she wear them? Would they impress Eason or other boys? How long were they going to walk?
June decided against wearing the new shoes eventually; she reckoned that if her feet were sore she might look funny when she walked, it wouldn’t be cool. She had such a miserable experience more than once before. The streets in Hong Kong were not really easy to walk with high heels, she’d avoid getting herself in trouble with a bunch of her college classmates. June put on her sneakers and took off, hoping there would be occasions later for her shiny green mary jane.
As advised by Heather, June put on a black shirt and brought a simple canvas tote to carry a bottle of water and an umbrella. She took a little money with her, in case after the march they still wanted to hang out and dine or drink something together.
Since all the marchers wore black outfits, it took them quite some time to find each other near the Hill Knoll Pavilion in Victoria Park. June was surprised there were so many people joining the march. Heather handed her a sign with a cuffed hand over the red background, the words said “No China Extradition”. Then they began to move westward slowly, and Eason and Jushau joined them when they walked toward Hennessy Road. It was almost four o'clock in the afternoon.
Joshua took out rice balls for them. The seaweed slices wrapping the rice had been slightly dampened after being put away in the fridge for a few hours, but they devoured them anyway. June had hoped that they could have a meal together later at night, but with so many people still joined in, the march seemed to be lasting forever.
It was a very well organized march, along their route June saw many first aid stations with Red Cross signs. And there were more spots providing drinking water. Did the event organizers expect to have a long day? The parade grew bigger and bigger. Speakers on soap boxes shouted the reasons why indicted offenders in Hong Kong should not be extradited to the Chinese mainland. Not until that point did June realize that the new law was not really about the trials of criminals but a tool to be used against Hong Kong political dissidents.
June heard several people arguing about the Umbrella Revolution, one of them insisted that it was a very successful movement, and another mocked, “If it was a success, why are we still here today?”
“Without the Umbrella Revolution, we would be in a worse situation. At least we are still able to express our thoughts today.”
“True. But my old man believes that we are causing trouble…”
“Don’t you see? They are the troubles. Their belief in law and orders is totally illusional, that’s the problem. They don’t rebel, no matter how unjustified the law and order becomes…”
Heather and Eason were also discussing the disagreements and conflicts between different groups that had participated in previous movements. June listened, she had no idea that Heather had been so involved in these movements, and the same was true for Eason. June wished to take part in their conversation, but she was not very clear about the issues concerning them. Would Eason be impressed by Heather more, instead of June? Heather was a plump girl, her charm came from her eloquence in public affairs. June was slender and very careful about her style, but today she felt the dress code of wearing black erased her opportunity to stand out. What a pity.
“The Umbrella Movement was our wake-up-call!” The same guy insisting that the Movement was a success said hopefully. But an older voice replied in a cold tone, “Hong Kong people should have been woken up as early as the Tiananmen Slaughter, but the majority never learned the lesson.”
“You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.” Another person said in a regrettable tone.
Ding! It was a notification of text from June’s mobile phone. June checked it, “You are not in the march, are you?” It was her mom. June put her phone back in her tote. Seeing people in black shirts keep coming into the procession, June suspected that the entire population of people in their twenties was on the streets, and her mother’s question seemed to be so ridiculous. June reckoned that the march would be a hot topic in school on the coming Monday, and she certainly did not want to be left out.
June was born in 1997, the year that Hong Kong was handed over to China from the UK. In the same year there were sixty-three thousand babies born in Hong Kong, an unusual generation in an unusual time. When June was six, Hong Kong was hit by SARS, a mysterious disease of the respiratory system transmitted by the novel coronavirus, resulting in the cancellation of her kindergarten graduation ceremony. In 2008, when she was eleven, the Olympic Games were staged in Beijing. Since that time, her parents, among many adults who grew up under the UK system, began to feel they were more Chinese than British. In the same year, Hong Kong was in the epicenter of the global financial crisis. And in 2009, the entire Hong Kong region was devastated by Swine Flu, and yes, it was an epidemic involving humans, so June missed her elementary graduation ceremony again. When the Umbrella Revolution was happening in 2014, and the streets and public spaces were occupied by protestors for eighty days, June was restrained by her parents from participating in it. June was only seventeen years old at that time, not even a voter yet, and was engaged in all kinds of examinations in high school, she really did not pay much attention to the matters of direct elections or being represented by a few people. Even today, June was not very clear why the extradition of offenders to China was such an essential issue.
Obviously it was, otherwise there couldn’t be so many people taking to the streets to protest, and there wouldn’t be such great and forceful opposition from the law to stop them.
They began seeing law enforcement moving around them, some of them were in uniforms that indicated they had never even seen Hong Kong before. The marchers moved on, shouting slogans and singing, but the troops from unknown origins certainly changed the cheerful atmosphere right as they had just taken off. Joshua got a message that on Lung Wo Road the police had begun to throw tear gas at marchers, so they started to shout “withdraw the police” in unison again and again. From where they were, the shouting was heard from groups near and far, from bridges or from buildings surrounding them. It irritated the law enforcement even more, and one band of police in black helmets, black bulletproof vests and black batons marched toward them with black shields. Involuntarily they recoiled, but boys stood before girls.
Four or five protestors from another direction ran behind the armed police troops and shouted on the top of their lungs, attempting to distract them. Several policemen did turn and run after these protestors, but most of the policemen were still marching toward June’s group step by step. Unexpectedly, a person behind June threw a water bottle at the police. When they still had no idea how to respond to the situation, four or five policemen rushed toward their group and disbanded them. They spotted the bottle thrower and surrounded him, and as the guy had no way to run, they hit him hard with their batons. The guy squatted down and held his arms to protect his head, but the policemen began to kick his sides and back with their heavy boots. Seeing this, Eason tried to break up the beating, but immediately he was surrounded, too. And as other protestors approached to help their fellow protestors, they were expelled by the rest of the police troops. June was surprised to see more policemen had come, and they moved quickly. In no time, their group had been downsized to no more than a dozen protesters.
Outside of their circle, other protesters continued shouting “We have the right for non-violent demonstration! Non-violence! Withdraw the police!” But their sounds were further and further away, June assumed that they were pushed away, and now she and her friends were really isolated.
They were ordered to lie down on their stomach with their hands on the back of their heads. They were beaten up when they followed the order slowly, not to mention resistance. June felt that her tote was brutally dragged away, which carried her mobile phone, drinking water, purse and an umbrella. Then one by one they were handcuffed and thrown into a police truck like pigs to be slaughtered.
They were not allowed to speak in the truck, and with hands cuffed, they could only worm little by little from the weight of someone else’s body. They had no idea where they were sent to, the truck must be driven through quite bumpy roads, and June felt she would throw up any time.
It was a hot day, they could feel the body heat from one another, they could smell each other’s breath. June was not sure if Heather, Eason and Joshua were also in the truck or not. She hoped they were, and at the same time she hoped they were not.
A shrieking song sung out in a female voice echoed in June’s head, it had to be from a street theater nearby. It was a line from an ancient story, the heroine was weeping in the most ferocious and accusing tone. A woman, Dou-Er, was wronged to be the murderer of her bullyer but couldn’t claim her justice because of the corrupt local officials. Before her execution, Dou-Er pointed to the sky and swore her innocence; she cursed that a storm after a long drought would avenge her. After her death, in the third year of the drought, a snow storm in midsummer hit the place bringing devastation.
June has no idea where she was and how long she had been in this horrifying place. She had fallen asleep in a chair, pain and soreness pervaded her body. The concrete building must have been abandoned for a long time, foul smells of mildew and rotten things made her so sick when she was dragged into this dim cell. But after a long time, not knowing how long, June began to feel her own breath turning bad after not eating and drinking at all for so long. Her lips were parched, her eyelids were heavy. Her shoulders and hips were aching first, then the pain became burning, and gradually her limbs went numb. If the floor weren’t so dirty with puddles of still water and circled by mosquitoes, June would lie down to rest, instead of sitting in the chair.
Policemen and policewomen had come and gone several times, June did not remember how many times. Each time they showed up they used all kinds of humiliating words to her, calling her a parasite, a cockroach, among other names of loathsome bugs. At first June tried to explain that she did not do anything except walk in the march, and she had no intention to violate the peace the marchers had promised. But she was not listened to. The police did care about her explanation. One time they brought a paper and forced June to sign on it, which was her “self-statement” with her “confession” that she had participated in the conspiracy of agitating the “riots”. June was shocked by the wording; a peaceful march demanding for the fundamental autonomy of Hong Kong’s jurisdiction was interpreted as a riot?! And as one of the supporters of hundreds of thousands, June –she had become an agitator?! She was not even clear about the purpose of the demonstration when she started walking with the others.
Was Heather an agitator, too? Was Eason as well? And Joshua? June wanted to cry, but her body was too dry to shed any tears.
Had her mom called her again? Did her family know where she was? Recalling that not so long ago she was still thinking of impressing boys with her new shoes, June felt so bitter and hopeless. When would she be going home to see her family? When would she be in school again?
The door opened again, and a policewoman entered, followed by a policeman.
“What to charge for this one?” The policeman asked. June was identified as “this one”.
“Obstruction of justice.” The policewoman said.
Hearing it, June’s helplessness suddenly and unexpectedly changed to anger. She gathered all her energy left and stared at the two people who planned to frame her with crimes she never committed. June’s eyesight must be full of resentment and contempt, because in a flash of a moment, they were betrayed by their surprise. But they maintained a composed demeanor, in a cruel way. The policeman wrote down something on his pad and both of them took off.
Yes, no doubt I just have obstructed justice with my eyes, June thought to herself. Their justice, which is as disgusting as the filthy puddles in the smelly cell.
