I was overwhelmed by mixed feelings of pride and shame on June 9, the day Hong Kong people, especially its young men and women, took to the streets in peaceful protest against the proposed extradition law. Pride in the extraordinary courage shown by the Hong Kong people, and shame because such courage and conviction has become so rare in Chinese youth.
I am not talking about the people still living behind the Great Firewall, but those who study and work overseas and breathe the same fresh air as their Hong Kong counterparts. In late May, the story of Frances Hui, a student from Hong Kong at Boston’s Emerson College, hit the headlines. After getting an earful from a fellow passenger on a local bus for identifying herself as a Hong Kong person, rather than Chinese, she wrote a column in Emerson’s student newspaper with the opening line: “I am from a city owned by a country I don’t belong to.”
