00:00In 2014, protesters took to the streets demanding a more transparent election in Hong Kong.
00:07They carried umbrellas as a form of passive resistance
00:13and occupied major roadways for 79 days.
00:19The 2014 Umbrella Movement was followed by the 2019 anti-extradition law protests.
00:30Ten years ago, I was a student activist, a student leader.
00:34So now I'm a political exile, mostly based in the U.S.
00:38My name is Ivan Ngo. In 2014, I am the vice chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Students.
00:46My name is Leo. 2014 is like an enlightenment to me.
00:52In 2019, I assisted in building roadblocks.
00:56Then I became a driver to transport those protesters.
01:00I'm Jackie Chan. I've been a social worker for about 20 years.
01:05I was arrested and charged with violence on 31 August 2019.
01:12I'm Lawson Chan. I'm a journalist in Hong Kong.
01:16Many protesters were motivated by an expectation
01:20that the former British colony was supposedly guaranteed political autonomy for 50 years
01:26following its return to China in 1997.
01:30This arrangement was called One Country, Two Systems.
01:36But the crackdown from Beijing was severe
01:39and life has changed for many involved in the movements.
01:43My active participation in encouraging my fellow students,
01:47in taking part in a referendum,
01:50in different kinds of political campaigns,
01:52in different kinds of educational initiatives.
01:54I was then persecuted and put behind bars in jail in 2017
02:00for my involvement in the Umbrella Movement.
02:04I was pretty much mentally tortured,
02:08being physically separated with my family,
02:10seeing my mom coming into prison, visiting me,
02:13seeing them crying, being half-broken, coming out from prison,
02:19seeing people in support of the political prisoners going to the street,
02:23and also the Dine Down movement.
02:26Those are also moments for me to reflect on
02:29how much personal toll and social toll we will have to bear as an individual of Hong Kong.
02:35So I myself moved away from Hong Kong in 2018
02:39in pursuit of a doctoral degree in the U.S.
02:42so that one day I might return to Hong Kong
02:44to support my fellow citizens in recapturing the government
02:48in a more sustainable way.
02:49I was a nursing student back in 2014.
02:53The point that I changed my road is because
02:56when 2019 happened, I saw someone very young who was injured.
03:01I'm already a nurse at that point.
03:03When I was off duty, I would try to go out and do some first aid work.
03:10You'll be shocked by how young they are.
03:12It's quite traumatized when you're seeing some young people being beaten.
03:18University campuses became a battleground between the police and protesters.
03:24Riot officers tried to clear bunkered students and protesters.
03:28Most of them were young people.
03:31The Beijing government called the protesters thugs
03:34and accused them of attempting to turn Hong Kong
03:37into an independent or semi-independent political entity.
03:43Then we're trying to basically form up a union.
03:48In 2021, we received a letter from other unions
03:54that they got a single letter from the committee in the union
03:57that they got arrested.
03:59At that point, I decided to leave.
04:03When you decided to leave, it's a decision like
04:07abandon all the friends that are still fighting or staying.
04:11The city has experienced a pronounced exodus.
04:15Estimates range as high as 500,000 people.
04:19The Hong Kong government has placed million-dollar bounties
04:22on political activists who have fled overseas.
04:26If I have to sum up the past four years since I left Hong Kong,
04:30it would be I hit the rock bottom.
04:33I came to the US in 2020 to seek political asylum.
04:40And the hardest time was the waiting for a work permit.
04:45I couldn't find a job.
04:47I couldn't find a proper place to live.
04:49I feel like I betrayed my friend back in Hong Kong.
04:55And I started to blame myself.
04:57Eventually, I realized that it's just depression.
05:01I received counseling.
05:04I was able to connect with other exiles.
05:07And I was able to start to heal myself.
05:10We had a group of social workers.
05:13We call us battle social workers.
05:16Because in our usual work field,
05:19we always handle different kinds of crisis case.
05:25After 12 June 2019, we found that the emotion of police,
05:32some police are out of control.
05:34Therefore, we hope that to alert the police
05:39not to use the exodus force to the people.
05:43I was arrested and charged with riot on 31 August 2019.
05:50If I lose the case this time, I will go to jail.
05:54The government's response seems to be increasingly punitive.
05:58Chan says she's seen many cases of people charged with rioting
06:03merely because they showed up at the scene of protests.
06:08They are more influence on my career.
06:11I've seen the social worker registration board
06:14have helped my renewal of social worker license.
06:20And no non-governmental organization would employ me.
06:25This is a winter for the local journalists
06:29because the Apple Daily closed.
06:32Jimmy Lai and the senior management of Apple Daily had been arrested.
06:37And then the trolls of the Stan News,
06:42including two editors-in-chief, were arrested.
06:45It's really, really a high risk for the Journalist Association at that moment.
06:50Chan burned many of his reporter notebooks.
06:54And I burned all away.
06:57Because if I keep it, I'm afraid that they will be collected by somebody.
07:02Chan stepped down as head of the Hong Kong Journalist Association in 2024.
07:08His successor, Selena Chang,
07:10says she was fired from the Wall Street Journal for her role with the organization.
07:15Dow Jones, which publishes the newspaper, refused to comment on individuals.
07:22The Hong Kong story is also a global story.
07:24The diaspora's efforts across different host countries
07:28are critical in defending democracy.
07:30And those collective efforts would also, like,
07:33channel back to the future policy-making and institution-building,
07:37the form of government that will be taking, inheriting, like, well, in Hong Kong,
07:42where we might be able to return home one day.
07:44There was one time a friend visited me in New York and I told them that
07:51if I were passed away in a foreign country,
07:55I would like them to bring back my ashes to Hong Kong.
08:00Because I would like to die in Hong Kong.
08:03I can't travel overseas.
08:05Yeah, because my passport was taken away by the courts.
08:09I also need to prepare my mother to accept that if I am lost in the reach out.
08:16But I'm lucky that I have five years to help her to prepare.
08:22People who are actively involved before will have lots of trauma.
08:27We may need to explore some healing.
08:31For me, actually, to live a normal life,
08:34you're kind of hiding those memories and hiding those emotions.
08:40I have phobia on pepper spray.
08:44For example, I may dream I was in my secondary school
08:49and I saw my students that they're trying to protest on the road
08:56and got the attack from the THS.
09:10To be honest, I don't have any views on the future.
09:13Honestly, I don't have it.
09:15I'm just trying to survive day by day.
09:18I still hope that when we cover the news,
09:20we can also cover what happened.
09:23And trying to make people don't forget it.
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