Interview Date: 29th August, 2024
[The interview was conducted in Hong Kong Cantonese. Transcript in English translation is provided.]
C: Clara Cheung, G: Gum Cheng, E: Edison
| I. | G: | Would you say this experience was unlike anything else you’d gone through? You never experienced something similar in school, right? |
| E: | I’d always been frustrated and cynical about the government, but 2014 was the first time I really asked myself, ‘Other than just complaining, what concrete actions can we take?” It made me reflect on fairness, justice, freedom—things we’d taken for granted. You only realise how important they are when you might lose them. And you see that you can’t rely on others to defend them for you because everyone has different ideas. If you know your history, you know cycles like this happen periodically, but it hadn’t happened in Hong Kong for a while, so neither my generation nor my parents’ knew what to do. | |
| II. | C: | Did you meet anyone during the 2014 Occupy Movement who became a friend afterward? |
| E: | Not really in 2014. People were cautious—worried about undercover cops, so we didn’t share contact info. If I already knew you, fine, but meeting new people on-site didn’t usually turn into an actual friendship. My wife was with me, so I was also somewhat reserved. |
| I. | G: | 那一刻的經歷是不是你以前是完全沒有... 沒有類似的一些經歷？會不會，啊，那些中學小學都有 類似的東西，是不是... 14年之前的人生其實都沒有出現過這樣的環節的呢？ |
| E: | 我想其實那個... 你說對政府的不滿或者那種憤世嫉俗是一直都有的，但是的確是經過那一刻，你才會去反思究竟憤世嫉俗以外可以做到什麼呢？或者那個怨氣，或者那個事情... 何謂公義？何謂公平？何謂自由？是... 的確從小到大都沒有... 因爲覺得那是必然的嘛，你不會去想要爭取我已經有的東西的嘛... 要爭取些什麼？我不會爭取生鬍鬚的嘛。但是原來有一刻你沒有的時候... 或者原來有一刻你發覺是有機會沒有的時候，那你才會去捍衛或者才去反思究竟怎樣做。原來那一刻是... 那一刻你更深一層去想的就是... 你不可以只是靠別人幫你去爭取，因為原來別人都有很多不同的想法。如果你熟讀歷史的話其實原來這件事情是必然會發生的，也就是一個循環必然會發生，只是因為太久沒有發生過，所以無論是我這一代或者再上一代，也就是我父母那一代，其實他們都沒有任何的認知... 對這件事情有任何的認知，因為大家都是天生就擁有的事情。 | |
| II. | C: | 那在佔領或者雨傘的時候，你認否在那時候就認識一些人之後延續... 會有保持聯繫，有沒有這樣的奇遇呢？ |
| E: | 2014年的時候就真的沒有，始終大家都不知道有沒有鬼[内應]，就是... 大家現場是... 大家可以很坦蕩地交流，但大家也都很知道底線應該去到哪裡，就不會大家去到... 總之我本來認識的朋友就是我認識的朋友，現場認識到的所有人都是兄弟，所有人都是需要幫的兄弟姐妹，但是就不一定是朋友，我覺得那一刻... 大家都很知道，沒有說交換電話。我眼見的... 是的，我老婆在身邊，所以都比較保守，沒什麼可以做到 |
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