Co-organizer: Hong Kong Human Rights Front
Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/684774484551338
Series Session 2: Contemporary Protest Across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China
This session brought together June 4th survivor Wu Renhua, exiled Hongkonger Fu Tang, and Taiwanese advocate Shih Yi-hsiang to share their life experiences and speak with the audience. Three street activists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China — who together have lived through the 1989 June 4th movement, the Sunflower Movement, the Umbrella Revolution, the Anti-Extradition Law Movement, and, in recent years, the White Paper Movement and the Bluebird Movement over three decades — shared their journeys into social activism. All three spoke of how years of democratic struggle had brought profound revelations and transformation to their lives.
Speakers
- Wu Renhua: Now based in Taiwan, where he teaches a course on researching the truth of the June 4th incident at Soochow University and National Chung Cheng University. A scholar of historical documents, and a participant in and witness to the 1989 democracy movement, he has long worked to collect records of the Tiananmen massacre and to trace those arrested, those killed, and those responsible. His books include The Bloody Clearing of Tiananmen Square, Declassifying the June 4th Massacre: The Martial Law Troops of the June 4th Incident, and A Day-by-Day Record of the Tiananmen Incident.
- Fu Tang: An exiled Hongkonger with no organizational background, active from the Umbrella Movement through the Anti-Extradition Law Movement. He took part in many large street protests and was the first defendant in the mass rioting prosecutions brought during the Anti-Extradition Law Movement; after the rioting charge failed, he pursued litigation against the Hong Kong government in search of legal justice, was targeted by the authorities as a result, and left Hong Kong for Taiwan. He now organizes events on Hong Kong human rights issues in Taiwan and runs civil-defense training covering basic self-protection.
- Shih Yi-hsiang: Known as “Papa Hsia,” he became a volunteer at the Taiwan Association for Human Rights while in graduate school, and later joined its secretariat after taking on secretariat work for the Covenants Watch. Alongside his work at the association he continues to follow human rights conditions in Taiwan, Asia, and the wider world.