Interview with Hong Kong journalist Tam Yu. When the future was still unknown, she kept writing. "I can't say for sure how the future is, I can only keep looking at it and writing all the time." 」

Interview with Ms Tam, a senior hong Kong journalist and lecturer in the Department of Journalism. During the anti-transmission campaign, she repeatedly interviewed her on the spot in her forties. The day the girl was shot in the left eye, she was about 50 metres away. "I want to record the Hong Kong scene once in 50 years, " she said. 」

Recently, she published a new book, "Text desire: A Close Story of the Responding Era", about the news interviews of the times. When tan was in college, she also received gender training. She talked to us about her presence in Hong Kong, witnessed her gender views, and as a veteran journalist, she observed Hong Kong and Taiwan.


Photo by Tan Yu

Street Sex Watch: The Darker, the More You Look Straight

A few months of running the scene, let Tan Wei sprouted a lot of street sex observation.

For example, the "police" group is a very patriarchal thing in itself. It is a force that requires discipline, obedience, class distinction, weapons, emphasis on masculinity. So its concept of gender diversity is relatively difficult to absorb.

Even the female police, or the enlightened police, have to be subjected to a huge system. Therefore, sexual violence can easily be concealed in the concept of state, system and authority.

On the other hand, there are many gender phenomena to talk about on the demonstrators side. "Like, the demonstrators will say, "You're a girl, step back." He's very much trying to protect girls. But of course, there are also many brave girls. She asked me if I knew "Hong Kong girl". "Hong Kong girl" (from love to shop, shopping image), now become the street can also be very brave look. However, despite the seemingly flipped impression, when female demonstrators are injured, they are more likely to cause resentment among the entire group than men.

In addition, she observes that sexual language, in the field of movement, often becomes a weapon of attack against each other. In addition to the demonstrators who alleged that the Hong Kong Police had called women "skunkchickens", the demonstrators sometimes shouted sexual humiliation towards the police when they protested.

"There's a saying that says, "Police open OT, police play 3P." Open OT means overtime, "You're working overtime, your wife is playing 3P, three people having sex, it means you're too busy, your wife's out of the wall." It is also a form of gender-based violence that reinforces the sexual anxiety of male police officers and has a humiliating effect.

But she noted that "some police families are also miserable, and they are perhaps the most painful group of people." If the police think they're right, but you think you're wrong, it's painful. Or there are enlightened police officers, and families are enlightened, but they are being crushed in the workplace. 」


Photo by Tan Yu

#MeToo, live, fake news?

Hong Kong's anti-China campaign has been burning for months and there have been several suspected incidents of gender violence. For example, the Tin Shui Wai girl was pulled off her underwear by the police, and the demonstrators were searched by the police for poking her thighs. We're curious, what does she think of the news? "I have my own interest in gender, but i am trained in gender, and when I get to news interview writing, it's a complicated issue when it comes to the intersection of gender theory, " tan said. 」

She gave the example, "For example, a police body search," the whole process, the network began to write, the girl was searched by male police. "Then the police said the policeman was a girl, just looking like a boy. Then how do you understand this kind of thing? If the police argue that there is a reason, it is true that the female police searched for the female demonstrators. So will it be more difficult for victims of sexual violence to communicate with the outside world? The various events and rumors that have come out of the scene are beyond imagination and jump from our imaginations about sexual violence. (Extended reading:"My body is not a battlefield" woman to the streets to protest, should they live to be sexually harassed?

I mentioned that the former hong Kong Executive Council member, Mrs Lo Fan-Peifen, had said that "girls had given their lives to the Wuyong son," but did not provide reliable sources. As a journalist, should nuns?

"It's true that a lot of people use exercise to promote what they want. This leads to the danger that people who don't usually watch the news will be confused by sensational fake news or misleading news. Tan Yu points out that this is the reporter and the scene, in the contemporary necessity.

"Journalists want to confirm the message, and if we don't find evidence, we can't assert it. So you will have a space to endure unknowing conditions and to doubt them. But many people can't stand the "don't know" thing. It's a kind of humanity. When you're very emotional about sports, you're going to have a hard time putting up with something, and you can't find the answer. 」

"That's why I say the scene is important. The girl in Hong Kong who was shot in the eye was 50 metres away at the scene. I know why the police are shooting and who's lost the smoke bomb, which you can't see in the video at home. So you say what you say, he says what he says. 」

"Journalists have to go to see whether it is true or false first, which is probably also a violation of human nature training. Tan said.

In the post-truth era, at first glance there is no truth. But she thinks there are plenty of ways to double. For example, sexual assault or harassment cases, many times will not be just one victim, find more, often find other breakthroughs.


Photo by Tan Yu

When we're in history: what happened to Hong Kong is a once-in-a-half-year encounter

Looking back at the campaign, she said:

"The whole community in Hong Kong is now very distrustful, prone to quarrels and things that are mutually reinforcing. There are even people with different opinions, digging each other phone calls, addresses, posted on the Network.

"It's a state of war, martial arts, fighting at the same time. It may be easy for Taiwanese to understand that, after 228, martial law, blue-green opposition, is a bit like hong Kong now. It's just that we're compressed in a very short period of time and space. 」

I asked, did the teacher get attacked?

"A little bit. If you write something, you're bound to be attacked. There is love and hate, it is very similar. He likes you and thinks you are good; I write articles, or use words more plain, not specifically (black police or righteous). I think it's important to describe it on the ground, so don't add anything. 」

She joked: "Usually you write and noone reads it, but now a lot of people want to see the real thing." I teach in school, I actually can't write. My life is still going on, but why write? I think it's going to be written down. I don't mind if you don't look, I don't care about click, I want to write eye to see things. 」

Sounds like a journalist's romance as a career.

"I don't know if it's romantic, but something so big happens in Hong Kong, and it's probably the most important moment for a journalist. It's hard. Journalists from all over the world, CNN, America's best war correspondents in Europe, have come from the Middle East and Syria. They may have the best journalists, but I am moved not by seeing them, but by the journalists I see in Hong Kong, who are just too fond of Hong Kong, and they are just as far as they are on the front lines and not afraid of danger. 」

Even more fearful of danger than Western journalists.

"On Sunday, the police got out of the water cannon truck, and the blue water had tear gas, sprayed not only stained, but also the skin stinging. I see journalists, girls, boys, the whole body. There are also elderly, 60-year-old photojournalists very hard, from early to 12 pm, no time to eat, drink water, you have to hide bullets, hide gas. Police have so far fired more than 3,000 tear gas canisters. 」[1]

You used to think the foreign media is good, but this time we found that Hong Kong journalists are concerned about their own home, when your home fire, you do not think about the danger, I want to protect themselves, you are the first to the dangerous place.

"That's what it's like to be a journalist. 」


Photo by Tan Yu

"I thought Hong Kong people were a "conditional love" for Hong Kong, but now it is not.

"The people of Hong Kong are kind of "economic animals" in my heart, and the most important thing for Hong Kong people is to make money and not to pay attention to politics. But I am surprised that many Hong Kong people would rather sacrifice the economy than fight for democratic freedom in this campaign. 」

"It's like a righteous load, you're crammed into the road for hours, just to carry some young people you don't know home, and you've been going all the time, not just a one-off." Wow, how has Hong Kong people changed? 」[2]

"I think the people of Hong Kong should finally understand that freedom is very important. So if Taiwan has freedom of expression, it should fight for itself. Many people forget the importance of freedom, and it's too late to lose it. 」

"I'm really worried that you are voting in Taiwan. I know that Taiwan's economy is very poor, but now there are no tourists in the whole street in Hong Kong, but I feel very comfortable. Once crowded, we can't walk, but now we can go into the mall and sing (editorial: "May Glory return to Hong Kong"). It may be a bit miserable for business people, but the people of Hong Kong should have endured for a long time before they can fight for it. 」


Photo by Tan Yu

Journalist as a kind of career

"I have never seen Hong Kong people love Hong Kong so much in my life. If you look at the history of Taiwan, many Taiwanese are dying for Taiwan and to die. I saw it at the Cheng Nanxuan Memorial Hall and I felt that Hong Kong lacked such emotions. But in this campaign, several young people committed suicide in Hong Kong. Many things in Hong Kong are very similar to Taiwan's experience in the 80s and 90s. 」

"I used to think that Hong Kong had the conditions to love, for example, after 8964, many people emigrated and left Hong Kong out of fear. But now it is love for Hong Kong, I will stay here to continue to fight, and strive to continue. 」

When conditional love becomes unconditional love, an eternal imagination of the homeland is thus completed. Hong Kong is no longer just a dream land to get rich, but a down-to-earth home. When the house caught fire, we have to face it together. Do not do well, we review together, encounter injury, we point out the mistake, but also comfort each other. (Extended reading: Five healing songs dedicated to the hard-fought Hong Kong people: you are the nameless flower, driving on the muddy road)


Photo by Tan Yu

Finally, I asked Tan, how do I think the Games will end?

"I don't know. I am a reporter, I certainly can't say, I can only keep looking at, always to write. 」

Delicate observation, sacred scene, continuous writing. It's not just my duty as a professor, as a journalist, but as a person, in response to the whole era -- like the poem: "Please let me open my eyes so that the night will never be alone." 」