Newly published
UMBRELLA SKETCHES
A first hand impression of the HK Umbrella Movement 2014
Introduction: A
Collection of Raw Images
I
was visited by an overseas couple on October 28, exactly one month
after the day of tear gas, a Hong Kong scene that shocked the world.
The man was my university friend. I accompanied them to the occupied
zone in Admiralty. After that, I showed them my sketch book to let
them have some idea about what had happened before their arrival. I
didn't know how they felt at that time – it was just a few hours
after their 16-hour long flight from New York. But I have to say,
flipping through the pages of my sketch book, I myself felt the
rawness of the images.
Up
to that time, I had already had nearly one hundred sketches of the
Occupy movement, about 70 in that sketch book. I started them on
September 27, a day before the tear gas struck. On that day,
I was invited (better said enlisted) by a group of cartoonists, the
Comic Daemons, to make cartoons or sketches of
people in a shopping district. Their intention was to arouse
public awareness, through a day of street art, about the anticipated
action of occupying Central, Hong Kong's central business district,
to protest the government's deceitful political reform plan. The
unannounced target day of the action was October 1, the National Day
of the People's Republic of China (PRC), because, as known by all,
Hong Kong's political reform was in fact hampered by the PRC regime.
I
am not a cartoonist, but I took part in the Comic Daemons'
exhibitions in support of their effort to promote democratic reforms
in Hong Kong. I do brush-and-ink painting and woodcuts. Joining their
cartoon exhibitions, I could only make some cartoon-like pieces for
show. On the day of street art, I was enlisted to do a
two-hour session together with other cartoonists, but I did hardly
more than one and half. Unlike the others there, I was relatively
slow, completing about a dozen sketches in my own session. All of
them were given away on the spot, except two. One of them happened to
be the sketch of the cartoonist Zunzi and a common friend of ours. In its raw state, the sketch was no more than a few pencil
lines. I gave it a retouch with felt-tipped marker later in my
studio.
It
was the September 27 drawing session on the street that gave me the
idea to make sketches for what would happen later on. In that
evening, I brought along my sketch book to a rally outside the
Government Headquarters in Admiralty. However, I found it was too
dark and too crowded for me to work there with my sketch book. And, I
must admit, the atmosphere was too tense. So, I only took a few
photos that night.
On
the next day, I went to the rally in Admiralty again. It was bright
enough during daytime, but I could jot just a few pencil lines on
several sheets and left everything unfinished. Later, when I was out
on Harcourt Road among thousands of protesters, I found most of them
were preparing for the possible actions of the police. I was too
nervous to take my sketch book out again from my backpack. Soon, the
first round of tear gas came. Then came the second and the third
round. That night, after several rounds of tear gas, I went back to
my studio at midnight to work from the photos. I had a sleepless
night, working until noon the next day.
Things
went better for me after the day of tear gas. I could visit the
occupied zones and do sketches at ease. To save time, I tried to draw
on the spot very brief outlines of what caught my attention with a
pencil and took a photo for detail. The unfinished part was left to
be done later. Within a week, I found my old sketch book, some 120
sheets, two thirds blank before the day of tear gas, almost
completely full. I also found I had failed to catch up with what I
saw even though I worked non-stop days and nights. I had so little
sleep that I was totally exhausted. Thereafter, I resorted to record
what I saw with my camera and do sketches at a slower pace.
This
book is a collection of nearly all the sketches I did in a period of
less than two months, from September 27 to the moment the police
were about to clear the occupied zone in Mongkok. They are all raw
images of what I had seen before and on the day of tear gas, and
later on, in the three occupied zones in Admiralty (outside the
Government Headquarters), Causeway Bay (Hennessy Road) and Mongkok
(Nathan Road).
I
have thought of turning some sketches into brush-and-ink paintings or
woodcuts, but some friends encouraged me to put the raw images
together to make a book. Knowing that financial support for this book
project was essential, some of them even agreed to order in advance
and in bulk. My heartfelt thanks to them.
I
have also thought of doing a more complete book of sketches covering
later dates, but friends strongly believed that I should not wait:
“Do it now! And a supplement later.”
By
the time I compiled this book, the Occupy movement was still
on-going. When I was drafting this introduction, the police were
trying, badly, to take control of Mongkok, clearing roads by charging
crowds and making forceful arrests.
Of
the 139 sketches printed in this volume, about half were done in an
A4-size (21 cm x 29 cm) sketch book, the other half on A3-size (30
cm x 42 cm) water-colour paper. The media used were pencil and
felt marker (sign pen). Colour was added later with colour pencil -
and also crayon when I ran out of yellow (the iconic colour of the HK
Umbrella Movement/Revolution).
Having
worked as a journalist, I decided that I should make a narrative by
telling the five Ws: what, when, where, how and why. Therefore, the
sketches are dated by the day the scene was captured, with its
location specified. The short captions, I hope, can be strung
together and read as a sequential story.
So,
here they are, the raw images of what I have seen over the past two
months. I would like to dedicate this collection to the new
generation of Hongkongers who are fighting for their future.
Fong
So
November
28, 2014
