The description of umbrella movement in my little airport’s song

The song written by My Little Airport describes Umbrella Movement in a romantic and relatively softer way.

My Little Airport is a local indie band. Their musics are usually inspired by politics, the society, such as ’Donald tsang, please die’. The song describes the fear, determination of the protesters in Umbrella Movement.

Umbrella Movement is a political movement took place in Admiralty, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui from 26th September 2014 to 15th December 2014. Protesters occupied these places to against decision of 2017 election of Hong Kong’s chief executive made by NPCSC. When talk about it, even after three years, conflicts between policemen and protestors pop up in my mind, tear gas, pepper spray on harmless protesters, which reminds me of the Tiananmen Massacre on 4th June, 1984, held by university students. Students protested against a variety of social and political problems such as corruption, inflation. The protest was ended by military force, causing the death of approximately ten thousand protesters. Protests were then made by one million of Hong Kong citizens to stand by the students under bad weather condition.

Moreover, numerous of organizations were formed or became active to support students in Beijing, for instance, United Democrats of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood. The massacre changed the perspective of Hong Kongers towards the handover from economics to social perspective. People no longer merely worried about their properties but also freedom. We can see people had the sense of community. They cared about the society and wanted to make changes. Memorials for the Tiananmen Massacre protesters is held every year in Victoria Park. The number of participants recorded by the organization is 115, 000 in 2018, after almost 30 years of the massacre.

We can easily feel the passion of Hong Kong citizens towards social affairs. However, when compared people’s attitude towards the massacre and the Umbrella Movement, it left us shocked. People were indifferent about the movement. There were anti-umbrella movement remonstrations held by Alliance for peace and Democracy, organized by pro-Beijing parties and business elites. To them, it was okay and appropriate for police to attack protesters as long as it would not affect their lives. They complained about the movement affected economy of Hong Kong negatively. They could not go to work. Shop owners suffered economic loss.

This is also why I like this song. The fifth stanza of the lyrics touches me most. Protesters apologized for being “ obstructing” and causing inconveniences, even though they were doing it for the future of Hong Kong. It reflects that the Social consciousness of Hong Kong is degenerating compare to the 80s and 90s. Chris Patten once said” my anxiety is not that this community’s autonomy would be usurped by Peking, but that it could be given away bit by bit by some people in Hong Kong. ” From the above case, people who only care about money, economics and neglect the political development of Hong Kong are the “ some people” mentioned by Chris Patten.