HN Explorer

Ask HN: Who Are the Hong Kong Protesters?

6 points by jerrre ↗ HN
I'm not one who follows all news very closely, but the HK protests seem to me like a very modern conflict, that's why it intrigues me. I see a lot of info about _why_ there are protests, and _what_ is happening. But I have a hard time finding info about _who_ these protesters are. Most pieces I read seem to glance over this, making them in to a combination of pawns and heroes. But it takes a lot of time and risk and resources to be in these battles I see on social media.

Anyone has info or a good article about this part?

5 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 15.0 ms ] thread
fwsgonzo
Battles on social media? The whole city is out there protesting against mainland china encroaching on their rights. Just like any people who feel oppressed at any point in time they are trying to do something about it. While sovereign entities rarely form without military conflicts, it has happened. So the answer to your question is that they are people who hope that their freedom doesn't have to be backed by violence.

My advice is to just watch twitch streams from HKers live. Directly from the source. :)

Also just going to throw this one in here: HK police are largely replaced by mainland chinese at this point, so it's really not surprising to hear about the police violence.

jerrre
Thanks,

>Battles on social media?

just to be clear: I meant that social media was where _I_ encountered the battles that are _fought_ in the streets.

>So the answer to your question is that they are people who hope that their freedom doesn't have to be backed by violence.

I think my question is more practical (maybe too naive?): are these a fixed group of people that do this full-time: how do they eat, pay for housing in the meantime, get their gear?

markus_zhang
better watch youtube videos on both sides and decide for yourself. best to go there and take a look by yourself.

just to remind you that there are always multiple factions in a protest and their demand could be quite different.

hoi
There isn't 1 type of protester. They are spread over a spectrum, from those who are totally peaceful, to the extreme end who are advocating violence against they "system". They also don;t have all the same demands, although they are generally in agreement of the 5 demands, however because this is a "leader-less" protest, it is hard to say which of those demands are of higher priority than others, i suspect the different factions of protests will have higher priority over certain ones.. e.g. front line protesters would probably value exoneration higher than the peaceful protesters.

But generally speaking, they come from all walks of life... There are now beginning to be more vocal anti-protest groups as well. So it's becoming increasingly a battle for public opinion. Whilst the front-line protesters have general public support, they will feel they have a mandate to continue what they are doing so propaganda machines from both sides are in full effect to try to win over public opinion.