Dear Readers...
5-10-14
For the past week several members of the HKELD team and I have been on the ground at Occupy. We've shared photos and videos with you from the ground, live tweeted our experiences and dedicated our coverage fully to the protests. We're an art blog. Politics are not really our speciality but we wanted to be there with the people, sharing their stories and helping spread the word about the peaceful protests.
We're on Day 8 of the protests now, and it looks like we're in for a long haul. HKELD's main mission has always been to promote and support the art community of Hong Kong. After seeing the beautiful public art exhibits at Occupy, hearing the street musicians and watching the artists of Hong Kong come together to help the protestors; we can see that the Hong Kong arts community is more vibrant and united than ever.
Starting on Monday we're going to be returning to some of our regularly scheduled content on top of our Occupy Central coverage. This doesn't mean we care about OC any less than we did last week. We're supposed to be reviewing several productions. These production companies have spent thousands of dollars, some out of their own pockets. We made a promise to these companies to come and see their shows. We intend to keep that promise. We know the people at Occupy wouldn't mind us going out and talking about the local artists in Hong Kong and the hard work they've been doing. Life continues even with the protests happening.
I remember seeing a video a few months ago by the opposition of Occupy Central. They said that fires would happen; the life blood of Hong Kong would stop. I remember seeing taxis flying in the video. Nothing like that has happened in the past week and, by not totally stopping our lives, we prove that Hong Kong is not destroyed by Occupy Central but made stronger. I encourage you to go and support a local business this week, art related or not. See a show and stop by the protests afterward. Go see what all of Hong Kong is talking about; we can learn so much from the students and their resilience.
Break a leg,
Meaghan McGurgan
To keep updated with all the latest information on the protests go on twitter and check out hashtags: occupycentral, occupyhongkong, umhk and umbrellarevolution.