Tai Po district councillor Joshua Au said the police had explained their operation beforehand, and acknowledged that they had only torn down the posters bearing the officer’s personal information, leaving up the hundreds, if not thousands, of other messages posted on the wall… A two-way permit holder, 22, accused of slashing a 19-year-old man in the neck and abdomen near a "Lennon Wall" in Tai Po on October 19 last year, had been charged with a count of attempted murder. Many of the Lennon Walls have since been destroyed and cleared by authorities. Beijing’s influence over Hong Kong has grown in recent years, as activists have been jailed and pro-democracy lawmakers disqualified from running or holding office. Her lawyer, Patricia Ho, stated that the government response to a chalk drawing was "disproportionate" and that "police are using whatever mechanism they can think of to stop teenagers from participating in any prot… After a turbulent month of protests and rallies joined by millions to fight against a proposed law that would allow individuals to be extradited to stand trial in China’s courts, more “Lennon walls” have emerged across the city this week, including in some unlikely suburban neighbourhoods such as the politically conservative Tai Po, Sha Tin and Tsuen Wan districts in the New Territories. #Taipo #HongKong. The emergence of Lennon walls across the city came a week after the storming and vandalising of the parliament building on 1 July, also the anniversary of Hong Kong’s 1997 return to Chinese rule. Lennon wall @ Tai Po Hong Kong. Photograph: Newscom/Alamy Live News/Alamy Live News. It is not in anyone’s way.”. The walls have their roots in the 2014 civil disobedience “umbrella movement”, when protesters decorated the wall next to a staircase near the legislature building with colourful collages of sticky labels of support and encouragement to each other. Categories : Main Photo. Portrait of John Lennon hangs on the wall of the Lennon Suite at the newly opened Hard Days Night Hotel on February 1 Liverpool, England. It was a similar scene at the Lennon Wall in Tseung Kwan O too. Related Posts. They continue to demand that the government fully withdraws the bill, releases all those arrested in protests and launches an independent investigation into police use of teargas, rubber bullets and truncheons on largely peaceful crowds. At midnight on 9 July, more than 200 police officers equipped with shields and helmets stormed into the Tai Po subway that hosted the popular Tai Po Lennon Walls. Comments Hong Kongers have displayed a characteristically riotous embrace of political graffiti in the form of Post-it notes documenting their anger and hope, during their huge anti-government rallies. Wed 10 Jul 2019 23.36 EDT Lennon Walls have popped up from the financial district to Lantau island, where the airport is situated. The victim had been distributing the pro-democracy flyers near Tai Po’s Lennon Wall. But even this mild form of protest has attracted the ire of government supporters and stirred unease among the authorities. Some pedestrians added new notes and a few others tore them down occasionally. Police photographed and removed several pieces of paper that allegedly contained the personal information of an officer who, while on duty on 8 July, challenged a peaceful protester to "remember me, and have a fight with me." Many protesters who are unsure about their next step say the messages are a way of showing that they will continue the fight. Retrieved 10 July 2019. Police arrested a fourteen-year-old girl for drawing flowers on the wall with chalk, threatening her father with removal of custody, and not releasing her back to her family until 20 days later. Many pedestrians were surprised to see the Lennon Wall covered with flags from different countries today. Pedestrians take photos at a makeshift “Lennon Wall” covered with handwritten messages to show support for the pro-democracy protesters, inside an underground tunnel at Tai Po … What Happened To The largest “Lennon Wall” in Hong Kong. However, not everyone welcomed the move. Independent booksellers have disappeared from the city, before reappearing in mainland China facing charges. The Tai Po Lennon Tunnel features a hopscotch grid with pro-government politicians’ faces on it, as well as a slipper attached to the wall by a string, which can be use to thwack pro-Beijing politicians’ photos on the wall beside it. “We Hong Kongers never give up!”, “The Hong Kong spirit will never die!” , “Where there is suppression there is resistance!” say some of the messages across the city. The Lennon Wall or John Lennon Wall is a wall in Prague, Czech Republic. Meanwhile police have violently clashed directly with protesters, repeatedly firing teargas and rubber bullets. The extradition bill was seen as an attempt to undermine this and to give Beijing the ability to try pro-democracy activists under the judicial system of the mainland. South China Morning Post. The original Lennon Wall was started in 2014 during a wave of pro-democracy protests also ... Notes against the proposed extradition bill are seen at Tai Po … Their biggest […] “Before, we have occupied roads and held rallies but we were told we were in the way of other people doing business,” said Wong, 24, who works as a florist. Last modified on Thu 11 Jul 2019 00.04 EDT. Photo: Sam Tsang Several videos online showed the operation did not encounter resistance from the public. Tai Po Lennon Wall restored after group of masked men plaster flags of historical invaders of China, the Eight-Nation Alliance, over it in night-time manoeuvre We and our partners process personal data such as IP Address, Unique ID, browsing data for: Use precise geolocation data | Actively scan device characteristics for identification.. “It’s a way of expressing ourselves under an authoritarian regime.”. Carrie Lam, said this week that the legislation was effectively “dead”, anniversary of Hong Kong’s 1997 return to Chinese rule. 16th July 2019 – (Hong Kong) Flags from different countries i.e. Local media reported that on Wednesday morning more than 200 police officers, some armed with shields, descended on a Lennon wall in Tai Po… Photograph: Ivan Abreu/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock, Photograph: Vivek Prakash/AFP/Getty Images, Photograph: Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images, Your support powers our independent journalism, Available for everyone, funded by readers. The Lennon Wall display at a pedestrian underpass at Tai Po. Lam announced on 4 September that she was withdrawing the bill. The wave of protests which started on 9 June forced the government to suspend the bill and Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, said this week that the legislation was effectively “dead”. Protesters express anger at the extradition bill through ‘unobstructive, peaceful’ means, Last modified on Thu 11 Jul 2019 23.45 EDT. Another Tai Po resident, who gave his name only as Wing, found the damage unreasonable. n Tuesday evening Ines Wong gathered seven pieces of cardboard, attached to them colourful sticky labels with messages demanding the. The Lennon Wall or John Lennon Wall is a wall in Prague, Czechia. The Lennon wall was inspired by the original graffiti-decorated wall in Prague dedicated to John Lennon; by the late 1980s it had become a source of irritation for the communist regime on account of its many critical messages. A pedestrian subway in Tai Po has been converted into a large-scale Lennon Wall. Busloads of pro-gov’t activists vandalise Tai Po ‘Lennon Wall’ message board at 2am, pasting up ads for Saturday rally by Kris Cheng 18:00, 19 July 2019. Local media reported that on Wednesday morning more than 200 police officers, some armed with shields, descended on a Lennon wall in Tai Po, where some messages supposedly exposed some police officers’ personal details. Walls adorned with messages targeting city leaders, clever wordplays and Cantonese cursing have sprung up all over town. Beijing has ramped up its accusations that foreign countries are “fanning the fire” of unrest in the city. The day will come when the last hand-drawn flier falls from the wall of the Tai Po underpass—how and when is unclear. As with the 2014 Umbrella Movement before it, public demonstrations and civil disobedience also find outlets in terms of street art and ad-hoc displays self-expression. ... " ' Lennon Walls' spring up across Hong Kong as more than 200 police in Tai Po remove messages featuring officers' personal information". Protesters have vowed to keep their movement going until their core demands are met, such as the resignation of the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, an independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty for those arrested and a permanent withdrawal of the bill. The protests were triggered by a controversial bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, where the Communist party controls the courts, but have since evolved into a broader pro-democracy movement. Some Lennon Walls were found destroyed by people who didn’t like them. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Crystal, who declined to give her last name, is unemployed and has been spending a lot of time as a volunteer at the largest of the city's Lennon Walls. A volunteer removes a rising sun flag from Tai Po's Lennon Wall. “Only when the messages are everywhere would people know we are still here,” said a young man who had helped create a Lennon wall on a footbridge in downtown Causeway Bay. This is because Hong Kongers are unhappy with the Hong Kong Legislative Council as it is adamant to pass a new law that would allow residents to be extradited to mainland China. Under the terms of the agreement by which the former British colony was returned to Chinese control in 1997, the semi-autonomous region was meant to maintain a “high degree of autonomy” through an independent judiciary, a free press and an open market economy, a framework known as “one country, two systems”. At 12.30am on Wednesday, about 100 police in riot gear arrived at the Tai Po MTR Station in the New Territories. Most of them were silent and pasted to the wall printed copies of flags from the Eight-Nation Alliance " a coalition of countries that invaded China during the Qing dynasty in response to the Boxer rebellion in 1900. Posted by Sophie Beach | Jul 14, 2019. On Tuesday evening Ines Wong gathered seven pieces of cardboard, attached to them colourful sticky labels with messages demanding the Hong Kong government retract a controversial extradition bill, and placed the notes under a busy footbridge in Kowloon Bay. “You can use other ways to express your opinion, such as using memos, as Lennon Wall is a space where you can freely express your voice,” said Wing, who had volunteered to clean up the site. Lennon wall @ Tai Po Hong Kong. Print. Lennon Walls have popped up from the financial district to Lantau island, where the airport is situated. The government has strongly condemned the protesters’ actions. Beijing has issued increasingly shrill condemnations but has left it to the city's semi-autonomous government to deal with the situation. At one point during the impromptu rally people swiftly passed round sticky labels, wrote on them and stuck them on to nearby pillars. Near Tai Po Market. “So this is the most peaceful, unobstructive, way to express ourselves. A girl pastes a sticky label on a Lennon wall at a pedestrian bridge. But the protesters were not reassured by her personal promise, which they said was no guarantee that the bill would not be revived later. Public anger – fuelled by the aggressive tactics used by the police against demonstrators – has collided with years of frustration over worsening inequality and the cost of living in one of the world's most expensive, densely populated cities. Underlying the movement is a push for full democracy in the city, whose leader is chosen by a committee dominated by a pro-Beijing establishment rather than by direct elections. “Go Hong Kong!” some said. China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi has ordered the US to “immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs in any form”. Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy lawmaker, said the Lennon walls, which she viewed as installation art, were “the best outlets for our young to vent the anger and resentment in a peaceful manner” and were “effective reminders of the governance crisis”. Around the same time a man punched two people guarding a Lennon wall in a pedestrian walkway in Kowloon Bay , and later that night hundreds staged a noisy rally outside the Yau Tong underground station in Kowloon late after several students guarding a local Lennon wall were assaulted by unknown attackers. A poster is added to a wall of messages backing protests against the controversial extradition bill in Hong Kong. There, dozens of passersby helped themselves to the labels, wrote their own messages and put those on the “Lennon wall”, a form of protest inspired by anti-communist activists in 1980s Prague. Since 9 June, the streets of Hong Kong have been filled with millions of protesters marching to oppose the proposed Extradition Bill. Photo: Lennon wall @ Tai Po Hong Kong, by Studio Incendo. The words read “Lennon Tunnel.” Photo: Kris Cheng/HKFP. However, a new wave of Lennon Wall has started in other parts of Hong Kong from Kwun Tong, Hung Hom, Tseung Kwan O, Tsuen Wan, Ma On Shan, Sheung Shui, Wong Tai Sin, Mei Foo, Tung Chung, Tai Po, Fan Ling, Choi Hung to Tai Wo Hau. The protest movement was given fresh impetus on 21 July when gangs of men attacked protesters and commuters at a mass transit station – while authorities seemingly did little to intervene. On Thursday night at Tai Po's Lennon Wall, the Post did not see any organised activity to protect the structures despite observing for about 31/2 hours. She quickly became known as "Chalk Girl" (粉筆少女) when pictures of her drawing circulated on social media. In Tai Po, a district about halfway between the downtown area and the border with China, an underpass was converted into a “Lennon tunnel”, with pastel yellow, blue, pink and white messages across the walls. Photo: Sum Lok-kei. Some partners do not ask for your consent to process your data, instead, they rely on their legitimate business interest. To keep up the spirit of the anti-extradition bill campaign, Hong Kong protesters have now created “Lennon walls” on any available space, including on pillars outside underground railway stations, in underground tunnels,and on footbridges. Why were people so angry about the extradition bill? Since the 1980s this once typical wall has been filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti, lyrics from Beatles' songs, and designs relating to local and global causes. But the hours-long occupation of the tax office and immigration buildings last month proved to be unpopular with citizens. All rights reserved. A "Lennon Wall" is a wall covered in colourful Post-It notes with words supporting ... One officer's face and other private information were included in posters pasted on the Lennon Wall in Tai Po. They have been experimenting with creative ways of demonstrating against the extradition bill and demanding democracy. Italy, United States, Japan etc were used to cover the memo and posters on the famous Lennon Wall subway in Tai Po.