By Chen Yu-fu and Jason Pan / Staff reporters
Taiwan must not become like Hong Kong, where people do not have freedom under China’s repressive rule, democracy activists in exile warned during the opening of a special exhibition in Taipei yesterday.
“We must staunchly defend our core values, and safeguard freedom and democracy in Hong Kong and Taiwan,” exhibition curator Kacey Wong (黃國才) said.
Wong urged people to remember the Hong Kong democracy advocates who rallied against legislations for tougher and stricter control on national security, and opposed China’s extradition bill, as she showcased the activists’ art pieces and hand-written letters.
People visit the Hong Kong Human Rights Art Exhibition at the National 228 Memorial Museum in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Hong Kong Human Rights Art Exhibition is to run until June 29 at the National 228 Memorial Museum.
Organizers include Hong Kong civil rights organizations, the New School for Democracy and the Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation.
The exhibition called for submissions — paintings, photographs, sculptures, visual arts productions, or other forms of cultural, artistic creation — showing the human rights situation in and personal stories of people in Hong Kong, organizers said.
Hong Kong Outlanders member Fotong (赴湯) said: “This exihibition aims to tell people about the situation in Hong Kong and how human rights have deteriorated. We must not let Taiwan become the Hong Kong of today.”
“Since imposing Chinese national security laws, Hong Kongers have been repressed and had their rights contravened every day. I have friends who are in prison and their families do not dare to talk much, because they would be prosecuted if they discussed sensitive issues,” he added.
Taiwanese democracy activist Lee Ming-che (李明哲) said: “If people in Taiwan acquiesce like what happened in Hong Kong and allow themselves to be put under China’s control, we would certainly lose our sovereignty and our freedom.”
“We must learn from Hong Kong’s ‘one country, two systems’ model. People in Taiwan have freedom and we should not accept the kind of ‘peace agreement’ offered by China’s dictatorship,” Lee said.
New School for Democracy director Lai Jung-wei (賴榮偉) said that the exhibition contains paintings, letters and other forms of art and creative works.
“None of these can be put on display in Hong Kong now,” Lai said.
