Despite the early transitional years of the SAR going relatively smoothly, the city was generally trying to work out its new identity as part of China. Wong sees himself as part of this generation, meaning those born just before or on the cusp of Hong Kong becoming a Special Administrative Region of China (SAR): “The first generation to grow up after the end of British rule, but before Chinese rule had really taken hold”. The Umbrella Movement also led to the involvement of older generations, who were perhaps partially shamed by their previous inaction and because they admired the sacrifice and bravery of Hong Kong’s “transitional generation”. Wong and his secondary school comrades in the group Scholarism had already stepped up in 2012 to fight the introduction of the problematic policy of “national education” into Hong Kong’s school curriculum. This movement was the catalyst for increased activism and involvement in civil society by Hong Kong’s young (witness all the new political groupings arising since 2014). While often acknowledging these old guards’ contributions to various causes, these young people, often rightly so, feel that the time for more passive action is over this is reflected in one chapter of Unfree Speech entitled “Where Are the Adults? The Umbrella Movement 成年人在哪裡? 雨傘運動”.

One can almost hear the old guard of activists step aside for these young people better able than their forebears to harness sophisticated modern technology and have limitless creativity to get their message across effectively and extensively.

It’s hard to argue with this sentiment when others of this “new generation” like Time’s Person of the Year, Greta Thunberg of Sweden, are not afraid to speak truth to power, or to act on their words, even when that power seems unassailable.

288 pgs.Īi Weiwei writes in the preface to Unfree Speech that Joshua Wong “represents a new generation of rebel A generation whose world view is markedly different from that of the established capitalist culture fixated on profit above all else”. Unfree Speech: The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act, Now, Penguin, 2020.

Unfree speech by joshua wong