Hong Kong (AFP)
Cantonese pop star today hated by Beijing, Denise Ho refuses the label of muse of the mobilization hongkongaise. But in a movement without a leader where prudence commands to hide his face, his hypnotizes all eyes.
Here is Hong Kong. A city whose inhabitants are well educated, even when they demonstrate.
So the artist's appearances do not trigger riots at her fan-club of protestors, but an admiration full of respect for this 42-year-old singer who sacrificed her career in China by political commitment and put her voice in the service of prodemocracy movement.
"I see myself as an activist among others," she confided, without false modesty to AFP. "But of course, being a celebrity, people recognize me."
It's been three months since the ex-British colony lived to the rhythm of almost daily actions to denounce the influence of Beijing on the Hong Kong business.
This Wednesday, at the foot of the local HSBC headquarters, the evening's rally focuses on sexual violence. Everyone wears black, the color of contestation, and almost everyone a mask to foil the prosecution.
- LGBT Icon -
Then the look is naturally captured by Denise Ho, white shirt and light gray jeans. Especially when his turn comes to take the microphone to harangue the squatting crowd in Cantonese.
"In the field, I hope to galvanize, support all these young people, tell them they are not alone," says the forty-year-old student-faced, who does not condone the violent drift of the most radical - often much younger than she - but understands it.
"I also want to be able to make their voices heard, especially abroad," she says.
In her previous life, HoCC - her stage name - was an international star of the cantopop (Cantonese pop), a singer adulated until China to whom everything seemed to succeed, and even an actress who had shot for the director Hong Kongese Johnnie To ("Life Without Principle", 2011).
She was also an LGBT icon for being, at the end of 2012, one of the first big Hong Kong singers to come out.
It was in September 2014, a month after his last stay in China, that his life rocked when the police sprayed tear gas from protesters. This is the beginning of the "Umbrella Movement" in which Denise Ho plunges to being arrested.
In June 2016, Lancôme caused an uproar in Hong Kong by deprogramming "for security reasons" a promotional event to which it had to participate.
- "Hong Kong Poison" -
Shortly before, the Chinese state-run daily Global Times had accused the French group L'Oréal of cooperating with "a Hong Kong poison" and "a Tibetan poison", in reference to the support of the singer to the Dalai Lama.
For many, this scandal is another illustration of the decline in freedoms in the semi-autonomous region, a theme at the heart of the current mobilization.
Recurrent target of harassment on social networks, Denise Ho, whose records are banned in China, knows better than anyone the power of the "Chinese propaganda machine".
"Denise is so cool," confides a groupie with a protester under cover of anonymity. "She sacrificed everything."
The singer defends herself with a pirouette, evoking the silence of the vast majority of Hong Kong artists.
"The sacrifices are made by those who have chosen to remain silent and give up their freedom of speech," she says lamenting "the fear of political reprisals and self-censorship".
"It's a bigger sacrifice than losing contracts in China."
- A young Quebecois -
Five years of commitment have lapped a speech that she brings with charisma and firmness. Her face seems to soften only when she swaps English for a French she recognizes "a little used", with the accent that sings the memory of a youth in Montreal, from 1988 to 1997.
In early July, during a speech at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, she was twice interrupted by the Beijing representative.
She is currently in Australia to "speak" and will be visiting the United States very soon. For her, Hong Kong is only a theater of a global problem.
"China is muzzling with the intimidation of many governments," she accuses.
"As humanist values grow in the world, will we accept that this country is violating human rights and promises made in international treaties?"
Under the 1984 Sino-British Declaration, which was registered at the United Nations, Beijing undertook in exchange for the handover to maintain in Hong Kong the unique freedoms inherited from the Crown until 2047.
© 2019 AFP