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After more than three months of anti-government protests, Kenneth Chan Ka Lok was not surprised to find sparse ranks in his first class of the year. Many students boycotted back to university to take to the streets. But after all, it does not matter, says the former president of the Hong Kong Civic Party, for whom all knowledge must be useful in giving the keys that allow to consider the world differently.
From our special envoy,
It is an office of about ten square meters in the heart of the Department of European Studies of the prestigious Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). Like business towers, shopping malls or residential residences, institutions are forced to rise to gain space in this area already saturated with skyscrapers.
Concrete walkways, escalators, and lifts at the doors covered with leaflets and slogans, corridors of glasses of the faculty of the humanities bear the stigmas of more than fifteen weeks of mobilization of the young Hong Kong faces a policy of the executive perceived as reinforcing Beijing's hold on the Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, and more generally as a threat to fundamental freedoms on the territory.
Umbrellas and self-censorship
And so, on the 11th floor of the academic building, after a maze of glass and steel corridors, the heat of the researchers' office. The cliche wants teachers to remain in love with paper. Kenneth Chan's office is no exception. The piling up of books, pamphlets, cartons and student work requires a certain art of contortion for both the occupant and the visitor.
In contrast, no umbrella. The thing may seem amazing, when you know how much they are used for everything in Hong Kong: portable shade to mitigate the heat of the afternoon, folding roof to face the storms of summer and even shield for s' tear guns and rubber bullets, or protect themselves from the inquisitive eyes of surveillance cameras.
Umbrellas were the symbol of the 2014 movement calling for elections by universal suffrage. They are back in the demonstrations. Like the heartbeat of protest, their opening and closing continues to mark the breathing of the processional heads. But for one who has been teaching for 21 years at Hong Kong Baptist University, what protects first and foremost is knowledge, education and the word that must be defended, not as weapons, but as means to free oneself from oppression.
" For me, education is a creative and innovative process ," says Kenneth Chan. " It frees and it educates. In other words, we must show that knowledge is useful because it helps us to think the world differently, says the committed teacher, married to a Polish woman and father of five. Obviously if I lived in Beijing I would be sauced, unemployed, or worse in prison, given my state of mind and my fight for freedoms, democracy and social justice. But in Hong Kong, what scares me more is not the potential dangers, it's self-censorship! "
Polish spring
The self-censorship, the "white terror" that pushes the business leadership in Hong Kong and the staff to oppose the protest movement, are sometimes found on campus. Like some of his neighbors in the corridors, Kenneth Chan has received in recent weeks a shower of e-mails full of bird names. Death threats too. The ransom of success, seems to assert the former deputy of the pro-democracy camp. The professor of political science has seen others. He was formerly detained for questioning by the police.
This does not prevent him from displaying a broad smile. The same as that of the Poles of Solidarnosc releasing the Soviet yoke on June 4, 1989, the day China cried Tiananmen Square. David was able to triumph over Goliath in Warsaw 30 years ago, why Hong Kong could not do the same against Beijing today? Graduated in Slovenian, Estonian, Hungarian, Czech and Polish, Kenneth Chan is one of the few Chinese researchers interested in Eastern Europe.
" All of her research is about the end of the Soviet era in Eastern Europe and the opening of Poland," says Emilie Tran, a teacher in the European Studies Department at HKBU. Somehow, that's what he would like to see applied in China. He met his wife when both were studying in England. He was also president of the largest democratic party. All this makes him a relatively unusual character. "
Mass before the event
Shining eyes, arms twirling to convince students, Kenneth Chan rarely takes time to sit in front of the students. During the semester introductory course, some of the students were away from subscribers because they probably had to demonstrate. But there were many hands raised at the presents, including many questions from students from Mainland China.
" My department [on comparative governance and public policy] has always been popular with young people on the continent," says the professor. I always encourage them to speak frankly and share their opinion with the rest of the class. Many believe they are brainwashed by the diet, which is partly true. They spend four years with us, it's an opportunity for them to open their minds. The environment matters a lot, that's why we love Hong Kong so much. As long as it remains a free city with a vibrant civil society, we can do a lot with these young people. "
A wish that could almost be that of the priest. Fervent Catholic, Kenneth Chan goes every Sunday to Mass with the family, before joining the demonstrations or defend the positions of the pro-democracy camp in the media or conferences. One country, two education systems. " The problem we faced this summer is related to something fundamental. This can not be solved in terms of exchanges: "I give you this, you give me this," says the professor. Hong Kong people uphold values they believe or deserve. "