“Illustrating the Hong Kong Protests” by Ordinary Illustrator

Illustrating the Hong Kong Protests
by Ordinary Illustrator

616

“616” depicts the protest in Hong Kong on 16 June 2019. The HKSAR government had said the protesters on 12 June were rioters, which was untrue, and this was demonstrated by the masses of protesters parting to let an ambulance through. On the other hand, the Hong Kong police has deliberately delayed the arrival of ambulances at some protests. This showed the difference between the two. So I decided to record this moment in art.

FOR THE HONG KONG MISERABLES

“For the Hong Kong Miserables” was a reference to the poster for the Broadway musical Les Miserables, but I added some Hong Kong elements to it. And given how much thinking was enlightened by the French Revolution, I decided to incorporate this into the piece.

831 BANNED

“831 Banned” refers to an incident on 31 August 2019 when the Hong Kong police attacked passengers on an MTR train while responding to a call at Prince Edward station in Hong Kong. The HKSAR government still refuses to hold an independent investigation into the incident.The police denied they attacked people, but livestream videos clearly showed otherwise. They also denied rumours people had died at the station and that they were colluding with the MTR to cover it up. CCTV footage from the night still has not been produced to dispel these rumours. Several months later, there were claims on Instagram that some live videos of the incident were fake. So I have used a reference to the fake news interface used on these Instagram posts, changing some words.

THIS IS AMERICA

This is a reference to the music video of “This is America” by Childish Gambino. My work’s main message is to satirise the indiscriminate targeting of demonstrators by the Hong Kong police, and the general situation in Hong Kong.

HONG KONG PROTESTERS

Hong Kong protesters face unequal force, Hong Kong police can use firearms, but Hong Kong protestors have only use homemade means to resist. Ukiyo-e elements are added to this painting

CARRIE LAM & COVID

Inspired by a meme, the main message of this picture is that during the Covid epidemic, Carrie Lam refused to refused to close ports with the mainland, allowing the virus into Hong Kong leading to a local outbreak. Carrie Lam even used the epidemic to expand police powers and suppress protests and dissidents. 

Ordinary Illustrator (or Antony) is a secondary school student illustrator from Hong Kong. He is passionate about the city. Find out more his work on Instagram.