CHINA: Hong Kong students opposing the government's educational plan end their 56-hour hunger strike

Record ID: 340935

  • Title: CHINA: Hong Kong students opposing the government's educational plan end their 56-hour hunger strike
  • Date: 1st September 2012
  • Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (SEPTEMBER 2, 2012) (REUTERS) ***CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GATHERED NEAR TENTS OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT HEADQUARTERS PAST MIDNIGHT VARIOUS OF STUDENTS ON STRIKE GETTING UP AND WALKING ONTO STAGE AS CROWD CHEERING CROWD CHEERING CLOSE OF TEARFUL STUDENT LILY WONG STUDENT IVAN LAM ADDRESSING CROWD VARIOUS OF STUDENTS ADDRESSING CROWD CROWD A
  • Embargoed: 16th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Politics,Education
  • Reuters ID: LVA63QFTNWXKMQJNMVCBF5KIPCR3
  • Story Text: Three Hong Kong students ended their 56-hour hunger strike over a government's plan to introduce a new national education curriculum that they said was "brainwashing," in the early hours of Sunday (September 2).
    The students who began their hunger strike on Thursday (August 30) outside the Hong Kong government's headquarters, felt exhausted but in satisfactory health conditions by Saturday night (September 1,) said one of the hunger strikers, Kaiser.
    The only female student in the group, Lily Wong, suffered from low blood sugar level and had been drinking energy drinks for half a day. The other two students, Ivan Lam and Kaiser, were on a diet consisting of only water.
    The students had vowed to abstain from food for 72 hours, but decided to stop the fast early on Sunday due to their weakness, they said.
    However, one of the students, Kaiser, said their action had already won over hearts and minds in Hong Kong.
    "If the government can't hear (our opinion), it's their problem. But I think we have won over the people's conscience, and the government has lost their conscience," he said.
    Earlier on Saturday evening, thousands of Hong Kong residents also staged a protest against the government's plan.
    Organisers put the number of participants at 40,000, while police said 8,100 people turned out at the peak of the rally that took place in front of the former British colony's iconic Victoria Harbour.
    One of the participants, 10-year-old student Kenton Lee, said he loved his country even though he opposed the curriculum.
    "Loving the country is not the same as loving the party. If you love your country, you only have to love it with your heart, you don't have to spell it out all the time. Keep the feelings in your heart -- that's enough," he said.
    After they ended their fast, the three students greeted supporters who gathered in front of the government headquarters.
    "At this moment, we haven't succeeded yet, but we will succeed. More people have come out and continued the hunger strike. That gives me hope," Lily Wong said.
    Her fellow student, Ivan Lam, said the action was aimed at gaining wider public support.
    "As we have stated in our hunger strike declaration, we are not threatening the government with our bodies or our lives. Instead, through our action we hope to gather more support from the public, to back up our cause and join our struggle. In the past few days, judging by online messages or people who came here to show their support, we could see they have become more determined to oppose the national education curriculum. Some people even say we have touched them and they would now join our fight. We have achieved the effect we had wanted," he said.
    Meanwhile 10 other people -- including teachers, professors and university students -- pledged to take the baton and begin the second round of hunger strike. They did not say how long their action would last.
    One of them, Wong Hark Lim, Vice President of Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union, said he sought to raise more awareness.
    "In a hunger strike you are really using your body and your health to protest against the government. We cannot tell other people what to do. But every one of us hopes to use his body and conscience to call out and hope we can wake other people up," Wong said.
    Most of the students in this week's "occupy government headquarters" movement were teenagers.
    The controversy is the latest backlash against perceived political influence from Beijing in the former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
    The furore focuses on a Hong Kong government-funded 34-page book titled "The China Model" celebrating China's single party Communist state as a unique political system under which its economy and society have flourished.
    The book will form the basis of a national education curriculum for students aged six years and older in Hong Kong schools in the coming year, aimed at engendering what officials call a sense of national pride and belonging towards China.
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