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DARI 
HONG 
KONG


Andi Ari Setiadi & Caron Toshiko 

2019


“Three weeks before our departure, we received an email from the Hong Kong International Photo Festival team. With a heavy heart, they informed us that the festival, which had been meticulously planned for months, was canceled. A long list of other major events was also called off, including the annual Cyclothon cycling race, which was estimated to suffer losses of up to 18 billion rupiah due to the escalating protests.

But there was no turning back. We had already purchased non-refundable promotional tickets for the Jakarta-Hong Kong-Jakarta flight. Even though I pointed out the travel warnings issued by various online media outlets, it didn’t change the fact that our flight schedule remained fixed.

‘So, what should we do?’ I asked Ari.

‘Let’s just go for it,’ he replied casually.

And so, we recklessly decided to proceed with our trip to a country in turmoil, a place we had never visited before. To ensure our safety, I reached out to an old friend who lived there. ‘Yeah, the protests have started to subside, mostly just on weekends,’ she said.

Beside Pepe the Frog, we also saw statues of Maneki Neko, the porcelain lucky cat that is commonly known as a symbol of prosperity, now transformed into a symbol of resistance. It had morphed into Angry Cat, boldly raising its middle finger in defiance. Vandalism was everywhere. The police had become the common enemy.

So, how much longer could the people of Hong Kong endure and fight for their freedom?” – Caron Toshiko, 20 December 2019.


Soft Cover 
15 x 19 cm (portrait) 
Indonesian 
Pages 132
ISBN 978-602-53674-4-1



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