English Transcript:“Good Morning From Hong Kong”

Police have trapped protesters at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The campus was used by protesters to make food after a round of campus-based protest began last week. However, as the police deployed around the university, many were trapped. The campus is currently being besieged and many are trapped inside as the police threatens violence and does not allow anyone inside to exit.

This video was sent to Taiwanese author Lin Li-ching (林立青) from someone stuck inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The original voice clip, recorded in Mandarin Chinese, has been reported by Liberty Times News.

Original clip:

English Transcript:

Good morning. I am actually inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University right now — the place that’s being besieged by the Hong Kong police.

So… The police have announced that everyone trapped inside the school campus are guilty of the crime of “Rioting” (暴動罪). That’s ten years in prison.

They’ve surrounded us from all three sides. Actually, all four. Last night, the police told us that we could leave right away through a designated exit. However, when people tried to leave the campus, they arrested some fifty protesters and fired tear gas.

They aren’t really leaving an escape route for us.

It’s five AM in the morning right now. And the protesters are still fighting back and resisting police advance. One of my friend was hit by the blue water cannon and shot by rubber bullets, and had to go to the medical center. I wasn’t out there “fighting” because I was with her there.

What I was hoping is that whether you could help out using your authorship to tell the Taiwanese what is happening here. For one, we want Taiwan to pay more attention to what is going on in Hong Kong. For another, I hope that once the Taiwanese see what is going on with Hong Kong, you will all remember.

Just don’t trust the Chinese Communist Party (不要相信中共)

So right now… I guess let me tell you about what’s going on inside, and see if you want to write about it, depends on how you see it.

Everyone’s really tired. The clash continued from last night and started again at 11 AM, and did not stop until now, and never stopped. At this point the police has announced that they will arrest everyone. No matter if you’re a protester or just making food inside. No matter whether you’re a volunteer, a social worker, a paramedic. They’re arresting everyone, all of us. that’s it.

All in the name of “rioting.” “Rioting” is ten years in prison. There’s almost a thousand people inside the campus right now I think. And inside… There’re a few young ones. Probably even 11–12 year olds. Older ones include people in their 60s and 70s. They’re here to protect the kids.

I see that for some of the younger ones, they’ve never thought that “ten years” will happen to them. Being in prison for ten years. They’ve been crying, and the older ones are trying to comfort them.

I was looking at 16 years old boy. He keeps shouting: “I want to go home, I want to get out, I really want to go home.”

There are many friends around us, our brothers and sisters. We all refer to each other as “arms and legs of our own” (手足). They would him that we can get out, as long as we hold on.

At the medical center there was another boy. A lot of people got hit by the blue dye coming out of the water cannon. It’s actually really scary when someone’s hit. They keep shivering. A lot of people have hypothermia right now, because they have to keep washing the dyes off themselves.

I saw someone who kept shivering. She keeps asking: “what kind of a government is this?” Why are they so cruel? What did we do wrong to be punished this way?

I’m at the medical center and a lot of people are coming in. But there’s almost no doctor left. Because if they stay, that’s “rioting.” A lot of people have to be helped to get here. Sometimes they’re being carried here. When they’re getting carried inside, some of them seem to be in a critical condition. Some people need oxygen mask.

When I see them. I really wonder why we have to be like this. Why do we have to suffer this type of pain. It’s actually really painful to be hit by the water cannons firing blue dye. But as tired as some are, we all go in and out together.

Some people talk about there being secret tunnels enough for one person to sneak out at once, or whatever. But everyone said no to that. If we’re going to go, we’re going together. If we’re staying, we all stay. If we all go to jail, we all go to jail together.

The front line keeps clashing. The government — the police — keeps attacking. Every time the blue water cannon fires — whether its the tear-gas mix (transparent, colorless) or the blue water, it hurts, it stings the skin a lot. Because they’ve added a lot of… we don’t even know what’s in it… chemical into it.

A lot people are seeing the water cannons but not walking away. They’d walk right into it. Then they toss Molotovs, to try to stop the water cannons from advancing. Every time the water cannons are done, I hear a lot of “First aid, First aid.” S lot of people are getting hurt. A lot of people are getting seriously injured.

Then… I would see some getting carried away. They’re in pain. Some people are knocked over and literally scream “ah, ah” because it hurts so much.

To be honest, it feels like a battlefield right here. I see that a lot of people …Someone who have gotten hit three times by the blue dye already throughout the day would wash up and rest for half an hour, then go “I’m going out again.”

Yep. I don’t know what to say. Another boy who came in who was shot by the blue dye just washed and was shivering. He keeps shivering — I think his knee, or leg, got hit by a rubber bullet — I’m not sure.

He keeps shivering, and crying, and say “I’m going out to block their advance.” “I want to go out, I want to go out.” “But my leg can’t do it anymore, I can’t walk.” The other told him “it’s OK, just rest up.” And they would tell him, it’s OK, we’ll hold up the line for you.

And a lot of stories like these just keeps happening. A lot of us already wrote our wills already. Because the police are threatening to use live rounds. But we’re not afraid.

Many of them even think that “if my blood can wake the others up, I’m willing to bleed.”

When I sit with the others, some of us don’t know each other. “Hey, ten years,” we would say. And they would respond “no problem, we’ll all go sit in the prison together.” Thousands of us together, we’d all be in it, all a company. And we joked, “well, what’s to do for ten years.”

And I said to my friends, how about we write a few books? We don’t have time normally anyways. “it’s time to get a master’s degree,” some said. “I got one already, guess it’s time for another one,” another said. When a reporter interviewed her, she asked: “how are you feeling right now.”

And looking at that, I really don’t know what I’m feeling. I think waiting is the hardest part. When you get used to this and it feels numb. It just feels like we’re waiting for someone to rescue us.

We keep thinking that because a lot of people know what’s going on here and are out “opening flowers” (開花, slang for protesting), they’d scatter the police’s attention. We even hope that they could pave a way inside, and we could rush out. And we’re just waiting.

And then we wait.

And then… “prison for ten years.” (坐十年)

And then yeah.

I’m wondering if there is anything you want to write on this? I’m really thinking to do that. But because of who I am. It’s hard to talk about it. But I want to let you know that at Polytechnic university, we are all going in at once, and falling down at once.

Yeah, we’ll keep going. Really. (我們會堅持，真的)

And I hope I could come to Taiwan, hey!.