Hong Kong language group closes after post accused of breaching security law
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The post in question was a short fiction piece about a future, culturally assimilated Hong Kong, submitted in a 2020 writing competition.
PHOTO: REUTERS
HONG KONG - A Hong Kong group promoting Cantonese language preservation shut down on Monday after police said an essay it posted online had breached a Beijing-imposed national security law, according to the group’s founder.
The Hong Kong Language Learning Association was set up in 2013 to support the preservation of Cantonese and safeguard the “linguistic rights” of Hong Kongers.
Spoken by the vast majority of Hong Kongers, Cantonese is distinct from the Mandarin spoken in mainland China.
Association founder Andrew Chan said in a statement he decided to “cease all operations of the Hong Kong Language Learning Association, effective immediately, in order to ensure the safety of my family and former members”.
According to Mr Chan, Hong Kong’s national security police searched his family home on Aug 22 while he was out of town, and demanded the removal of an online article “alleging a violation of the National Security Law”.
The law, imposed in 2020 by Beijing after massive and at times violent democracy protests in Hong Kong, has effectively quelled all dissent in the territory – silencing the opposition camp and civil rights groups.
The article in question on the association’s website was a fictional short story depicting a future, culturally assimilated Hong Kong, written by a third party and entered into a 2020 writing competition held by the group.
“I have not been told (the) reason it was violating the law,” Mr Chan told AFP, adding that officers had searched the flat without a warrant.
He said he needed to shutter the group because taking down the story was not enough to avert legal risk.
In a statement, police told AFP that their operations were “handled in light of the actual situation and in accordance with the law”, without saying why the article was deemed a violation.
After the former British colony was handed over to China in 1997, government attempts to broaden the use of Mandarin in classrooms have met with backlash, with critics decrying it as an erasure of local culture.
Mr Chan made headlines in 2018 when he protested the introduction of compulsory Mandarin tests at the Hong Kong Baptist University, where he was a student.
“(The authorities want) people to learn more Mandarin in order to facilitate the integration of Hong Kong and China,” he said Monday, adding that Cantonese has been given an “unfair status”.
He said his group ran low on funds in recent years and was operated solely by him.
Currently on an extended trip out of Hong Kong, Mr Chan told AFP he will not return “until I feel safe”. AFP
