Hongkongers find creative ways to voice protest.
From holding up blank sheets of paper to baking messages into mooncakes, people are devising new ways to protest amid repressive security law
The day after police arrested media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai for alleged ‘collusion with foreign forces’, residents bought up copies of his newspaper, Apple Daily, pictured. Many news stands and shops quickly sold out as supporters bought entire stacks of the paper, leaving copies for others to take for free.
Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP

After several pro-democracy slogans were declared illegal under the new security law, demonstrators began holding up blank sheets of paper. On 21 July, protesters held a rally to mark the one-year anniversary of an attack on commuters in the Yuen Long metro station by a mob believed to have pro-China connections
Photograph: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

A woman holds up a self-printed mini ‘Lennon wall’, originally inspired by the John Lennon Wall in Prague, where students posted political messages critical of the communist regime, during a protest in a mall in Hong Kong in August. After the enactment of the security law, Hong Kong’s Lennon walls, areas covered in sticky notes with pro-democracy statements, quickly disappeared.
Photograph: May James/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

A protester holds up tissue paper as she takes part in a rally in a shopping mall in July, marking one year since the Yuen Long metro attack.
Photograph: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

Businesses supportive of the protests, known as the “yellow economic circle,” have replaced Lennon walls with blank sticky notes to signal their protest but avoid using slogans deemed illegal under the new law.
Photograph: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

Protesters lay flowers near the Prince Edward MTR station, in Mongkok, where police clashed with protesters last year. Some believe demonstrators were killed in the station, an allegation authorities have denied.
Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

Protesters have held up posters that from afar form the eight Chinese characters for the protest slogan: ‘Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our times.’ A demonstrator who held this poster at a rally on 6 July was detained briefly by police but later released.
Photograph: Vincent Yu/AP

Mooncakes, a traditional Chinese dessert served at the mid-autumn festival, are decorated with police-friendly slogans on the outside. Social media posts showed that the cakes also came with a small note baked inside and the protest slogan: ‘Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our time.’
Photograph: Twitter/ Rachel Cheung

Graffiti on a wall in Hong Kong says: ‘Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves’, a line from China’s national anthem. Residents have also co-opted quotes by Mao Zedong to pledge support for the pro-democracy cause, while avoiding the ban on protest slogans deemed illegal under the new law.
Photograph: Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images

During a meeting to discuss the national security law, pro-democracy lawmakers held up white pieces of paper in protest. Demonstrators say the white papers also refer to the “white terror,” a time of political suppression, that they believe has descended on Hong Kong.
Photograph: Vincent Yu/AP

Demonstrators who took to the streets on 1 July, the day after the national security law was enacted, used a slogan common among the Red Guard during China’s Cultural Revolution. The sign says: “The revolution is blameless. To rebel is justified.” Protesters also held up their hands to signal the protest slogan, “five demands, not one less” a reference to the movement’s demands for an investigation into police brutality, universal suffrage among other reforms.
Photograph: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

A milk tea shop includes a caricature of a protester and the word “HKER” for Hongkonger on their cups as a subtle form of protest. Unable to join rallies, protesters have shown their defiance of the national security law by supporting “yellow” pro-democracy businesses.
Photograph: TWITTER
