'We can celebrate later': Hong Kongers pen Christmas cards to protesters
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[December 17, 2019]
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong
residents have been gathering across the city on weekends and in lunch
breaks to write Christmas cards to injured protesters and those in
detention as anti-government demonstrations grind on through the holiday
season.
"I don't even want to celebrate because so many people are seriously
injured," said office worker Felix Wong, 35, choking up in tears as she
spoke.
"We didn't forget about them. We're not partying ... 'We can celebrate
later, not now'," she said when asked what she had written in her cards.
Wong was one of a dozen office workers and residents who dropped by a
central shopping area on Monday to drop off their Christmas cards.
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Volunteers in black masks and baseball caps collected them in boxes as
tourists walked by, passing shop windows decorated with gingerbread
houses, Christmas presents and tinsel.
Hong Kong has been embroiled in more than six months of anti-government
protests which show no sign of abating. Police have arrested 6,060
people since the unrest began, with 977 charged with various offences
including unlawful assembly, common assault and criminal damage, as of
Dec. 12.
The ages of those arrested range from 11 to 84, according to police.
Police do not say how many of them are in detention.
On the weekend, a line of people waited at the entrance of the train
station in the Mong Kok district to drop off their cards at a booth
manned by volunteers and equipped with screens showing videos of clashes
with police.
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![](../images/121719pics/news_s31.jpg)
People write Christmas cards for people who are in detention during
the recent protests, at footbridge in Mong Kok, Hong Kong, China
December 13, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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Bonnie Lock, a 52-year old housewife, dropped off her card with a
crowd of her neighbors.
"As Christmas and Chinese New Year approach, I want to show some
support, to let them know that we, the peaceful protesters ... miss
them very much," Lock said.
"We hope they can feel some warmth and won't feel that lonely."
The protesters are angry about what they see as an encroachment by
China on wide ranging autonomy Hong Kong was guaranteed under a "one
country, two systems" framework which governs the former British
colony.
China has rejected the complaints.
Protests are scheduled to continue across the city through the rest
of the week and into Christmas.
(Reporting by Joyce Zhou, Minwoo Park, Yoyo Chow and Mehmet Emin
Caliskan in HONG KONG; Writing by Mari Saito; Editing by Robert
Birsel)
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