27°C | Light rain
Oct 23, 2011
A week has passed since the first Occupy Central rallies rocked the city, but the group vowing to fight corporate greed has taken its anti-capitalist campaign further by creating a "commune" right in the centre of Hong Kong's business district.
While days ago they were shouting slogans and marching to government buildings, now they have begun to experiment with an alternative, "self-governing" way of life at a makeshift camp set up in a section of the massive public space beneath HSBC's headquarters.
In the past eight days, the movement - inspired by Occupy Wall Street, whose message has resonated beyond Manhattan's so-called Liberty Square and spawned similar protests around the globe - has transformed from a messy, angry crowd into a co-operative community.
"At first we just protested against injustice," said Kensa Hung Chung-kit, 17, a student at HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity. "But slowly, it's evolved into a social experiment and an alternative way of living."
Stepping into their 40-square-metre living space, the first thing that strikes a visitor is that it is, in every sense of the word, a commune. From the HSBC building's Garden Road entrance, the commune grounds are covered with banners - some are still being drawn by activists. There is a small reception desk, where newcomers can request guided tours of the space or information about the campaign.
The commune houses around 50 active members, but the figure dwindles in the daytime, when some protesters have to work or go to school. Around 10 people take responsibility for daily tasks such as preparing food or taking out the rubbish. At night, member numbers can swell to 70.
Most are young, in their teens or 20s, and a few students have taken time off school to join the camp. There are a few older supporters, with the most active coming from underground radio station FM 101.
The commune has no designated leader and decisions are made through exhaustive discussion and voting. Everything from food to cigarettes is shared, and the group relies mainly on donations.
In the middle of the space, a large wooden table - littered with laptops, paper, pens and ashtrays made out of soft-drink cans - acts as their "ideology publication" centre. Lo Ka-wo, 21, who helps out at the desk, said the group kept an online blog where campaign members posted 200- to 300-word entries documenting their experiences.
Next to it is a white plastic table labelled "food", where one can see - depending on the time of day - a fresh pan of cooked vegetables, bread, biscuits or a pile of boiled eggs donated by the public. On the night the Post visited, a donor brought in a big pan of spicy crabs.
"We get a lot of food donations," said Deni Cheung Ka-wing, a 24-year-old guitar teacher, who helps with food inventory. "Two days ago, we received five big loaves of bread, which was enough to feed the group for more than a day."
Another desk acts as an information-technology, logistics and lost-and-found corner.
Members sleep in tents, of which there were 25 when the Post visited the site on Thursday. The tents come in varying sizes and are arranged in a neat L-shape at the camp.
There is also a sitting area with couches and a small library that features Karl Marx books and other left-wing literature donated by FM 101. A cooking station and rubbish station are located just beyond the library.
There is also a "democracy wall" made up of three notice boards pinned with newspaper clippings and ideological essays from campaigns around the world.
An unfinished installation art piece, which looked like a rack made out of metal poles, served as a storage space for the group's generator fuel, four loudspeakers and other supplies, according to Hung, a guide at the commune.
Occupy Central began mainly as an anti-capitalist movement, but its members also advocate myriad other issues. Some support the Occupy Wall Street movement, some are against Hong Kong's rich developers, while others advocate residency rights for Filipino maids. Some are protesting against Lehman Brothers, while others are simply fed up with the status quo.
"There are so many problems - the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer," said a 19-year-old heavy-metal singer, who gave her name as Kokanne.
"Wealth is in the hands of the 1 per cent. I believe for that to change, we may have to try something completely different," she said.
Despite the heavy issues they deal with, the atmosphere at the camp is cheerful and seemingly carefree. The group does follow a certain routine, however. All sections of the commune are run by the members, who can choose which "work groups" they would like to join.
They sort rubbish into five different piles and take trash out four times a day. The group spends "a few hundred [Hong Kong] dollars" each day, mainly on food and fuel for three electrical generators. They keep a communal fund for daily expenses.
Sticking to the communal spirit, there is a work rotation where each member will not stay in charge at one post for extended periods of time. This ensures equal participation and suits participants' availability.
Nothing is scheduled in the mornings. Those who have work or classes wake up, wash at the public toilet across the street and leave. Those who stay eat breakfast at about 8am and then tidy up the site.
Their day officially starts at noon with a meeting that lasts about two hours. Hung says about 10 people usually attend the talks, where members discuss expenses, logistics and daily events. They also talk about housekeeping issues, which can range from where to find the next meal to handling rubbish collection.
The rest of the afternoon is spent entertaining visitors, including groups of students and their teachers. So far, the protesters have given at least eight guided tours and led discussions with students. Reporters also tend to stay throughout the afternoon until the evening.
The commune comes alive at dinner time, around 6pm to 7pm, when members "come home" after work or school. This is also a time for cultural activities such as music or lively discussions. On Thursday, events group Hidden Agenda put together a show featuring local bands who played world music, heavy metal and rock.
The biggest event of the day is the night meeting, which starts at around 10pm - after the students, reporters, curious tourists and working bankers have left - and goes on until 3am.
At Thursday night's meeting, the hot topic was an annual cancer fund-raiser involving HSBC on October 29, which might require the group to leave the area.
They have devised their own voting system, with members using their arms to make an "O" shape to express assent and crossing their arms to signal disagreement.
Around 70 participants broke up into smaller discussion groups and finally voted to issue a statement that fund-raising organisers were welcome to use the space, but that the commune would stay put.
Around midnight, the meeting was briefly interrupted by a drunk Western man in a business suit, who waved roses and shouted obscenities at the group. Failing to elicit a reaction, the man later walked away.
When the discussion was finally over, the group dispersed, though people continued to chat, debate, listen to music and even dance. After the evening's activities, this reporter collapsed at around 6.30am, waking up in time for breakfast at 7.30am.
The group's lifestyle respects equal rights and promotes the sharing of resources and work - in a way, representing a constructive stand against capitalism.
Lo, from the ideology publication centre, said members were showing how alternative systems to capitalism could work. "[Capitalism] has brought about so many problems," he said. "We are trying to live in a different, completely democratic way to hopefully say that capitalism is not the only way."
Though the meetings are long and the routine is stringent, members see it as a learning experience. "There isn't an ideology consensus yet. We are still getting the hang of living like this," FM 101 member Jaco Chow Nok-hang said.
jennifer.ngo@scmp.com Copyright (c) 2011. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.