Why Hong Kong’s new leaders leave me conflicted

Three months ago, on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, I climbed some 500 metres to the top of Hong Kong’s Lion Rock. Made famous by a song from the 1970s, it embodies what locals call the “Lion Rock spirit” – a tendency for Hongkongers to persevere through hardship for a brighter future. It had seemed fitting, to scale the summit on a date that marked such sacrifice for political change.

I remember that moment clearly because I remember looking down at the city and thinking how insignificant it seemed. How unstable. Above all, I remember being struck by a sense of helplessness and defeat surrounding its future. A slap in the face of this so-called spirit.