Reported by Clara Ip
Edited by Tomiris Urstembayeva
This Lunar New Year, a dozen protest-themed bazaars were organised across Hong Kong in support of the pro-democracy movement. Among which is the White Market run by a social media group of local artists named The Cultural Creative and Craft Yellow Circle, which verifies and promotes pro-democracy shops, to encourage more Hongkongers to participate in supporting the Yellow Economic Circle, a new consumption pattern that aims to show support to the movement.
Most stalls in the bazaar indicated that they will donate their profits to support people in the front-line, including the pro-democracy news outlet Stand News and The Cultural Creative and Craft Yellow Circle.
“The government seems to be afraid of the ‘Yellow Economic Circle’ and fear that the market will be filled with anti-government merchandise,'' he said.
One of the stalls in the White Market was set up by the Guang Fuk Heung Gong, a newly established group of Hongkongers that hire protesters to work as a way to support them. The booth sold self-designed t-shirts and hats with stories related to the major issues happened in the past few months. One of the t-shirts was based on the story of a secondary school student who was shot by a real bullet with just 3cm from his heart on October 1st last year.
“We estimate that we have lost a few thousands of dollars in running this business, but we still hope that more people can donate money, take one of our hats and join our walk nearby in the evening after the bazaar,” said J, a university student and one of the founders of GFHG who only agrees to reveal his initial due to personal safety reasons.
Mr. Andy Chan, a local customer, who donated money to a group that supports pro-democracy camp, decided to come to the White Market because he thinks donating money is “the least” he could do to “support protesters”.
“Other than for visiting my favourite key opinion leaders, I decided to come here because I heard that the profit earned in the bazaar will be donated to help the protesters,” he said.
In the previous years, many political parties would set up booths in the Lunar New Year market in Victoria Park, which was used to be one of the most popular fairs in Hong Kong filled with games and goodies to tease each other.
Last November, in an attempt to maintain public order the Hong Kong government has imposed a new rule for this Lunar New Year which bans all stalls from selling dry goods allowing to sell flowers and food only. The 15 government-run markets ended on Saturday, and this is the first time dry goods stalls have not been allowed at fairs. Such action has led to a decrease in the number of visitors and potential customers.
“This affected me quite a lot because in the previous years there were many stalls selling things that are related to current affairs,” said Mr. Leo Lee, a customer in Victoria Park Lunar New Year market. “This year there are only flowers and food, it is not really that attractive.”
The establishment of the new rule has caused a drop of people attending the Lunar New Year markets leaving many businesses affected.
“Normally by this time, this place will be swarmed with people, but there are only a few people here today”, said Mr. Lau Hai-Tao, a flower shop owner. “Our sales dropped around 40 percent this year!” he said.
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