A vigil was held today in Liberty Plaza in Taipei to memorialize those who died in the deadly Wong Fuk Court fire on November 26th that killed at least 159 and injured 79. Several hundred were in attendance...
Last year, at a Palestine solidarity encampment on campus, I had a tense exchange with a Zionist student. He sneered, pointing at a map: “Where is Palestine? I only see Israel.” In that moment, it hit me again—some identities, some memories, are not erased because of what they’ve done, but simply because they exist. This is the reality in Tibet, East Turkestan, Hong Kong, Inner Mongolia, and across China itself: even remembering the Tiananmen Massacre is a punishable offense. Existence itself is treated like a crime...
For most of this century and the final years of the last one, too, I lived in the same area in Hong Kong. For over half of that time, home was a 2-bed flat in the Tuen Mun district of the New Territories, where I first shared a bunk bed with my brother and later had my own bed and working desk after he moved out. It was a five-minute walk from the beach, where people were often angling or feeding stray cats. It was right next to the transport terminus that I used for my daily commute, often running to chase the 962X bus to Central, over on Hong Kong Island, because I was almost late for work...
In the Australian capital of Canberra, the decision to bring together Chinese-language speakers has instead threatened to fracture a community at a time when Sino-Australian relations are on a knife-edge...
The Chinese government announced late last month that it would no longer accept the BNO passport as a valid travel document. This move was announced as retaliation to new provisions that would allow holders of BNO passports a path to UK citizenship...
Over fifty pro-democracy politicians were arrested today in Hong Kong, in the largest set of arrests in an ongoing crackdown that has taken place across past weeks. The arrests effectively seek to wholly eliminate the pan-Democratic opposition...
The Chinese government sentenced citizen journalist Zhang Zhan to four years in jail late last month. This was part of a larger crackdown directed at journalists and dissidents conducted by the Chinese government over the holidays...
New Bloom interviewed Simon Cheng, the first Hong Kong national who was granted asylum in the UK, and a former worker of the UK’s Hong Kong consulate. Simon shared his experiences of exile life in London, his future plans, and what he has been through in seeking political asylum...
