'Stop Hurting Our Children' banner

Note: Names used in the entry below are pseudonyms. All quotes and supporting information are derived from the accounts of ‘Alexa’ and ‘Emily’ as recorded in item GH02678, Te Papa collection.

This banner was used by Alexa, a 10-year-old schoolgirl of Hong Kong Chinese heritage, at a rally in support of the Hong Kong protest movement in Auckland on 13 June 2019. The banner's message, 'Stop hurting our children', was intended to remind the public of the young age of many of the protesters in Hong Kong. To create the banner, Alexa made paper cranes by hand and used a hot glue gun to attach them to the cloth banner.

Alexa’s story offers insight into the complex ways in which the Hong Kong protest movement has influenced the lives of some young people growing up in New Zealand. Following her involvement in the June rally, Alexa experienced a fallout with a classmate.

'I told one of my friends I was on the protesters’ sides and she told her mum, and her mum told her not to play with me. Her mum said that we are rejecting her home country since she was on the China side, so I didn’t feel, I felt kind hurt.'

Alexa's mother, Emily, who is also politically active, returned to Hong Kong briefly in 2019 to take part in protests there and narrowly avoided arrest (see web entry for object GH025714, Te Papa Collection). Emily says that although she has not discussed everything with Alexa, her daughter watches the news and understands why her mother went back to Hong Kong. The pair watched also some videos and material online together in New Zealand.

Emily is encouraging of Alexa's activism as she believes that, compared to what young people in Hong Kong have risked for their protest efforts, the risk to Alexa of engaging in protests in New Zealand is small.

Hong Kong protest movement and Aotearoa

The Hong Kong protests were originally incited by the proposed Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019. Also known as the Hong Kong Extradition Bill, the proposed legislation would have enabled Hong Kong residents to be extradited to mainland China to face trial. The protest movement subsequently evolved and continued through much of the first half of 2020, though the Extradition Bill was withdrawn in October 2019. On 30 June 2020, the Chinese legislature approved the controversial National Security Law, bypassing Hong Kong’s own elected legislative council. This law effectively outlawed activities perceived as dissenting or secessionist, including the possession of protest banners and flags carrying slogans associated with the protest movement such as ‘Free Hong Kong/Revolution of our Times’.

The Hong Kong protests have garnered significant international attention due to Hong Kong’s importance to the global economy and the political aspects of China’s increasing prominence as a global player. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the protests have prompted wide-ranging debates, including those relating to democracy and freedom of speech, New Zealand’s relationship to China and the government’s obligations to those connected to Hong Kong but based here, among them international students and temporary visa holders, as well as citizens and permanent residents with familial and cultural links to Hong Kong.