Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink

Even the most studious person can be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed trying to keep up with major world events. Beyond just knowing what’s happening is having a depth of perspective on the history of why certain things are occurring.Wasserstrom’s book Vigil is perfect for anyone who has read about the protests in Hong Kong and been curious about how they started and what it means. In a concise 100 or so pages he gives a historical perspective, lays out the major players and what this means for Hong Kong and the region.Even better, at the end he gives multiple resources for you to further explore the topic and develop your own opinions on the situation.This book is a great starting point and recommended for those looking to begin to understand the current relationship between Hong Kong and China.

Judging as things are not as we wish them to be.Hong Kong was a beacon shining out the hope that its elements of legality and civil participation might stand as models against authoritarian rule as history unfolds.Prof. Wasserstrom takes you to HK in a very personal rendering of the issues that have lead to this year’s restructuring of the rules regarding ‘One Country Two Systems’ giving their history and application since Great Britain gave it back.They have in fact always been in process, but contained elements reflecting democratic potential, and it was that element many argue that put the people in the streets in recent years but also a form of separatism – “The Hong Kong Nation;” (p. 64) first peacefully and then with enhanced violence as the very young have engaged the police with Molotov cocktails and paving stones and burned opposed ‘mainland’ businesses and attack individuals, (p. 77) our media uniformly list them as pro-democratic activists.“Democracy is and always has been the dominant issue in Hong Kong politics.” (p. 39) Jeffrey declares and leaves no question that’s commendable. That’s the problem for this reviewer.Readers are likely to want ‘democratizing’ following Jeffrey’s telling; that’s ‘our thing.’HK’s economy has been damaged by the lost of tourism and complaints by Mainlanders that their language – Mandarin – often not accepted in transactions, by even taxi drivers, in a city that once prided itself with three; as I witnessed on a very recent visit; an exclusive Cantonization of the region.Given a million Mainlanders have moved south in recent years, for many this is an antagonizing 'us/them' development.Many of the economy’s problems are self inflicted; now unfortunately complicated by both Beijing and Trump’s policies.The current administration and Congress has already begun drawing red lines; China Hawks mounting an attack.Is this a wise fight for anyone; the cold war reappearing in strength? But it has its fans. *Let the Hong Kong people find their own outcomes without our intervention; they are creative.From a Times piece:"Even as old markers of resistance have come down, subtler ones have surfaced. Some protesters have turned to puns and created new meaning from well-worn phrases, a tactic long adopted by mainland internet users to skirt government censorship.On Wednesday, in one of the city’s commercial hubs, someone had spray-painted “Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves” — the opening line of China’s national anthem."Virgil is entertaining reading, it’s just there is more to the story, some very frightening, and now highly politicized.3 stars*Congress has just sent to Trump a request for sanctions on Chinese leaders with regard to Hong Kong and Xinjiang – passed in both houses without opposition or debate. 7/2/20. It’s an election year.

Professor Wasserstrom (University of California, Irvine) knows his stuff cold, and deserves applause for banging out a narrative/analysis that, while it shorts anyone disagreeing with the anti-government protest movement in Hong Kong, is usefully long in laying out a fine narrative/analysis of his heroes: the protestors. The true whole story is more complex, of course, and down the road history will perhaps sort it all out. Until then (and history is rarely timely, and in fact not always forthcoming), this brisk political narrative is very muchl worth an afternoon's read. - Clinical Professor Tom Plate, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

A very precise and timeful book to chronicle and elaborate the perils of HongKongers confronted with in preserving their cherished values and institutions, under the mounting pressure from China.

He text didn't go as deep as I would have liked, but it was a swift and well reasoned vignette of HK as of October 2019. Since then, things have somehow gotten even more dire. There's an extensive collection of suggested readings and films at the end of the book.

I attended a talk that Jeffrey Wasserstrom gave to promote his book. He basically claimed that the protesters were fighting for freedom and democracy against an autocratic Beijing. When confronted with the facts that the US National Endowment for Democracy (a CIA offshoot) has funded key protest organizations, that the Hong Kong police were actually much more restrained than American police would be if attacked with firebombs and other deadly weapons, that in the name of free speech Hong Kong protesters were beating up civilians who disagreed with them, smashing and burning stores, and that ordinary Hong Kong citizens were afraid of them, Wasserstrom deflected the facts by implying that they weren't important. Never mentioned was the fact that the Cato Institute (a conservative US think tank) gave Hong Kong a rating of the third most democratic place in 2018, ahead of the US which came in 17th. Based on his personal presentation, he's simply too biased to trust his book.

Over the past nine months, friends and family have asked about the Hong Kong protests. What’s going on there? they ask. Now there’s a book that explains the movement and the background for why we’re at this point in Hong Kong. Jeff Wasserstrom does a masterful job of detailing the history of protests in Hong Kong. The reader not only learns about the most recent protests, but can understand how we got here. One of the most useful takeaways to me is Professor Wasserstrom’s advice to avoid comparing the movement with past protests like Tiananmen and Occupy Hong Kong. I think those of us who have been following the movement have a tendency to compare it to the past. It’s a way to come to some kind of understanding for a movement that is often difficult to comprehend (ie, why the police has become brutal, why the HK government won’t meet with students, etc.). But it is great advice. We don’t know what will happen. This movement is different from others. And the others didn’t all turn out the same. I know I will often refer back to Vigil as the protest movement continues.

A concise and comprehensive overview of Hong Kong's recent past and how we have got to the present crisis. As this was published early 2020, much has happened since that verifies the author 's predictions , the crackdown on Hong Kong 's basic rights and the freedom of its citizens.A good introduction to the Why, the Who and the How Hong Kong stands where it does now, on the brink.