美国国家公共电台 NPR Hong Kong's 'Indigenous' Villages Mirror Tensions Of An Increasingly Divided City（在线收听）

Hong Kong's 'Indigenous' Villages Mirror Tensions Of An Increasingly Divided City

NOEL KING, HOST:

Two million people, which is nearly a third of Hong Kong's population, marched in peaceful opposition to an extradition bill with China back in June. Now, those protests have continued, but not always peacefully. Not everyone in Hong Kong supports them. There have been counterprotests. There have been attacks on activists. Some people support Beijing. NPR's Beijing correspondent Emily Feng went to a pro-Beijing district in Hong Kong.

(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)

EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Nam Pin Wai is closer to the border with mainland China than it is to the glittering hustle and bustle of Hong Kong Island. It's one of the so-called indigenous villages in the city's new territories, a northern region that makes up more than 85% of Hong Kong's landmass. Indigenous villages are populated by people whose ancestral roots predate Chinese Communist Party rule, British colonial rule, even the Qing empire, which leased the New Territories to the British in 1898. They're peaceful enclaves in urban Hong Kong, except on the night of July 21.

(SOUNDBITE OF SHOUTING)

FENG: Dozens of white-shirted assailants attacked protesters trapped inside a metro station near here that night, injuring at least 45. Then the assailants fled here to the village of Nam Pin Wai, which has long had links to organized crime. The assault fueled speculation in a city already paranoid about mainland Chinese interference that Beijing is directing opposition to the protests.

(CROSSTALK)

FENG: A local restaurant owner who was serving me lunch gave me a pointed warning. You need to be careful here, she told me. I do not suggest you look for those gangsters. On a recent October day reporting in the village, I was told repeatedly to leave for my own safety.

PAUL: I don't want you guys to come to our village anymore (ph). You are not welcome.

FENG: He's saying, you are not welcome. This is Paul, a 68-year-old resident of Nam Pin Wai. His grandparents were poor farmers. His parents did odd jobs to send him to university in Canada. But Paul always knew he would come back. He's seen the world, and that has made him fiercely protective of his homeland. Like everyone we spoke to, he refused to give a full name because of fear of reprisals from protesters.

PAUL: (Through interpreter) You come to my village, you come to my house, we'll fight back. That's it - period.

FENG: Paul says the attacks on July 21 in the Yuen Long metro were not orchestrated by gangs. They were family clans defending their centuries-old villages just like they did against pirates hundreds of years ago and the British during an armed rebellion called the Six Days War in 1899. The rebellion was quickly squashed, but it won the villages special land rights they still enjoy today.

Now they say Hong Kong's protesters, who smashed stores and graffitied homes, are the ones threatening their way of life.

PAUL: (Through interpreter) So what are you going to do when somebody comes to your house and wants to burn down your property and rape your woman? Are you going to just sit there waiting for it to happen? No, we are not. We are not chicken [expletive].

FENG: Nam Pin Wai is in the district New Territories West, represented by lawmaker Junius Ho, the most well-known advocate of a growing pro-China movement in Hong Kong. Video from the night of July 21 shows Ho shaking hands with some of the white-shirted assailants who attacked protesters. Wong, another local resident of Nam Pin Wai, supports Ho and the attackers.

WONG: (Through interpreter) We were handed back in 1997. Hong Kong is China. The whole world recognizes this reality.

FENG: But Wong says his district is pro-Beijing not because they love the Chinese Communist Party. It's because they fear it.

WONG: (Through interpreter) If they wanted to, the Chinese Communist Party could crush us. We are a piece of cake.

FENG: Then, Hong Kong's jobs, transportation systems, its rule of law - it would all crumble, Wong argues. That's why he supports Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam's decision to invoke emergency powers that allow her to pass any security measure she deems is in the public interest. Tens of thousands marched peacefully against the measure because they fear further erosion of civil liberties - not Wong in Nam Pin Wai.

WONG: (Through interpreter) I didn't break the law. Why should I care about emergency powers?

FENG: But Nam Pin Wai is also a village divided. In the last two decades, newcomers have moved into the indigenous villages. They're seeking more space, lower rents, and they're bringing with them different political viewpoints. Here's Kong, a 19-year-old student who was born and raised here.

KONG: (Through interpreter) People think that we are all violent and pro-government, and that's a misconception. There are many people living in this village who support the protests and who attend rallies.

FENG: Those divisions in the village are why one Nam Pin Wai-born resident named Tsang said people need to remain independent of what goes on in Hong Kong.

TSANG: (Through interpreter) We have to stand on our own. We should not blindly follow one side or the other.

FENG: Most of all, Tsang muses, residents just wish to be left alone, both by Hongkongers and by Beijing.

Emily Feng, NPR News, the New Territories, Hong Kong.