Occupy Hong Kong: Lost In Translation?

The sight of police indiscriminately using pepper spray in New York, Seattle and, most recently, at the University of California in Davis has sparked near-universal condemnation. According to assistant professor Nathan Brown, the police at UC Davis forcefully opened the mouths of protesters and pepper-sprayed down their throats. In contrast to these images, Hong Kong�s Occupy movement has been characterized by an almost Zen-like calm. Most of their activities include debating the flaws of capitalism, browsing the Internet and playing music.

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Click for full photo gallery: Hong Kong's Version Of Occupy Wall Street

As the Occupy protests have spread from their base in Zuccotti Park, New York, to various cities in the U.S., like-minded activists from across the globe have also been responding to the campaign in places like Toronto, Sydney, London, Rome and Tokyo. Hong Kong�s handful of activists camped out under the headquarters of HSBC bank in the city�s Central business district have been struggling to gain the public�s attention. Their numbers have varied between ten and thirty at various times, but their core message against social injustice and corporate greed has remained constant over the past seven weeks.

Where they differ markedly with their counterparts in the U.S., though, has been the relatively low-key nature of their civil disobedience. The restrained nature of the movement is also one of the reasons why Occupy Central is still around, according to Tommy Chan, 21, an insurance salesman. Although he wanted the movement to be more active in raising its profile, he fears that the authorities are more likely to clamp down on the movement. Chan was recently arrested after leaving the camp for allegedly attacking a policy officer � a charge he denies. He believes the authorities will tolerate their camp as long as they don�t make too much of a public disturbance.

Derrick Benig, a 22-year-old art student and self-proclaimed anarchist, has been in the camp since it began in mid-October. He described the Occupy Central campaign as a �knowledge movement.� According to him, most people in Hong Kong don�t understand the reasons behind the global Occupy campaign. With their camp, they�re trying to attract attention to what they say are the fundamental flaws of capitalism. In support of this, the activists also plan to start a podcast sometime this week.

Up until now, remaining low-key has allowed Occupy Central to continue its protests while keeping the police at bay, however, this same approach also runs the risk of failing to attract the attention that�s vital to achieving their goal.

Click for full photo gallery: Occupy Hong Kong. More images on Flickr.