"Bavashaw Commune" Issue 4: Revolution of the Times

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LK: People from Hong Kong who have experienced the "Umbrella Movement", "Fish Ball Revolution" and "Anti-Extradition Movement". Member of the curatorial team of FESTIVAL DU FILM HONGKONGAIS DE PARIS.

Jiang Bu: Anti-thief, situationalist, has made documentaries, drove a taxi, and went to the police station. His main business is to engage in revolution, and sometimes he engages in art.

JB: Anarchists.

Jiang Bu : Let’s talk about the film first. As a standpoint, I support the protests of Hong Kong people; but as a documentary, I feel that “Revolution of the Times”, including the previous “Occupation of the Legislative Council” and “Siege of PolyU”, were not good enough. It's just a listing of events, without further speculation, so there is only a stand, which looks like another version of "News Network". It is also a documentary discussing political events. Personally, I think "The Act of Killing" handles it better. The director let the witnesses repeat the scenes of the past. We saw that these perpetrators were not only not punished, but also did not reflect on And proud of it, so that the audience can not only criticize events and violence, but also further understand the origin of violence. Suffering will not only appear in a specific time and place, and human history will only repeat itself again and again. Of course, I also understand that reality may be too strong. When "reality" has not become "history", we may lack an alienated perspective to maintain distance, but the French documentary "Un pays qui se tient sage" on the Yellow Vest movement Better yet, its enemy, or rather its opposite, is not a fictional imaginary enemy, but a flesh-and-blood enemy. In contrast, "Time Revolution" is like some kind of promo video made of Facebook Live highlights with no additional information. Of course, I still support the struggle between Hong Kong people and Chinese people, and I hope to make better documentaries in the future struggle.

LK : I also don’t like this film very much. Many of the scenes in “Revolution of the Times” were not shot by Zhou Guanwei. They collected a lot of material from front-line media, including stand news, and even the material secretly provided by reporters from Hong Kong TVB. There are The films shot by many journalist friends on the front line were directly given to the crew of "Revolution of the Times". Because of this, everyone has special expectations for "Revolution of the Times". I quite agree with Jiang Bu's point of view. In order to tell this story, it misses many key things.

As a witness, "Revolution of the Times" turned the entire movement into a movement for young people. Even Chen Bo, who appeared in the film, said "to protect young people." In fact, the front-line demonstrators are not only young people. 2019 is a movement of all ages and classes, with different people doing different things .

"Revolution of the Times" did not make the 831 incident very clear. The real version is actually that there were demonstrations in Central at that time. Basically, demonstrations happened every day at that time. When the demonstrations on Hong Kong Island were dispersed, people would go to Places like Kowloon, Prince Edward and Mong Kok are in the center, like the châtelet in Paris, you will pass by wherever you go. It is true that there will be demonstrators going to Prince Edward Station, or passing by, but there are also many more who just go home from get off work. Prince Edward Station has two platforms and four trains. One of the trains on the bottom platform contains a middle-aged man who is pro-government and fights a man in black with an umbrella, although he later supported and helped the man in black to scold him back. It is indeed a demonstrator, but it is difficult to say whether the man in black who quarreled with him at that time was a demonstrator. I was almost pushed off the rails at a train station once before, and the other person said, "You are the kind of person who is disrupting Hong Kong!" Some white-collar workers in black dresses and black suits were also attacked when they went to get off work. The contradictions at that time were quite exaggerated.

Some Hong Kong protesters will say, "It's Lan Si who picks things up and they get paid." I personally have reservations about this, because the prejudice between the two sides is very deep and the conflict is fierce, and it may be possible at any time. Will go off fire. 831 They quarreled and pushed and shoved. Someone rang the emergency bell and notified the driver, who called the police. But this was originally just a dispute between three or four people, why are there so many police officers rushing into the Prince Edward Station? I was not there at the time, but there were friends who lived nearby, the subway was not closed, the police came to beat people, they were crowded on the stairs, the police above asked them to go down, the police below asked them to hurry up, a group People were caught on the stairs, and police used batons and pepper spray to drive them away, almost stepping on them. Most of the footage we see in the film is inside the cabin. At a later press conference, the police spokesman said that the police are well-trained and can tell whether the person to be attacked is a demonstrator in a short period of time. Even those who wear black are not necessarily protesters. After this incident, the public's trust in the police has completely turned into a negative number, and the positions of the two sides are even more divided.

It is also mentioned in the film that Zhou Zile was killed by police brutality, but in fact the film did not describe the ins and outs of the incident in detail. At that time, after the 721 Yuen Long, the relationship between the police and the public was already very poor. Hong Kong people's trust in the police had almost disappeared. Of course, after the 831 police rushed into the Prince Edward Station and beat people, it has not only gone to zero, but some citizens already hated the police. Hong Kong has the New Territories, Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong Island is a bit more expensive, and Kowloon is more lively. Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui are all in Kowloon. At that time, "Operation Dawn" was blocking roads in the morning. I don't agree that "Operation Dawn" is for Zhou Zile, because the protesters do not have leaders either. Some people come up with an idea, and this matter may be pushed forward by some people, and no one person or organization will lead it. In "Operation Dawn", a group of people wanted everyone to strike, so they forced people to go on strike by blocking the road, so the relationship between this incident and Zhou Zile was not as direct as the description in the video. So my impression of "The Revolution of the Times" is that the story is just for the director to put together the materials in his hands, but for those who have experienced it, many details are actually very unreasonable, the story is simplified, and the actual situation is multi-line of.

1. Changes in the slogan of the anti-extradition movement in 2019/LK

"Five demands, one is indispensable"

In the movement before 2019, most people did not want to be against the Communist Party, they were against national education or a certain policy on housing, even the Umbrella Movement was against the system of universal suffrage-Beijing gave us a so-called universal suffrage, but the candidates are designated by them. The same is true at the beginning of 2019. The slogan at the beginning was to withdraw the wicked law, and Lam Cheng stepped down. Most of the people who came out were not for anti-communism, but only to withdraw the anti-extradition regulations. Later, one million people stood up and did not respond. No one understands why a murder case in Taiwan is being forced onto us. On June 12, in the face of peaceful demonstrations, the police began to use tear gas canisters. Of course, it must be a small case now. There are only a few dozen or a hundred tear gas canisters, but for us at the time, this number was already a lot. The Umbrella Movement Only thirty or forty. And at that time, the police arrested some people and charged them with "riot crimes". The maximum penalty for "riot crimes" in Hong Kong is 10 years imprisonment, but the police also said that that day was not a riot, so how can you be arrested at a scene that is not a riot? Charged with "violence"? The central government didn't get too involved when the movement started, and I personally think Xi Jinping probably didn't feel that things were going to get bigger.

Gradually, five demands came up—the first demand was to set up an independent investigation team to investigate the police riots that day. Later, because police riots became more and more common, the demands gradually changed to disband the police force; The demonstrators' accusations are actually for those arrested protesters; the withdrawal of the extradition law; the implementation of "true universal suffrage". If we don't have true universal suffrage, none of these demands will be satisfied, so everyone calls for true universal suffrage, and we keep discussing them on the spot and on the Internet. That's how the five demands came out slowly. At that time, if you said "God destroys the CCP" during a demonstration, or if you targeted the government or regime, you would be stopped by other demonstrators. Later, a million people stood up and nothing came of it, so the Legislative Council was attacked. The Legislative Council was supposed to be a gatekeeper and refused to pass some bills that were unfavorable to the people. After the attack on the Legislative Council, the Chinese government began to do some things. For example, some police officers who could not speak Cantonese and did not know the way began to appear on the streets of Hong Kong. Originally, everyone knew that the Hong Kong government had no right to speak. This time, everyone found that the Hong Kong government was too lazy to pretend, and they didn’t have to take any responsibility for us, so everyone’s goal became more and more aimed at the CCP.

"Recover Hong Kong, Revolution of the Times"

It is true that in the Umbrella Movement in 2014, some demonstrators began to mention "Hong Kong independence", but even so, 2-3 months after the movement started in 2019, the slogan at that time was not "Hong Kong Independence". Hong Kong, Revolution of the Times". This slogan actually came from Liang Tianqi. "Liberate Hong Kong" and "Revolution of the Times" were actually created at two points in time. The point is that even Liang Tianqi himself cannot explain what "Liberate Hong Kong" is. "Liberate Hong Kong" is actually a It started with "Recovering Sheung Shui" . Sheung Shui is close to the Chinese border, and there are many smugglers. You can count 5 jewelry stores and 7 pharmacies in a short street on Nathan Road in Mong Kok. The pharmacy is not selling medicine, but In selling milk powder, our ordinary life has been affected. Sheung Shui is the place where smugglers directly buy goods. This situation is even more exaggerated in Sheung Shui. Sometimes we see smuggled chilled meat, and blood will flow out of the suitcase. Many people from the mainland come to buy gold and jewelry, so most The shops have been turned into gold shops and jewelry shops. As a result, some local factions began to settle in this place, so there was "Guangfu Sheung Shui". "Recovering Sheung Shui" is not actually about subverting the regime, but more about wanting Sheung Shui to become what it was before. Sheung Shui was originally a young town with many young couples and families living there. For many people, "recovery" is just a hope that a region will return to a more "bright" era in their hearts. Liang Tianqi came from that group of people. In 2015, when he was running for district councillors, he proposed that he should not only "recover Sheung Shui", but also "recover Hong Kong". "Revolution of the times" is even more interesting. "Revolution" actually has many interpretations. Carrie Lam also mentioned "public toilet revolution". "Revolution" itself is also a cheap word. Everyone has a different idea of ​​"revolution", and every era has its own revolution. Liang Tianqi was arrested for the "fish ball revolution" in 2016.

"Revolution" is described by foreigners. I didn't see the revolution when I was there. I just saw a group of people who wanted to burn the car but didn't know how to do so. They set the newspaper on fire and kicked it under the car, but it didn't work. explode. I also saw the police holding up a shield about his height. The police in front were arguing with the demonstrators, and the police in the back were pushing forward, amateur to amateur. Some police officers fell down because of their unsteady center of gravity. These pictures were taken by the media. After coming down, some people will say how violent the demonstrators are and attack the police, but there is no such thing. How could it be possible that the demonstrators attacked the police, but the police fell in the direction of the demonstrators? They were just pushed and jostled by the police behind them and lost their balance. Calling "revolution" is actually a bit exaggerated. In fact, Liang Tianqi and Huang Taiyang had already left before the conflict, but before they left, they were the only ones who shouted slogans including "Recover Hong Kong" with a loudspeaker. , so when the incident was defined as "riot", they were charged with "riot crime", Huang Taiyang immediately went to Germany and became the first political refugees in Hong Kong; Liang Tianqi was arrested, and Liang Tianqi was in prison during the entire movement in 2019 in prison. Young people in Hong Kong in their twenties like Liang Tianqi very much, so they continue to use the slogan "Recover Hong Kong, the revolution of the times", and this slogan is actually very Free. Everyone has their own reference to this slogan. What is asked for is independence; some people are asking for a return to a bright era; some people are asking for some kind of inner revolution, and everyone should have his own revolution.

"Hong Kong independence, the only way out"

​Later, the slogan gradually changed from "Hong Kong people come on, Hong Kong people support" to "Hong Kong people take revenge", because too many people were injured due to the rampant police brutality, the slogan "Hong Kong people take revenge" probably started on August 31st. But in November at PolyU, more people started to talk, and the final slogan gradually became "Hong Kong independence, the only way out".

Second, Jiang Bu

Just now, LK talked about the changes in Hong Kong society from the change of the slogan of the anti-extradition movement in 2019. I want to talk about the changes in Hong Kong society from the Hong Kong movies and the society before the anti-extradition movement. To supplement the previous situation, we can see how the political spectrum of Hong Kong is gradually becoming polarized.

1. The social identity reflected in Hong Kong movies/Jiang Bu

In fact, Hong Kong movies are a mirror that reflects the changes in Hong Kong society. Hong Kong people have always been confused about whether they are British, Chinese or Hong Kong people. This anxiety about identity was first reflected in the ghost films and zombie films that appeared in large numbers in the 1980s— - Are zombies humans or ghosts? The gambling films that appeared in large numbers in the 1990s also catered to people's collective subconsciousness - if following the rules can't change the future, why not try to "take a gamble" to reverse the situation, so that some later commentators said that in 2019, the clamorous "take a game" "Fry" also comes from the origin of gambling films. Stephen Chow, who filmed "The Holy Gambler", was also popular in the 1990s. Similar to Buster Keaton's comedy image, the protagonist of Stephen Chow's films is usually the image of a fool in the first act, with various physical or moral flaws. , After a certain incident, the Fool is catalyzed into a hero and saves the world. The protagonist often subverts a certain power with a small and broad, this may not be the reason for the success of Stephen Chow's film, but at least to a certain extent, it has dispelled people's beliefs about the future. of fear. Before the handover of power in 1997, Stephen Chow and Liu Zhenwei's answer sheet was "The Night of Returning to the Soul". All the guests in the film were waiting and were tortured by the moment of "The Ghost Returning to the Soul".

Identity is the common matrix of Hong Kong films for decades. Directors such as Wong Kar-wai and Johnnie To have made their own answers with films. And "Infernal Affairs" is the most straightforward metaphor for identity. It is not even a metaphor, but a simile story about the confusion of Hong Kong people. There are undercover gangsters within the police, and there are undercover police officers within the gang. It is intriguing that "Infernal Affairs" 》The Hong Kong version and the Chinese version have different endings. And "Infernal Affairs 3" itself is also the first Hong Kong film to be released in China after the signing of CEPA ("Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement") in 2003. After 2000, Hong Kong directors took the film north and continued to shoot There are fewer and fewer directors of local films, so the emergence of co-production films has a far greater impact on Hong Kong films than on Chinese films. Entering the Chinese market undoubtedly means self-castration and censorship.

With the passage of time, the anxiety of identity after the handover of the regime has gradually transformed into a kind of "anxiety of the end of the world". "Ten Years" itself is a story about the "fall of Hong Kong", imagining the end times in the imagination of multiple generations. A free Hong Kong is fading away, replaced by some haunting realities.

Bill Nichols said in the first edition of "Introduction to Documentary", "All film is a documentary." This sentence can be understood in two dimensions, literally meaning that before the advent of digital images, all films were light through The lens is refracted on the film, and all films are records of the set; a deeper understanding is that even if India shoots a sci-fi film with singing and dancing in 2050, the costumes, designs and values ​​in the film also reflect the Indian culture in 2050. trend of thought. The films we mentioned above are not necessarily created by Hong Kong filmmakers deliberately, but they do reflect the changes in Hong Kong society to a certain extent.

2. Changes in the political spectrum of Hong Kong / Jiang Bu

In the CCP's official propaganda system, the 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition movement seems to have only "thugs" and "policemen". If you go over the wall to check the news yourself, you will find that Hong Kong actually has yellow and blue, as well as yellow and blue. If Look again at Gordon Lian Deng or the Telegram channel, and you may find the local faction/valiant force faction/scorched earth faction/lanchao faction.

In fact, Hong Kong has the rule of law and freedom, but including the period when the British Hong Kong government was in power, Hong Kong never had democracy and lacked education about democracy. Therefore, Hong Kong’s political spectrum is not controlled in the Western sense, but only the distance from the CCP. In other words, the political spectrum of Hong Kong is only pro-communist and anti-communist. If absolute neutrality is the starting point, then the pro-government can be divided into -1 enlightened establishment (Tian Beijun), -2 conservative establishment (Ye Liu Shuyi), -3 radical establishment (He Junyao, Liang Zhenying), that is, light blue, blue , Dark Blue; while the democratic faction corresponds to 1 conservative democracy (Dai Yaoting), 2 radical democracy (Liang Guoxiong, Huang Zhifeng), 3 local faction/Yongwu faction (Liang Tianqi, passionate citizen), representing light yellow, yellow and dark yellow respectively. Below, I try to analyze the political spectrum of Hong Kong from the handover of power in 1997 to the eve of the anti-extradition campaign in 2019, and analyze how the social consensus in Hong Kong is torn apart step by step, and then becomes polarized - for example, in the Occupy Central movement, moderates Pan-democrats (1) will be seen by pro-Beijing conservatives (-2) as creating unrest, while radicals (2) are also dissatisfied with the overly cautious style of pan-democrats. The dilemma of pan-democrats is actually a dilemma of spectral polarization. . In fact, the difference within the yellowing camp may be greater than the difference between yellow and blue, just as the difference between contemporary art and contemporary art may be greater than the difference between contemporary art and traditional art.

In the 1970s after the 1960s and 1970s riots, Sir MacLehose served as the Governor of Hong Kong. The Independent Commission Against Corruption was established in the second year of his tenure. In 1972, he launched the "Ten Years of Housing" and the "Home Ownership" program in 1978. At this time, Hong Kong's urban culture focused on economic activities, while citizens were generally alienated from politics.

In the late 1980s, 1.5 million Hong Kong people marched in solidarity with Beijing students, and the political apathy of Hong Kong people gradually began to thaw.

In the late 1990s, when the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was established, the flag was changed and the governor was changed. Although Beijing has also been involved in Hong Kong affairs, it still operates under the framework of "One Country, Two Systems".

The turning point occurred in 2003. The economic crisis caused by the financial turmoil and the political pressure after the handover of sovereignty for many years broke out under the dispute over Article 23 of the Basic Law. The "July 1st Parade" of Hong Kong citizens. Since then, for Hong Kong citizens, demonstrations have gradually become a common way of political participation outside the district council and the Legislative Council. For Beijing, the "July 1st March" has allowed the central government to start tightening its loose policies towards Hong Kong again. At that time , the political spectrum of Hong Kong society was between -2 and 1.5 , and the protesters generally pointed at the then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and Security Secretary Ye Liu Shuyi, not the Beijing government. The most radical representative of the pan-democratic faction was Leung Kwok-hung. That was a time when yelling in front of the Legislative Council and burning the national flag was classified as the most "radical". "Long Mao" was elected to the Legislative Council for the first time in 2004. When taking the oath, he deliberately read the oath intermittently - "Allegiance to the People's Republic of China (Pause)" - and added "Power belongs to the people, long live the people, long live democracy" after the oath. In 2008, 2010, and 2012, "Long Hair" all took the oath in accordance with this law. In 2016, "Longhair" still followed the same steps, but was brought for judicial review by the Hong Kong government, and was later disqualified from the Legislative Council. It is not difficult to see that the political environment in Hong Kong is gradually deteriorating.

2008 was the biggest turning point in China-Hong Kong relations. A series of events, including the torch relay and the Beijing Olympics, greatly aroused Hong Kong people's understanding of "Chinese in a broad sense" ("Chinese" + "both Chinese and Hong Kong people"). recognition of this identity. According to the survey results of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in April 2008, even among young people aged 18-30, 41.5% of them identified themselves as "generalized Chinese" (compared to this data in 2014). only 9.5%). There were some voices of opposition when the torch was passed in Hong Kong, but there were very few respondents overall. After the May 12 earthquake, the Hong Kong government allocated 9 billion Hong Kong dollars, and the private sector even raised 13 billion Hong Kong dollars. Statistics show that 95% of Hong Kong people have donated to the earthquake.

But high patriotic enthusiasm and identity took a turn for the worse at the end of 2008. Hong Kongers found that under the fig leaf of the Olympics, China's rule of law and speech conditions had further deteriorated. The founder of Charter 08, Liu Xiaobo, was accused of "inciting subversion of state power." He was sentenced to 18 years for his name; the "tofu dregs" engineering problem revealed behind the May 12 earthquake was also of concern to Hong Kong people. "Subvert state power" was detained. On the one hand, the report submitted by the Hong Kong Development Council to the Legislative Council showed that of the 126 post-earthquake reconstruction projects that Hong Kong dispatched technicians to inspect, 76 failed to meet the standards. caused an uproar.

If Liu Xiaobo and the bean curd slag project can still be seen from the shore, the melamine poisoned milk powder incident has made Hong Kong people feel more and more painful - a total of 5 people in Hong Kong have been victimized by the presence of Chinese milk powder with excessive melamine on the shelves. The practice of sentencing on the grounds of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" further aroused dissatisfaction among Hong Kong people. Of course, the biggest impact of the poisoned milk powder incident on Hong Kong people is that a large number of Chinese people have begun to snap up Hong Kong milk powder. At this moment, Hong Kong's political spectrum is about -2.3 to 1.9 . Another evidence is that in the Lee Tung Street Movement (2005), the Star Ferry Terminal (2006) and the Queen's Wharf Preservation Movement (2007), and the Anti-High Speed ​​Rail Movement (2008-2010), even though these victims were victims of the development of the China-Hong Kong integration harm, but still avoid blaming China during the protests. Even in the most radical of the anti-high-speed rail movement, protesters are emphasizing their support for integration with the mainland, but only against the details of the location.

In 2012, when Xi Jinping took office, Leung Chun-ying became the chief executive, and the Liaison Office of the People's Republic of China intervened in Hong Kong affairs in a high-profile manner . In September 2012, the "Anti-National Religion Movement" emerged. The government intends to implement education on national identity in 2012, but the pan-democrats generally believe that this is "brainwashing". With the adjustment of the CCP's policy towards Hong Kong, the official attitude has become more and more tough, the political environment has become more and more repressive, and the opposition of Hong Kong people has become more and more loud. It needs to be emphasized that even when Huang Zhifeng led the "anti-national religious movement", he declared his identity as Chinese.

The "Umbrella Movement" in 2014 was the largest civil disobedience movement in Hong Kong after the handover of sovereignty in 1997, with about 1.2 million people participating. On August 31, 2016, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the "Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the issue of universal suffrage for the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the method for the formation of the Legislative Council in 2016", which does not allow Hong Kong citizens and political parties to nominate candidates for chief executive; the Legislative Council Proportional representation is preserved. The resolution of the National People's Congress has caused strong dissatisfaction and deep disappointment among Hong Kong citizens. On September 22, the "Hong Kong Federation of Post-secondary Students" and "Scholarism" launched a class strike. The strike continued until September 26, but all demands were rejected, so the activity was upgraded to "Recapture the Citizen's Square" for two days. The police in China repeatedly suppressed, used batons, pepper spray, and dropped a total of 87 tear gas canisters (in contrast, on November 18, 2019, when the police besieged PolyU, 1,458 tear gas canisters were dropped), and they used force to clear the area. Arrested 12 activists, including Wong Chi-fung. It is worth mentioning that in the early stage of the Umbrella Movement, "He Lifei" was still the main voice. Even after Leung Chun-ying refused to reject the students' demands again on the evening of October 2, the Students' Federation still adopted a moderate line and put forward a carefully worded statement - emphasizing (1) "political reform is the only issue" (not insisting on whether Leung Chun-ying resigns) ; (2) "supporting the framework of one country, two systems" (this protest is not the pursuit of independence); (3) "Hong Kong settlement of the Hong Kong issue" (will not spread the protest movement to other cities in China).

The most radical long-haired Leung Kwok-hung at the time was already regarded as a member of the "conservatives" and "harmonious" in the late stage of the "Umbrella Movement". Hong Kong's political spectrum has tended to be polarized, and the tear has intensified. After the "Umbrella and Umbrella", four Hong Kong universities voted to withdraw from the Federation of Students. The Federation was seen as "misleading" or even "betraying" the movement. Ironically, despite the fact that the Federation has long tried to challenge the dictatorship of the CCP, the disintegration of the Federation did not come from pressure from the pro-Beijing camp. Instead, many students involved in the movement felt that the Federation was not brave enough to truly challenge the Beijing government. The police violence in the "Umbrella Movement" and the questioning of the effect of the "Helifei" parade gave birth to the concept of "valiant resistance". Years of political pressure and the ever-intensifying conflict between China and Hong Kong have also made the "localists" more radical than the traditional pan-democrats. "started on the political stage. Hot-blooded citizens are a typical local group. After the movement, they published "The Failure of the Umbrella", which recorded in detail the crimes committed by "Zuo Jiao" during the movement. They believed that the reason for the failure of the "Umbrella Revolution" was not only The regime’s repression is also due to “the mainstream media’s smearing, and they have to face the Fan Min (Pan-Democratic), Zuo Jiao, and Occupy Central three sons, all of which are held back.” And the Umbrella Movement activists also argued that the passionate citizens For the "hot dog", many people believe that Beijing's secret assistance is behind the hot-blooded citizens, the purpose of which is to create an internal conflict in the yellowing camp. At this time, the political spectrum of Hong Kong is about -2.5 to 2.5 .

3. JB

1. There are two shooting methods for documentaries. The first shooting method is traditional. It is shot and reassembled according to the order of time and space. It tries to narrate the reality that has happened. Guided by this methodology, montage is about producing a single meaning in a more accessible and dramatic way. Eisenstein had a dialectic about the language of images, which was interpreted as a revolutionary dialectic under the official ideology of the Soviet Union, serving the ideological propaganda of socialism and realism in the Soviet Union. This montage is about producing more meaning, trying to give class consciousness to the working class. In 1930, Eisenstein came to Paris and gave a lecture at the Sorbonne, summarizing the methodology of Soviet cinema. Of course, this lecture was officially shut down because it was too reactionary. What montage essentially creates is not the continuity of the image, but the tearing of the image and the conflict between the shots. The second method of making documentaries is to use conflicting images to form a complete film. The split-screen images in Godard's "Goodbye Language" actually appeared in the game very early, but in the video, Godard used this very The drastic way to reorganize the material actually provides us with a second logic for making a documentary.

2. Jiang did not mention just now, "Hong Kong has freedom but no democracy, as it has always been." But in fact, not just Hong Kong, nor the United Kingdom, nor the United States has democracy - this is David Graeber's point of view, I have read Graeber's book very carefully, we can see that the "Federal Party" of the founding of the United States In the Collected Works, the word democracy does not appear in it, but it talks about how the federal government can monopolize power, how to manage vast land, how to conduct some international commercial trade under the guidance of the government, and how to fight against Spain. , UK and France.

The regimes of most countries existed in the form of monopolizing power, confronting foreign enemies, and pacifying internal strife at the beginning of their establishment . The so-called "freedom" is talked about more under the framework of neoliberalism, and this freedom is not actually "people's freedom", but the freedom of "capital circulation", which is the freedom of the US dollar hegemony in the world. , individual freedom may only be an accessory to the operation of capital. The so-called "democracy", now we may think that the right to vote is democracy, and the representative system is democracy. Britain first appeared in Britain in the 18th century. The bourgeoisie, and the common people, have no real suffrage and various other political rights. Americans have done a very great thing, they combined representation and democracy, during the Cold War to counter Stalin's ideology of totalitarianism, Americans advertised their system as democracy, so we now have democracy equivalent to representative the opinion of.

3. Before Hong Kong, it was possible to legally march and demonstrate, but now it may not be possible, or in name it is possible, but in fact it is not possible for various reasons. As Chinese people, when faced with such a thing, we will find a very absurd situation - we may not even have the freedom to go to the street, unless you go to the street to consume . But if a group of people are in the same place at the same time, even just spending may be questioned by the police. In China, you can't even protest, you can't go to the streets, even if there are only one or two people, you will be questioned immediately. To a certain extent, the same is true for schools and universities. Students may have some dissatisfaction with the school's management policies and put forward some opinions, and they will immediately be judged by the school as premeditated, organized, and manipulated by forces behind them. , the public security organs will intervene immediately. Under someone's re-election, Hong Kong's future may not be too far from this. In such a situation, how else can we participate in politics, how can we participate in democracy?

In "Revolution of the Times", one of the things that left a deep impression on me is that when the marching crowd rushed into the Legislative Council, they occupied the Legislative Council, but the Legislative Council was empty. In the end, some people want to leave, some people want to stay, those who stay believe that the occupation has some kind of symbolic meaning, occupying a center of power; those who leave think that the occupation does not make much sense. This just illustrates a thorny reality - what we think of as the center of power is actually empty, and there is no object for us to fight against and bring down. We're dealing with a whole system that has police violence, government violence, and a fake legislative process.

We know that the biggest humanitarian disaster right now may not be in Ukraine, but in China, because according to Taiwanese media, there are 340 million people under lockdown in China. I have a lot of friends who are in Shanghai and have seen the information they posted, including the police welding iron gates; in places far from the city center, some police officers will use very violent means to subdue a citizen who may not be doing anything. In addition to these very obvious violence, there are also some "medical violence" like Zhong Nanshan and Zhang Wenhong. They use the banner of science, but their "science" serves the country. Zhang Wenhong may be a more extreme one. situation, he can let you choose a more decent and comfortable way in this large concentration camp, that's all, but in fact he is the worst person in the concentration camp because he provides a false statement about the concentration camp Illusion, "Science" became the official platform. The situation is different in France, where there are a lot of anti-intellectual anti-vaccine people who think there are 5G chips in the vaccine and all kinds of weird stuff.

Going back to China, I think China's crony capitalism is a more powerful and advanced capitalism, and its capital is directly combined with power . For example, if the government wants to develop a piece of land, the capitalists act as the executors of the government to bid for and forcibly expropriate some land for civilian use. In this process, the capitalists can borrow money from the people and the government. A form of domination in which a lot of people are in debt for buying a home. Of course, there is a similar situation in the United States. Graber mentioned in the book that many of the participants in the street movement are female college students. They are burdened with a lot of student debt because they cannot afford to go to college. Because of these debts, they have to go to college. up the road for sex workers/senior escorts.

Most young people are in debt for the house, which itself is a financial derivative - the house may have been sold before it was built. The development of this kind of financial derivatives is the bankruptcy of Evergrande. The bankruptcy of Evergrande is because it has created a large number of Ponzi schemes. It is an empty shell like Evergrande's electric car, but in the name of producing electric cars, It can get huge investment from the government, and it can roam the edge of the law to raise money illegally. In fact, the entire financial industry in China is a Ponzi scheme, but some bubbles have not been burst for the time being, and the state machine is still barely maintaining; some high-tech industries in China also have Ponzi schemes, and some companies rely on some Existing fake technologies are listed or won the support of certain policies; those who care about Chinese football will find that the Chinese football industry is also a Ponzi scheme, and the Chinese Super League is also unsustainable under the influence of the epidemic; the academic circle is also a Ponzi scheme, if you Doing philosophical research in mainland China is either going towards a very traditional and conservative Confucianism, or towards Marxism, which is a platform for the country, or doing some fake philosophy that no one can understand. Young people who are full of yearning, in a way that is almost PUA, these young people have to stay - the first class teacher will tell you, "You are very bad, you don't understand anything, only we understand", "but you guys So bad, we still want to keep you, because we have the ability to turn you into a person who understands everything, you will become a person who understands ancient Greek, understands Latin, understands everything but doesn't understand politics." This It also caused the entire university to be in a form of "enclosure and self-motivation". Everyone closed the door and worked behind closed doors. When we encountered key problems, we avoided opening, shouting two positive energy slogans and selling cute. The same is true of the domestic art industry, at least the art market, including a very symbolic event in the closure of Shanghai. In the West Bund Art Museum in Xuhui Riverside, the West Bund Art Museum, which Macron personally signed during his visit to China and signed the agreement with the Pompidou counterpart, has now become After the Fangcang shelter hospital, the West Bund Art Museum is not closed for artworks, but some positive patients. In a sense, the art museum and the Fangcang shelter hospital are almost the same, but the current art museum displays viruses and nakedness. state power . It completely shreds the ambiguous cultural veil of Shanghai in the past few years-the kind that everyone will meet to go to high-end art museums every month to see exhibitions, many of them studied art history from Sorbonne and other majors, returned to China to cheat money, but they said nothing. The atmosphere of a curator who doesn't understand.

In the process of violence, these financial systems were established. In the face of such a situation, I personally think that it is unrealistic to go to the streets. You may be arrested before you go to the streets. A better way may be a conspiracy In this way, everyone joins the Party and becomes a civil servant, replacing the original people with people like us. State power is actually very weak, and many things are actually carried out by capitalists or technocrats, and in the process of execution, state power has actually been weakened. Power replaced. Like Putin, we see that he is actually weak, and that weakness is not just financial, power, but probably physical, cancer, and mental issues—the rulers eventually show up Such a problem - he thinks that he rules everything, manages everything, and can handle everything himself, but living in this unrealistic fantasy can only lead to his schizophrenia in the end. So I think a possible way is for everyone to become civil servants and technocrats, so as to replace such a system that still exists on the surface.

During the epidemic, the power of many countries has continued to expand, including France. In fact, Macron's power has also expanded rapidly. He secretly disbanded the original scientific committee and replaced it with his own people to demonstrate the feasibility of vaccines. We'll leave the science out of it for now, but the sovereign intervenes directly in such a very violent form. China's closure of the city has actually pierced this layer of window paper. Shanghai is actually the largest concentration camp, which completely exposed what the country is all about. In fact, we are not too far from slavery, and we are not too far from being in debt. , we are not too far from the concentration camp.

La Commune de Pavachol (la Commune de Pavachol) is a Chinese offline salon based in Paris, based on the present, discussing art. We believe that salons should not only take place in the living room on the Left Bank, but also on the street and on-site, and should take place wherever there is spark.

The next discussion content of the Bavashaw Commune will be "Documenta" and "Venice Biennale". Friends who are interested in participating in the discussion or providing a space for discussion are welcome to contact us (Telegrame: @nousnesommesrien)