SCMP
It’s Han time – not going to go down well in HK we’d suggest.
HONG KONG – A Hong Kong group promoting Cantonese language preservation shut down on Monday after police said an essay it posted online had breached a Beijing-imposed national security law, according to the group’s founder.
The Hong Kong Language Learning Association was set up in 2013 to support the preservation of Cantonese and safeguard the “linguistic rights” of Hong Kongers.
Spoken by the vast majority of Hong Kongers, Cantonese is distinct from the Mandarin spoken in mainland China.
Association founder Andrew Chan said in a statement he decided to “cease all operations of the Hong Kong Language Learning Association, effective immediately, in order to ensure the safety of my family and former members”.
According to Mr Chan, Hong Kong’s national security police searched his family home on Aug 22 while he was out of town, and demanded the removal of an online article “alleging a violation of the National Security Law”.
The law, imposed in 2020 by Beijing after massive and at times violent democracy protests in Hong Kong, has effectively quelled all dissent in the territory – silencing the opposition camp and civil rights groups.
The article in question on the association’s website was a fictional short story depicting a future, culturally assimilated Hong Kong, written by a third party and entered into a 2020 writing competition held by the group.
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