Defiance: A Photographic Documentary of Hong Kong’s Awakening

Title: Defiance: A Photographic Documentary of Hong Kong’s Awakening

Photographer(s): Various photographers

Writer(s): Keith Richburg, Liu Kin-ming

Designer(s): Sam Walmsley

Publisher(s): Rock Lion, Hong Kong

Year: 2020

Print run:

Language(s): English, Chinese

Pages: 222

Size: 26 x 34 cm

Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket

Edition:

Print: Paramount printing, Hong Kong

Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: Hong Kong,2019

ISBN: 978-988-74582-4-1

Defiance is a work of photojournalism documenting major events in the 2019 protests in both Cantonese and English, corroborated with a wide range of photographs of street protests in thick tear gas. Some images capture the lack of professionalism of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) in handling the Anti-ELAB protests, contradicting their claims of being restrained and always using appropriate force; for instance, when an anti-riot police officer strikes his baton on a detained protester’s head (p. 80), when a police officer aims a canister of pepper spray directly at the face of peaceful civilians who were video-recording him (p. 82-3), or when another officer armed with a crowd-control rifle provokes protesters from a distance with hand gestures (p. 87). Another case in point that is well-illustrated in the book is the HKPF’s handling of the Yuen Long 21 July 2019 mob attack. While the authorities claimed that the HKPF did not notice any irregular activities that might have led to the violent clash that night, photo evidence in the book shows police conversing with mobsters in white T-shirts holding bamboo rods prior to the incident (p. 141), corroborating allegations of police-mob collusion.