The six-month (and counting) long protests in Hong Kong have drawn comparisons with the student protests in Seoul a year before the 1988 Olympics. My dad and I flew to Seoul in June 1987 as the protests heated up. I was sixteen.
These are photos we took from our hotel. I can still conjure the stinging and dry sensation of tear gas. It’s something you never forget.
The political situation eventually changed in South Korea. I know the circumstances are different in Hong Kong, but can one hope that Hong Kong will one day see peace, too?
Yes HK will of course return to a peaceful existence but it won’t be a free and democratic one I cannot imagine, and never as free and exciting and liberating it once was!