PolyU moves away and confiscates demonstrators' statues

Social News

Written by: Hu Jiaxin

2020-06-13 20:05

In the first anniversary of the anti-revision incident, the PolyU Student Union recently placed a demonstrator-shaped statue in the campus building to commemorate it, but at 2:30 this afternoon, the school arranged for the security and school personnel to forcefully remove and confiscate the statue under the Student Union of the Unknown Society. During the transportation, severe damage was caused. The Student Union criticized the school’s actions to suppress students’ speech and academic freedom, and “can’t even hold an artwork”, urged the school to publicly explain the reasons for the removal of the statue, and demanded compensation and an apology from the school.

"Hong Kong 01" is inquiring to PolyU and is waiting for a reply.

The school has repeatedly opposed the placement of statues on security grounds

On Thursday (11th), the PolyU Student Union placed a statue in the shape of an anti-reformed demonstrator in the campus student union building, wearing a helmet and a gas mask, and holding the banner of "Recovering Hong Kong Times Revolution". However, the school has repeatedly opposed the placement of statues for safety reasons. Yesterday, it sent a school safety and environmental affairs office to investigate, and finally believed that the structure of the stone statues was safe. The student union also decided to display the statue publicly yesterday and is also applying for an exhibition permit.

However, at about 2:30 this afternoon, under the circumstances of the Student Union of the Unknown Society, the PolyU campus arranged for the security and school personnel to remove the statue. During the period, the statue was damaged and fragmented, and the statue was moved to the storage room of other buildings and locked. Zheng Qihao, the vice president of the Foreign Affairs of the Student Union, pointed out that he had asked the school staff when to return it.

PolyU Student Union: Can't even hold an artwork

Zheng Qihao pointed out that the statue was made by a group of conscientious students, and he hopes to display it in the student union building with frequent people. It will publicly commemorate the first anniversary of the anti-revision law. The school forcibly removed the statue, thinking that it suppresses students' speech and academic freedom. Even a piece of art can't be tolerated," the practice is unreasonable and disrespectful to students.

According to Chen Weixi, the director of the PolyU Student Union, the PolyU Student Union Building has been home to the “Statue of Democracy” since 2000. At that time, the school expressed dissatisfaction with this, but it did not remove the statue of the Minority. The statue can be permanently settled. However, the school is now violently interfering with the activities of the student union. Chen pointed out that the school is sensitive to the anti-amendment activities and the word "Hong Kong independence" on the campus, which is related to the legislation of the "National Security Act of the Hong Kong District". The two asked the school to publicly explain the reasons for the removal of the demonstrators' statue this time, and at the same time did not rule out the judicial process to claim compensation from the school.

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The PolyU Student Union launched the "Post it with You" activity earlier, allowing students to write their thoughts on the first anniversary of the resistance movement on post-it notes. According to the Facebook picture of the PolyU Student News editorial board, some people wrote words such as Hong Kong independence on the post-it notes, but all the related words were covered by the school with black paper.

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