Embracing the angel: Reading Shirley Geok-lin Lim's Hong Kong poetry with Hannah Arendt's the human condition

To begin with, I will share two personal experiences. In August 2000, I paid a research visit to the University of Hong Kong. In the main library, I tried to seek help from a work-study student about making photocopies. To my surprise, the student, a local Hong Konger, did not speak Mandarin and as I, a native Taiwanese, did not speak Cantonese, we two Chinese ended up communicating in English. Later, in October 2014, I had a stopover in Hong Kong on my way to a conference in Mainland China. During my short stay, I made time to visit the site where the protestors driving the Umbrella Movement (sometimes also known as the Umbrella Revolution or the Occupation Movement) were gathered. Knowing that the Occupation Movement was a momentous political event already drawing international attention, I thought it would be easy to find the location. After getting off the subway train at the Admiralty stop and before exiting to the street, I asked for direction from commuters to find the right exit. First, I approached a woman in uniform, a government official working at the subway station. On hearing my question, she waved me off and said she had no idea about the protests. Next, I tried one who looked like an office employee. To my surprise, he gave me the same answer. Baffled, I then asked a high school student. He gave me a look as if I had asked a dumb question: "Just up there," he said matter-offactly. I took his advice and exited the station and saw rows and rows of umbrellas on Harcourt Road. It was then that the power of authoritarian control over Hong Kong people suddenly dawned on me.