The pro-democracy protest group known as “Gau Wu” — Mandarin for “shopping” — celebrated its 1,000 day anniversary on Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mong Kok on Monday evening.
The nightly demonstration began after the Mong Kok site of the pro-democracy Occupy protests was cleared in November 2014.
The events were nicknamed “shopping protests” because demonstrators claimed they were in Mong Kok to shop, in response to then-chief executive Leung Chun-ying urging people to help small business in the district affected by the protests.
Why have #Occupyhk ppl gone “shopping” in Mong Kok?
B/c of this call earlier from HK chief: http://t.co/OysCKRvW55 pic.twitter.com/eildNN6MAj— Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) November 26, 2014
On Monday evening, the street in Mong Kok was flooded with yellow banners and umbrellas — a symbol of the Occupy protests.
A cake and a roasted pig were also shared to mark the occasion.
A forum was also held to discuss the future of Hong Kong democracy.
Among those in attendance were activist Ken Tsang, People Power’s Tam Tak-chi and Ray Chan, and ousted lawmaker Edward Yiu.
“These 1000 days — around three years — have not been easy at all,” Tsang said at the event.
Tsang said that there were times when the police would give the demonstrators a hard time, or counter-protesters would provoke them, but everyone still kept going. He expressed his admiration for their persistence.
“However, I do not wish to see ‘Gau Wu’ celebrate its 2,000th or 3,000th day anniversary — I hope that we will have genuine universal suffrage [as soon as possible]… I hope Hongkongers will live peacefully and happily, and they will not have to endure hardship every day in the fight for democracy.”
The group raised their yellow umbrellas at 9:28pm, alluding to September 28, 2014 when the Occupy protests began.
They also chanted slogans such as “I want true universal suffrage” and “Release the political prisoners” — a reference to the three Occupy activists and 13 northeast New Territories protesters that were jailed by the court last week.
Previously, during its 300-day commemoration event in 2015, scuffles broke out between protesters and counter-protesters, leading to four arrests.
