1984 by George Orwell.
I remember I was still in my Grade 11 year the first time I read this book. I was enrolled in the IB program, and it was one of those books that we must “study” in order to pass the course. It’s not just simply reading the book, but we had to identify and analyze the symbols, plots, characters etc in every little detail. Because we had to read the book over and over in the process of completing homework, and preparing to write essays, some of those recurring themes and symbols became so integrated in the daily conversations among classmates – speaking in the most casual ways about “Big Brother is watching you”, the Party, Room 101, Ministry of Love…
Honestly, back then, English subject in school is never my strength nor my favourite, and I’ve never really gotten along well with literature. Sometimes looking at my notes with highlights and remarks all over the place, I even wonder, are we over-analyzing the author’s intention? Do those small details, the choice of words, the metaphor identified, really mean something when the authors or poets wrote them? Well, there’s no way to verify. The point is, I did not treat 1984 any differently than the other Shakespeare’s literature I had to read – it’s just something I needed to read to pass this course.
Growing up in a very safe environment in Hong Kong, and later even a safer and more peaceful environment in Canada, it’s probably normal not to be able to relate to anything described in 1984. I do recall quite vividly what took place in room 101, thinking it was quite disgusting to have a cage of mice at your face. Also, torture here is not the physical violence that we imagine or seen in movies. There was no violence involved, but by accurately grasping one’s greatest fear, it was more than sufficient to create a torturing scene immediately.
Fast forward to 2019, I bought this book and re-read it towards the end of the year, in the midst of on-going political movement. This time, 1984 is not just a story or some homework. What I feel most strongly about are the control of history and information, Physical control, and mind control.
Propaganda can be very powerful in brainwashing people and controlling the Just in the past 1 – 2 years, we are witnessing school syllabus and textbooks being modified to avoid speaking about parts of the history. To introduce National Security Law in campus, there’s even a newly established “National Security Education Day”, though in 2021, only less than less than 50% of schools participated. We also saw media gradually being controlled, journalists being challenged, content of a certain kind is being banned. In the future, will all information we received – past, present, or future – be controlled by the government? Just like “the Ministry of Truth”?
From 2019 – 2020, there has numerous mass arrest in various occasions, til now there are over 10K of arrests that are related to the 2019 political movement, and only ~20% are undergoing judicial proceeding (it says something about the evidence at the time of arrest). The arrestees are physically present for different purposes, some were there for a legal protest or assembly, some were just people who passed by the street where protest were taking place, others might just be trying to go home – but it doesn’t matter if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. And being detained for up to 48 hours, doesn’t matter if you have done anything wrong, can be a very haunting and intimidating experience. Mass arrest is definitely a method to gradually lower opposing voices by lowering people’s risk tolerance. What’s more, the message to the population has become something like this “any opposing voices / attempt to raise opposing opinions, will be under the risk of being arrest”.
“Big Brother is watching you” – the famous quote in the book. Only later found out that Big Brother is a non-existent character, but an important “symbol” of totalitarianism. There have been a number of events that have led to heated discussion about surveillance by Chinese government, people switching to Telegram, Signal, avoid using the government’s “Leave home safe” app – under the fear of potential surveillance by the government (and we don’t really have a way to find out whether it is true). Besides, there seems to be no way of finding out when an action or words violate the national security law. Once I even heard that there are people who think sitting in courts to support democratic representatives would violate some laws. Will opposing “thoughts” one day also become a crime here?
What’s scary is that, all these changes do not happen overnight. It happens, sometimes without people even realizing. Or we realize, but do not pay much attention because there’s no immediate impact to our daily lives.
I’ve never been so close to any political movement until 2019, I guess it did somehow change my life. Since I was a kid, I have been surrounded by the idea that “get a second identity and leave Hong Kong if you can”. And so we did, immigrated to Canada, but of course came back because of career growth opportunities (not so much because I saw HK as home). So 2019 is probably the first time I realized a great number of population have strong sense of attachment to this city, and perhaps I shouldn’t forget this is where I spent majority of my life too.
And if you haven’t had a chance to read 1984, highly recommend to do so.
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