Among the Braves Audiobook Libro.fm

Through the eyes of two frontline journalists comes a gripping narrative history of the Hong Kong prodemocracy movement centered around a cast of core activists culminating in the 2019 mass protests and Beijings brutal crackdown

Hong Kong was an experiment in governance Handed back to China in 1997 after 156 years of British rule it was meant to be a carveout between hostile systems a bridge between communism and capitalism authoritarianism and liberal democracy One country two systems kept its media free its courts independent and its protests boisterous designed also to convince Taiwan of a peaceful solution to Beijings desire for reunification

Yet this formulation excluded Hong Kongs own people their future negotiated by political titans in faraway capitals In 2019 an illconceived law spearheaded by a sycophantic leader pushed millions to take to the streets in one of the most enduring protest movements the world has ever seen Xi Jinping responded with a draconian national security law that sought not only to end the demonstrations but quash the problem of Hong Kongers identity and desire for freedom

Reverend Chu who believed Hong Kong had to carry the spirit of students at Tiananmen Square saw his silverhaired comrades who birthed the citys modern prodemocracy movement handcuffed and taken from their homes Tommy an art student radicalized into throwing Molotov cocktails watched braves like him brutalized by police before his own arrest prompted him to flee Finn epitomized the decentralized nature of the movement and its internetfueled victories but online anonymity couldnt stop his life from unravelling Gwyneth could predict her eventual fate when she chose to give up her career as a journalist to stand for election as an opposition candidate and did it anyway

In Among the Braves Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin tell the story of Hong Kongs past and what the sacrifices of its people mean for global democracys shaky foundation