Greetings, my fellow citizens.
I am Joshua Wong, founder of Scholarism.
The warning light of Hong Kong's political system is flashing red.
At 9:30, Joshua made his speech,
and we are getting ready for Joshua to lead us.
I feel so sick.
You know, when you can't breathe,
because you're too nervous.
A crowd of 1500 is more than I expected here today.
I want to know, where are the adults?
No matter what the price,
we can't dump this on the next generation.
This generation must complete our mission!
Now let's go take Civic Square together!
Have you been to Mr. Siu's class?
Can I see your paper?
No, he hasn't given the paper back yet.
Oh, he hasn't graded it yet?
Before I was involved in politics I was just a normal student, a normal kid.
I went to school, put effort in my studies, but those days are now gone.
Instead of just focusing on GPA,
why don't we try to care about the city that we live
and the city that we love?
Hello, Hong Kong.
We are Scholarism, a student organization.
Please take two seconds and sign your name
to demand the government withdraw National Education.
Defend freedom of thought.
Oppose brainwashing education.
The mainstream and the teachers just teach us,
if you become an accountant or doctor,
or even you become the management trainee of the investment bank,
you gain a successful life and future.
However, instead of asking society to define what is success,
I would just ask why I can't define what is valuable for myself
and what is important for the society?
It's the time for us to show our disagreement
against interference from the Communist Party of China.
I founded Scholarism when I was 14 years old.
What we hope to do is just demand
for freedom of mind and freedom of speech.
To show our disagreement to brainwashing education.
When I founded Scholarism, I knew it was important to recruit members.
I met Derek because actually we knew each other
from the Christian fellowship in our high school.
and join the fight against the National Education?"
China is a rising darkness
that destroys the things in Hong Kong.
But if you want to defeat Darth Vader, then you have to train some Jedi.
We are totally not Chinese people.
We are unique.
Hong Kong people is Hong Kong people.
Bruce Lee is Hong Kong people.
Hong Kong is the place that I'm born, I live, and the place that I love.
And the future of Hong Kong should be decided by Hong Kongers
instead of the Chinese government.
The first time for me to meet CY Leung
is in March of 2012 because he organized a Facebook event,
and if your post under that Facebook event can get the highest number of likes,
you can get a chance to meet with CY Leung.
I just shared to my Facebook and shared to Scholarism's Facebook page.
And finally, I get around a few thousand likes
and I can meet CY Leung and ask him,
"Why do you still need to implement the National Education?"
Hello, CY Leung.
I'm Joshua Wong and a sophomore.
Maybe you find it odd that students show up at an event like this.
And we have exams, too.
Actually, I have one tomorrow.
We are from Scholarism, the alliance against National Education.
What's the name?
Scholarism.
CY Leung just responded, "Oh, what is Scholarism?
I haven't heard this name before."
And he pretend that Scholarism is not a matter for him.
What do you have in mind?
We demand the government withdraw National Education
and the brainwashing curriculum.
What are your reasons?
It says you'll get good grades if your answers match the government's view.
If you cry when the Chinese flag is raised,
you'll get a better grade.
Does it really say that?
Yes.
CY Leung was not interested to what I say about National Education.
He just thinks I'm a troublemaker.
Why is it sagging?
Testing. One. Two.
Hello, citizens of Hong Kong.
We are Scholarism, the group against National Education.
We have to spend a lot of time campaigning in different neighborhoods.
Every day we have to hand out flyers.
I didn't realize it would be so hard.
Please take a look at our leaflet.
It's really unusual for students to distribute leaflets on the street.
We're just trying to push forward to gain more people's support.
But the problem is we still haven't grabbed the general public's awareness.
I remember that I visited a poor family when I'm 13 years old.
While I visited them, we would preach the gospel
and also pray for them because I'm a Christian.
And one year later, I went back to that family and visited them again.
During that moment, I just realized that
just trying to pray for them would not bring the change.
It's necessary for us to change by action.
Only independent thinking is the truth!
It's been a long day for everyone.
We'd like to thank everyone for participating in Scholarism's rally.
What are you demanding from the government?
We demand the government withdraw National Education.
We can't have Communist China dictating what is taught in Hong Kong schools.
Will you act more radically in the future to stop them?
That depends on the government's response.
If the government insists on implementing National Education,
Scholarism will have to consider our next steps.
Yeah, the video really makes us very popular.
And over a hundred students applied and say, "Oh, we want to join you
and we want to join the fight against the National Education."
Sit down. Let's start the meeting.
Forget about pouring water.
Everyone has to be more serious.
President, why would we be serious?
If you are serious about your position, then lead the meeting.
How is everyone?
My name is Joshua Wong, and I'm the founder of this group.
I'm the one most newspapers have written about.
I'm Derek Lam.
I'm studying at United Christian College.
I'm repeating my senior year.
What's your job in Scholarism?
Making jokes.
He's responsible for announcing through the loudspeaker.
According to the procedure, everyone should introduce themselves.
I'm Agnes Chow.
Tonight, our guest is Joshua Wong.
He's everywhere these days.
If you don't know him, you will after this show.
Scholarism must take all of your time.
It's true. I feel like I'm working on Scholarism full-time lately.
I always forget that you're still a student.
How do you balance your time?
When I'm not on Facebook dealing with Scholarism, I'm studying.
My grades are not too bad.
It's impossible that your grades aren't bad!
Are you in a relationship?
No, because I focus on my work.
My mom keeps telling me not to date until college.
I should focus on studying now.
Everyone values youth, but there's a difference
between how China and Hong Kong value youth.
Youth in China do everything their country tells them to do.
They are one with the country.
But you're different.
You encourage people to go on the street, to protest, to be radical,
to object to National Education.
Our situation makes it necessary.
If the government didn't push for National Education,
I wouldn't ask people to join us
and there wouldn't be these interviews.
Allowing the Communist Party to create our curriculum is a huge problem.
The attitude of the police forces is quite negative towards the activists.
The policemen will come and ask a lot of questions.
Which organization are you from?
We are an organization called Scholarism.
You aren't going to have a rally here?
No, we definitely won't.
Of course our regime and government try to scare us
from not joining social movement.
But I think, as an activist,
one of the things which is very important for us
is not to be scared.
You don't have to surround us with so many officers.
We're here every day.
We'll leave if nothing's happening.
It's cool. Continue.
It's really ridiculous for the policemen to come and tell the activists that,
"We want to protect you. That's why we keep our eyes on you."
Because what they want to do is just protect the ruling class
instead of the grassroots in Hong Kong.
Defend freedom of thought!
Withdraw National Education!
Today we've successfully occupied government headquarters.
We have over 100 Scholarism members, citizens and volunteers gathered here.
What we're fighting for is plain and simple.
We hope that the next generation will have freedom.
Do you worry about the police using force?
The police do not need to use force.
Scholarism insists on being peaceful, rational and nonviolent.
So, we hope the police can also be peaceful, rational and nonviolent.
We are occupying a public area outside of the government headquarters.
And we named that place Civic Square.
I feel really excited, but I also feel a bit nervous
because of the people's expectations of me and Scholarism.
Around 6:30 in the morning, someone woke me up
and told me that CY Leung come to the square.
It's the second time for me to have the discussion with the chief executive.
These students are not camping out for fun.
Why are you neglecting the public's opinion?
This is a three-year initiation period.
Scholarism objects to National Education's "initiation period."
If we agree on the initiation period,
it means that we agree with setting up National Education.
I'd like to ask if it's possible to launch the initiation period
but not launch the actual National Education?
These questions can be discussed in the committee.
Visiting the students should not be done
just a few days before starting the initiation period.
We are really disappointed by that.
Unfortunately, it seems that he just hoped to do a PR show
instead of really having a conversation with us.
During the first days, I was quite depressed.
Only a few people come to support us.
Water seeps into the tents, but the students won't give up.
We don't want the next generation in Hong Kong
to have to study National Education.
Joshua, school starts in a few days.
What is your plan?
If CY Leung doesn't withdraw National Education before September 3rd,
even though we have to go back to school,
we will carry on and continue to fight.
When I wake up, there is only 10 or 20 people inside the square.
There seems to be no hope.
But a miracle happened.
Joshua Wong!
Keep it up!
Scholarism!
Keep it up!
More and more people come to the square.
In the past few days, there were not many protesters.
But today we've successfully filled government headquarters.
We have over 4000 people here.
They're even blocking the roads.
The movement is for all people!
With no fear!
Occupy the government headquarters!
Escalate the movement!
All people occupying government headquarters!
Immediately withdraw the curriculum!
I hope people can shout this last slogan as loudly as possible.
CY Leung!
Withdraw the curriculum!
CY Leung!
Withdraw the curriculum!
Thank you, Joshua Wong!
We are willing to speak with our friends
who oppose National Education.
But the premise of our conversation can't be just withdraw or not withdraw.
At that moment, I'm really disappointed with them.
Tonight is our "black clothes" rally.
Come to the government headquarters and join our protest.
We can put pressure on the government through the power of numbers.
We have faith that we'll have more people tonight than we've ever had before.
We've occupied government headquarters for nine days.
Tonight we've completely filled the plaza!
We've completely filled a four-lane road!
We've filled the pedestrian bridges! We've filled the park!
I believe a miracle is about to happen.
The turning point is here!
We are making history!
Withdraw National Education!
Our preliminary numbers show
we have 120,000 people here!
One hundred twenty thousand!
It just explode our mind!
And I just think, "Wow, this is amazing!"
We did it.
A group of high school students stand in the front line
and forced the Communist regime to step backward.
We are part of the Hong Kong history.
If you had asked me a year ago, I wouldn't have believed it.
We are a low-profile family.
We don't want to be famous.
Joshua is not trying to be famous.
We all said, "This is a miracle."
So amazing!
How could this really happen?
They say it's the first social movement to achieve its goal
since the Handover in 1997.
And it was the only one
initiated by high school students.
The lesson that we learned in the anti-National Education movement is
students can also make change in the society.
Finally, we showed the power of social movement
and showed the power of people to our regime.
I feel a bit happy,
but still a bit afraid,
because we just won one battle but not the whole war.
President Xi should let Hong Kong achieve universal suffrage.
We have waited for this promise for more than 18 years already.
What is our hope?
Our hope is that from today onwards,
Hong Kong is entering a new era.
We printed out leaflets, posters, Internet promotions,
and it was like a real election.
I kind of speculate that there might be 300,000 people voting,
and that might be the best figure we could get.
But things came out totally unexpected.
We got 800,000 people voting.
We knew the public was behind us.
The decision of the Chinese government today...
is so undemocratic and unjust!
Unjust!
We will fight to change this unjust system.
We're even willing
to sacrifice ourselves for it.
It has become clear that the time to compromise is gone.
It is time for total war!
Our parents say that joining this student strike will ruin our future.
But what sort of future will we have under the current political system?
Students need to show the adults
that they don't make all the rules.
Momentum is building up until the 26th of September.
We think, "Shall we occupy the Civic Square again?"
The retake of Civic Square was the most symbolic thing that we could do.
Greetings, my fellow citizens.
I am Joshua Wong, founder of Scholarism.
A crowd of 1500 is more than I expected here today.
At 9:30, Joshua make his speech,
and we are getting ready for Joshua lead us to reoccupy Civic Square.
No matter what the price,
we can't dump this on the next generation.
This generation must complete our mission!
Now let's go take Civic Square together!
There's a moment where you thought, "Wow, we are going to make some massive change.
And we are going to make history."
Joshua just ran off and jumped over the fence.
And suddenly there's a group of cops.
And then they just surround Joshua.
When I was arrested, I met Joshua in the police station.
I remember that he didn't have his glasses
and he even didn't have his shoes.
I feel really powerless because nothing I can do.
I'm still in the police station.
And I just hope every member of Scholarism are safe.
Free Joshua Wong!
I'm going to make a very important announcement.
It's a long-awaited one.
I announce that
Occupy Central is officially launched!
We are not trying to hijack the Occupy action.
We are just trying to mobilize people to join civil disobedience.
The problem is Benny Tai planned the Occupy action
to be a formal, organized activity.
Just like holding a concert or a ceremony.
But the participants of social movement is quite organic.
You can't force them to directly follow your rules and regulations.
Social movement is social movement.
The people scream.
It's just like the image of hell.
Everyone was choking.
We tried to hide, but nowhere to go.
The policemen always claim that they hope to protect the activists.
But if they want to protect us, why they would hurt us?
It's not Hong Kong anymore.
You've heard rumors like they would cut off Internet.
And rumors saying that the army is coming.
And as organizers, you have a huge responsibility
to the safety of the people.
Are we really ready to sacrifice?
I feel there's a lot of pressure after they used tear gas.
Because I'm the convener of Scholarism,
I should be responsible.
But this responsibility is too hard for me to bear.
It's a picture that no one could fully express with words.
Camps sprang up all over Hong Kong.
Central, Admiralty, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok.
The media began calling it Umbrella Movement or Umbrella Revolution
because lots of protesters, they used umbrellas
to resist the pepper spray from the police officers.
Being famous is just part of my job.
If you need to increase your influence,
if you need to let people to support your idea,
the first thing you need to do is to let others recognize you.
I think the government is quite naive
if they believe that
I will not continue to fight.
If we need to fight to achieve universal suffrage and democracy,
it's necessary to join into a long-term battle
towards the Communist Party of China.
It's hard to sleep on the road.
Every day it's hot and rainy.
I miss my bed and I miss the shower,
and I miss my mom's cooking.
But we were ready for however long it takes.
We believe in civil disobedience.
We believe in the principle of nonviolence.
We will stand firm until the last moment.
As an organizer, I was not prepared to be responsible
for such a huge movement.
There's no relevant experience in Hong Kong's history
that we could take reference from.
And we were just so tired.
But Joshua, he's a robot, because he could devote himself, like, 24/7.
For me, he's a very good person to learn from.
But sometimes I do not know how to...
How to become a friend of him.
He shows no emotions sometimes.
Some days I have cried and I think that I can't continue
or it's really tiring and I want to stop, but it's not the time to cry.
Because I have a commitment in this movement.
After two months, a part of the citizens started to feel very impatient,
and they wanted the whole thing to stop.
That kind of impatience motivated our government.
Please abide by the court order and leave immediately.
We have asked the police to help the bailiffs execute their duties.
The police saw me and pulled me out from the crowd.
They want us to stop the occupation.
But students do not agree on that.
So, we will continue.
No one can stop us.
The street clearance is coming,
and the goal of this movement seems to be blurred.
I hope to wake up all Hong Kong people and people around the world.
I want to reignite awareness of the Umbrella Movement.
The support is slipping away.
So, we have to call the people back again.
So, Joshua did a hunger strike.
My parents know, and I know it's really harmful to my body.
It's really tiring.
You will feel your body doesn't have any energy.
But we have to continue to show that the students will persist
to fight until the last minute.
Rebellion is not the way to achieve universal suffrage.
As I've said before, any kind of rebellious action is futile.
Eventually he stopped it.
He lasted to the very last moment that he could afford.
I think the lowest point is...
I see how people lost their hope in this movement.
If we cannot see any hope in the movement, the movement can't continue.
It's hard for me to accept the fact that the Occupy has ended.
Instead of solving the problem,
Xi Jinping just ignored the people who have raised the problem.
He just think that they need to use the style
of the authoritarian regime to rule Hong Kong.
I would like to thank you all for coming to support us in the early morning,
even when you may have to work.
We will update you guys on Scholarism's Facebook page.
In 2015, we will keep on fighting for political reform and true democracy.
I'm going in now.
Thank you so much.
After the Occupy movement ended,
I'm still having a lot of meetings with different people
and try to think about the next step to continue the movement.
But I still know that I could not turn back to a normal life.
I've been charged with inciting unauthorized assembly,
participating in unauthorized assembly,
obstructing a police officer, and contempt of court.
The maximum penalty is to be put into jail.
Mentally, I already expected to face the penalty,
maybe be put into prison,
but I'm not really ready for it actually.
Somebody needs to pay the price for the movement,
and I've already expected...
to pay this price.
I believe that in the Central Government there's a file that thick about me,
because we were the leaders of the movement.
We're afraid, and we're scared about this kind of issue happening again.
It's not really safe if you're an activist in Hong Kong.
My parents pretended they are not scared,
but I think...
they are worried about me, of course.
I can't ensure I will not be disappeared in the future.
But what I can do is to fight and to reduce the chance
for myself and my peers to be disappeared.
This one.
You can sit here.
Testing. One. Two.
Hi, everyone, we'll begin the press conference now.
Today's press conference is about the end of Scholarism.
Hi, everyone, I'm Derek, from Scholarism.
This is the last time for me to introduce myself in this way.
I hope when Scholarism's name is heard in the future,
people will recall some beautiful moments.
We were a bunch of kids fighting hard in the streets.
I understand that this news is hard to believe.
To be honest,
we've been discussing the end of Scholarism for a long time.
This is a difficult decision.
But for us, we cannot let sentimentality
decide the future of Scholarism.
Instead, we need to think rationally
about what political action is needed
for the future of Hong Kong.
Last summer we began discussing the future of Scholarism.
We discussed how a political party
and a student group could develop.
We are planning to launch a new political party
and planning to run in the election to get a seat in the Legislative Council
and to let the voice of the new generation to enter the institution.
The Umbrella Movement proved that if you only work on the street,
it's not enough,
because when you occupy the road,
the government will not give a shit about you.
If we really want to do the real protest, we have to stop the government.
And the way we can stop the government is to get into the Legislative Council.
We have a very clear political aim of fighting for Hong Kong
because we believe that Hong Kong people should have the right
to decide our own future.
I believe we can win a seat in the election.
Cheers to our wasted youth!
Each of us should say some sincere words to Joshua.
Why don't we play another game?
Shut up!
What should I say to Joshua?
You're a really shitty video-game player.
How can you be so bad at it?
You rarely beat me.
I met Joshua when I joined.
At the time I thought, why is this guy so arrogant?
Then I found that Joshua is a good guy to work with.
He's a trustworthy guy. He won't betray you.
I know this in my heart.
I'm really glad that I was a member of Scholarism before,
because if I did not enter Scholarism four years ago,
In Scholarism, I have a lot of good memories
and I have a lot of good experiences.
I guess it's time to start something new.
And we can't keep saying that "I'm a student and I am so pure."
Now we have to face the real politics.
It is a little bit sad, but it's just like growing to be an adult.
I believe that the government are really scared of the new generation,
because we are the ones who can really pressure the Chinese government.
The Chinese government is scared of us because we never give up,
and we have unlimited energy to fight against them.
It's Hong Kong.
And, yeah, we have to try to save it.
They can't stop all of us.