Joshua Wong, the Hong Kong activist soon to visit the United States, was the unlikely hero of the Umbrella Movement that inspired hundreds of thousands to take over Hong Kong's streets for two months in 2014 calling for free elections.

Five years later, the 22-year-old is one of the most prominent faces in the city's leaderless pro-democracy movement, often seen on rallies, locked up by police and individually called out by the Chinese government.

Scrawny, with gaunt features and a studious frown, Wong has now taken his fight around the globe, recently meeting with politicians in Taiwan, holding talks in Berlin with the German foreign minister, and has speaking engagements scheduled in the United States.

Since Hong Kong's mass protests began earlier this year, he has been in and out of custody and was among several high-profile activists rounded up in August, a day before the fifth anniversary of Beijing's rejection of a call for universal suffrage in the city which sparked the 79-day Umbrella Movement.

The arrests were seen as a chilling warning to the current movement.

- Activist at 13 -

Wong spearheaded the Umbrella protests alongside fellow student leaders Nathan Law and Alex Chow, and his speeches and calls for civil disobedience electrified the crowds but the movement failed to win any concessions from China or Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leaders.

He captured the attention of the world in his casting as David against the Goliath of the Chinese Communist Party, and was hailed as one of the world's most influential figures by Time, Fortune and Foreign Policy magazines.

He even became the subject of the Netflix documentary "Teenager vs Superpower", released in 2017.

Born to middle-class Christian parents Grace and Roger Wong, he began his life of activism aged just 13 with a protest against plans for a high-speed rail link between Hong Kong and the mainland.

At the age of just 15, Wong campaigned successfully for Hong Kong to drop a pro-China "National Education" programme, rallying a crowd of 120,000 to blockade the city's parliament for 10 days.

In many ways, he pioneered a method of demonstration that has since been embraced by Hong Kong's current protest movement -- seizing streets in non-violent civil disobedience -- after years of peaceful rallies failed to achieve much.

But he has paid for his activism: prosecutors came after him and many of the Umbrella Movement's leaders.

- 'The city I love' -

In May, he was sentenced to two months in prison on a contempt charge after pleading guilty to obstructing the clearance of a major protest camp in 2014.

He was also convicted in a second case related to the storming of a government forecourt during the 2014 protests.

He spent some time behind bars for that case, but in the end the city's top court ruled that community service was sufficient punishment.

He went on to found the political party Demosisto, which campaigns for more self-determination for Hong Kong but not independence -- a clear red line for Beijing.

Wong's demands have been both consistent and fairly simple: that Hong Kongers should get to decide their city's fate, not Communist Party officials in Beijing.

Since the end of the Umbrella Movement, he has been denied entry into Malaysia and Thailand, attacked in the street, and abused by pro-China protesters in Taiwan. But he has said he will fight on.

In an article written for Time from prison in June, he wrote: "My lack of freedom today is a price I knew I would have to pay for the city I love."

He stepped back into the fray shortly after when authorities released him just one month into his prison term, immediately calling for Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam to step down over her role pushing for the controversial extradition proposal that sparked the current wave of protests.

Authorities did not confirm whether the decision was procedural or a gesture to protestors.

After the bill was eventually scrapped in early September, Wong vowed to fight on, deeming its withdrawal "Too little, too late".

"Our determination and courage to fight for freedom will still continue," he said. "Hong Kongers deserve universal suffrage. We deserve to elect our own government."

'Glory to Hong Kong': The new anthem embraced by protesters
Hong Kong (AFP) Sept 12, 2019 - A defiant protest anthem penned by an anonymous composer has become the unofficial new soundtrack to Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests, belted out by crowds at flashmobs in malls, on the streets and in the football stands.

"Glory to Hong Kong" first appeared on YouTube on 31 August and has quickly won a huge following among those pushing for greater democratic freedoms in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

In less than a fortnight the original version has racked up more than 1.3 million views while multiple copycats videos have been made -- including one featuring an entire orchestra decked out in the helmets, goggles and gas masks worn by those on the barricades.

Each night this week protesters have gathered at different malls across the city for impromptu flashmob concerts.

At a mall in the town of Sha Tin on Wednesday night hundreds of activists gathered to sing, many of them reading from scraps of paper with the lyrics on them.

"For all our tears on our land/Do you feel the rage in our cries," the latest song begins. "Rise up and speak up, our voice echoes/Freedom shall shine upon us".

Alongside the Christian hymn "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord", "Glory to Hong Kong" is a riposte to the city's unelected leaders and Beijing after more than three months of huge and sometimes violent protests.

Little is known about the composer, who gave himself the online pseudonym "Thomas dgx yhl".

But the song's lyrics and melody have quickly spread within the movement.

During a football match on Tuesday night between Hong Kong and Iran, crowds of local fans booed the Chinese national anthem, and then sung the new protest song as the match began.

Insulting China's flag and anthem is banned on the mainland and Hong Kong's local government are currently trying to pass a similar law.

Critics say that move is another blow to the free speech guarantees Hong Kong is supposed to maintain under the handover deal China agreed with Britain.

- 'An anthem that belongs' -

Christopher Chung, 22, said he planned to sing the new protest song over China's communist anthem "March of the Volunteers".

"I think the respect people pay when singing a national anthem should come out from one's heart, instead of using law and rules to force people to respect it," he told AFP.

"We really dislike the Chinese national anthem," added Billy, 16, who declined to give his surname. "That's why we want to sing an anthem that belongs to Hong Kong."

Hong Kong's summer of rage was sparked by a widely reviled plan to allow extraditions to the mainland.

But after local leaders and Beijing took a hardline it snowballed into a wider movement pushing for democracy and police accountability.

Huge crowds have marched repeatedly throughout the last 15 weeks of protests -- and many confrontations with police have turned violent.

Music has long been central to Hong Kong's pro-democracy protest movement.

A host of protest songs have been sung for years at the 4 June vigils commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown.

During 2014's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement protests, the three most popular protest songs were "Do you hear the people sing", from the musical "Les Miserables", "Raise the Umbrellas" -- a track written for the movement by a group of Cantonese pop-stars -- and "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies", a famous ballad by Hong Kong rock band "Beyond" from the early 1990s.

Antony Dapiran, a Hong Kong-based lawyer who has written a book on the city's protest movements, said songs sung in 2014 were characterised by optimism that things might change.

But in the five years since -- with no concessions from Beijing and protesters embracing more confrontational tactics -- the music has darkened to match the mood on the streets.

"The soundtrack of the movement is much more sombre," he told AFP. "The funereal "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord", the "death rattle" of protesters beating their shields and road signs, and now this solemn, defiant anthem."

Related Links
Democracy in the 21st century at TerraDaily.com

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China fury as HK's Joshua Wong meets German foreign minister
Berlin (AFP) Sept 10, 2019
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong has met Germany's foreign minister as he carries abroad his call to support the growing pro-democracy movement in the former British colony, a meeting slammed on Tuesday by China as "disrespectful". Posting a photo of himself and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on his Twitter account, the 22-year-old said they spoke on the "protest situation and our cause to free election and democracy in HK". Beijing reacted angrily to their meeting during an event organised by Bild d ... read more