Lennon Wall Hong Kong

Lennon Wall in Hong Kong: A symbol of freedom inspired by Prague

Hong Kong's first Lennon Wall was built right in the geographical heart of the student protests around the Admiralty subway station. Initially, it was a spontaneous action by six activists in response to the police tear gas crackdown on protesters on 28 September 2014. They posted the question "Why are we here?" on a wall near the Government Office. and a paper envelope with pencils and sticky notes. This allowed the protesters to stick notebook papers on the wall to share their visions. It wasn't until a few days later that a larger flyer appeared on the wall with the words "Lennon's Wall." This anonymous reference to Prague's Lennon Wall as a symbol of the struggle for democracy supported the demands of the so-called umbrella movement for voting rights at a time of increasing restrictions from the People's Republic of China.

It was not local activists who came up with the Lennon Wall label, but a representative of the Freedom Foundation - Czech Veronika Rozmahelová, who was in Hong Kong at the time. She stated that the goal was to build a copy of Lennon's wall where people could express their desire for freedom in an artistic form, she wanted to give the protesters some hope. The idea of creating a Lennon Wall in Hong Kong was also prompted by the ongoing celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. The Lennon Wall was presented around the world as a symbol of successful resistance against the communist regime.

The Hong Kong Lennon Wall, whose name quickly caught on, initially consisted of multi-coloured papers with messages stuck side by side. Gradually, however, the wall transformed and the artistic expressions took on different forms, just like its Prague counterpart.

More Lennon Walls began appearing in Hong Kong in the wake of protests against a bill allowing the extradition of Hong Kong citizens to be punished in mainland China in June 2019.Over the course of two months, more than 100 Lennon Walls were erected across the city, where people left messages that included not only slogans or statements, but also information about police crackdowns and the like. Especially during July, many of the walls saw violent confrontations with pro-Chinese activists and police interventions against people who posted messages on the walls or tried to resist.

The Digital and Global Impact of Hong Kong’s Lennon Wall

Since the beginning of the Lennon Wall in Hong Kong, the link between the physical wall and its digital form has played an important role. Social networks and the art project Stand by You have functioned as an extension of the wall as its archive, a promotional tool for its further dissemination.

The struggle over the Lennon Wall in Hong Kong retrospectively influenced the design of the Prague Wall, which originally inspired them. In 2019, signs supporting the protesters in Hong Kong began to reappear on the Maltese Garden wall, but they were also painted there by pro-Chinese activists.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons - Pasu Au Yeung
Source: BLAŽEK, Petr; LAUBE, Roman; POSPÍŠIL, Filip. Lennonova zeď v Praze: Studie, rozhovory, dokumenty. Praha: Muzeum paměti XX. století, 2020. 536 s. ISBN 978-80-907989-0-8.