Christina Chan (陳巧文) is a star, of sorts.

Educated mostly in the UK and now a philosophy grad student at the University of Hong Kong, Chan is a part-time model (“but she’ll have to keep her normal job”) and an activist known for her stand on freedom in Tibet and, most recently, the democracy march on January 1st, 2010.

The 22-year old Chan was arrested this past January 9th on suspicion of attacking police officers and shortly released afterward. Fellow activists questioned her arrest and wondered whether it was the result of pressure from Beijing, curtailing the civil liberties promised to Hong Kong when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

So she’s a feisty one.

So, the story goes, on the first day of the new decade, Chan actually tried to storm the Central Liason Office with some of the rowdier Hong Kong protesters, a decision which led to “minor scuffles.”

The Hong Kong media have dubbed Chan’s entourage as the Post-80′s Generation (八十後年代), which many have criticized to be nothing more than “hooligans,” even outdoing League of Social Democrats Che-shirt-wearing leader Long Hair, whom Chan argued stole her group’s thunder at the demonstration. At the same time, some say the rational debate has been stalling continually, and that the radicalism of the new generation is a welcome catalyst to Hong Kong’s stagnant politics.

If anything, this new extreme element will offer a symbolic sort of resistance. Having been part of the July march two years ago and the June 4th protest this past summer, I’ve seen the grassroots democratic sentiment firsthand to be widespread, passionate, and mostly nonviolent. Conversely, conservatives’ calls for “stability” eerily echo the justification for events like Tiananmen. This need to be resisted at all costs. Chan herself successfully campaigned to impeach President Ayo Chan of the HKU Student’s Union, following his pro-Beijing comments on the June 4th Massacre.

The scuffles also involved the police — a force that, as of late, has not impressed me with its failures in investigating the serial acid attacks and now this. Observe the ridiculous extent to which they’re manhandling Chan in this picture:

Complete groppage.

Looks like this police manhandling exists both in the real world and in the imagination. According to The Darkside HK, a police discussion forum online recently began a thread called “Sexy kitten Christina Chan arrested!”, in which former senior anti-triad inspector Lee Chifai (李志輝), also one of the forum administrators, commented:

“If I were the interrogator, she would be in trouble: she’d possibly get a ‘BB’…”

Lee’s gone all Infernal Affairs. His expressed longing to impregnate suggests he’s spent too much time in the triad underworld. I’m as much a fan of gangster movies as the next guy, but maybe instead of fantasizing about police/cute-criminal situations (that’s my job), he should be protecting the city from ACID ATTACKS over CROWDED AREAS from RANDOM WINDOWS OVERHEAD, injuring up to THIRTY AT A TIME.

But no, I overreact. I’m sure that overall, the police force is made up of good men and women. And then sprinkled on top you have douchebags like Lee and other ol’ police pervs who can’t get laid in real life.

Our whole Hong Kong society’s frustrated, just about different things. Sure, I can be as sexually frustrated as the next fool, but I say we focus on the big picture. Like, I don’t know, universal suffrage, democracy, and the freedom of expression sound pretty good to me. Chan’s got the right idea. It just turns out that it doesn’t help to be attractive.

And sorry guys (and some girls), she’s taken — currently dating Australian musician Nick Brazel, pictured above in the army cap.

Extra Credit Reading:
More images
Hong Kong politics
Frank Ching’s analysis of the Hong Kong-Beijing situation

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