The Dissolution of Hong Kong Language Studies: National Security Police Raided Chairman’s Residence and Removed ‘Illegal’ Articles

2023-08-28 02:42:21

Defending the Cantonese language organization “Hong Kong Language Studies” disbanded, the chairman said that the national security police broke into the old residence, claimed that the article was illegal and asked to be removed from the shelves

[Yahoo News Report]Chen Lexing, chairman of the organization “Hong Kong Studies” defending Cantonese, published this morning (28th) on the organization’s Facebook page“Announcement”, referring to the National Security Department of the police who sent personnel to his former residence last Tuesday (22nd) and asked to meet him; A novel article in the “Central and Western District Cantonese Essay Contest” three years ago was taken off the shelf. Chen Lexing said that considering the situation of his family in Hong Kong, he had immediately deleted the novel article; he also said, “In order not to affect his family and former members in Hong Kong, I had to stop the operation of Hong Kong Linguistics”, and initiated the dissolution according to legal advice program.

Yahoo News has reached out to the Police Public Relations Department and is awaiting a response.

“Yahoo News” search records,“Hong Kong Language Cantonese Essay Competition” Facebook Page, on November 30, 2020, the list of outstanding works of the “Central and Western District Stories Cantonese Essay Competition Project” was announced. At that time, 7 articles were listed as outstanding works. The post also mentioned that the excellent works would be uploaded to the “Hong Kong Studies” website . “Yahoo News” searched 7 articles on the Hong Kong Linguistics website today, and found that 6 articles might still display the search results, and only 1 article, “Our Times” written by “Xiao Jia”, might not be searched.

The 2020 “Central and Western District Stories Cantonese Essay Competition” list of outstanding works. (Picture: FB page of Hong Kong Language Cantonese Essay Contest)

Chen Lexing said in his statement that he called the National Security Department of the police followingwards to inquire, and the other party replied that in addition to visiting his former residence, he also searched the cake shop he operated years ago, and mentioned the situation of his family and former members of the Hong Kong Language School. And once once more asked him to immediately remove the relevant article. The staff of the National Security Department also pointed out that the relevant action was taken because the Civil Affairs Office of the Central and Western District had repeatedly contacted and failed. After consulting the Department of Justice, they believed that the above-mentioned novel article violated the National Security Law. However, Chen Lexing said that following checking his email records with the Central and Western District Civil Affairs Office, he inquired with the Civil Affairs Office regarding the refund of the money on December 21, 2021, but he did not receive any reply, nor did he receive any request from the Civil Affairs Office to delete the article.

Chen Lexing pointed out that since 2020, Hong Kong Linguistics has organized community activities such as Cantonese essay competitions and distribution of epidemic prevention materials through the “Community Participation Funding Scheme” of the District Council. The advance payment has not been repaid by the prescription.”

Chen Lexing said that starting from 2020, the community activities and organization of Hong Kong Studies will be decided by him at his own discretion; and in order to reduce costs, the current social platform and website operations are only managed and operated by him alone. “It has nothing to do with my family, any named members, or people in Hong Kong.” Chen also said that he wrote an article on the Hong Kong Linguistics website earlier, pointing out that some markrs sold the secondary school diploma examination papers on “Xiaohongshu” Confidential, and later a suspect was arrested. The police invited him to return to Hong Kong to testify in court, but “considering the risk of my personal safety returning to Hong Kong, I cannot cooperate.”

The Civil Affairs Office once said that the competition works “affect social harmony”

Check the statement of Hong Kong Linguistics on December 23, 2020. At that time, Hong Kong Linguistics stated that it received a letter from the Central and Western District Civil Affairs Office on December 22, asking Hong Kong Linguistics to obtain the Entries for the “Central and Western District Stories Cantonese Essay Competition” can only be printed or published with the written consent of the Office. Hong Kong Linguistics pointed out at the time that although the Civil Affairs Office provided a list of 11 articles involved in the incident, it did not explain how they “affected social harmony”; Hong Kong Linguistics mentioned that the articles involved mentioned immigrants leaving Hong Kong issues, but think that it is normal for residents to express negative emotions through articles and should not be labeled as “affecting social harmony”.

Figure: Hong Kong Linguistics FB

Chen Lexing. (Picture: Hong Kong Linguistics website)

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