Intro
While I lived in Hong Kong, the writing world and the Twittersphere knew me as Kong Tsung-gan (江松澗). Now in exile, I go by Brian Kern. I’ve written three books on the Hong Kong freedom struggle: Umbrella: A Political Tale from Hong Kong about the Umbrella Movement; As long as there is resistance, there is hope about the period from 2014 to 2018; and Liberate Hong Kong: Stories from the freedom struggle about the 2019 protests. In Hong Kong, I worked for many different pro-democracy organizations, all of which have been forced to shut down since the imposition of the draconian “national security law” in mid-2020. In exile, I work with Hong Kong diaspora organizations committed to the goals of freedom, democracy and self-determination. All along, I have monitored political arrests and imprisonments in Hong Kong. I was lead researcher on Hong Kong Democracy Council’s 2022 political prisoners report, which marked the “grim milestone” of 1,000 political prisoners. Since then, the number’s climbed to 1,487 as of May 23, 2023. (If you want to keep track, follow HKDC’s regularly updated counter.) I also monitor various other issues including closures of independent civil society organizations due to state repression, film censorship, book censorship, international corporate bad actors in Hong Kong, and the growth of the Hong Kong diaspora as hundreds of thousands flee. When I get around to it, I plan to import my writings from Medium, but in the meantime, you can still find them there under Kong Tsung-gan. These include resources that may be of general utility such as extensive documentation of the 2019-2020 protests, including a timeline.