UnCensored: Hong Kong stories of courage

Imagine living in a place where a word could cost you your freedom. A painting, your safety. A meeting, your future. This is the reality for all Hong Kongers, no matter where they’re based in the world.

Under the weight of the National Security Law and Article 23, expression has become a liability, and silence, a survival strategy. These repressive laws written in vague terms are enforced with brutal precision.

Yet even in the quiet, stories find a way to surface. This collection gathers the voices of Hong Kong creatives who have been censored, suppressed, or silenced - but not erased. In their chosen mediums, they resist forgetting, illuminating truths that repression seeks to erase. What you’ll find here are not just testimonies - they are acts of resistance.

Hong Kong's voice endures.

Vawongsir is a Hong Kong-born artist and former visual arts teacher, best known for his political comics.

During the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, he was famous for capturing the protest scenes and collective emotions of Hongkongers with his artwork. But his passion for art and social affairs was what the Education Bureau would suppress, by accusing him of “professional misconduct” and putting pressure on the schools that employed him. Under mounting pressure and the increasing legal risk of the National Security Law, he resigned from his teaching position and went into self-exile in Taiwan.

His work has since been featured internationally, including in Green Bean Media (UK) and Flow HK (Taiwan), with exhibitions held in Hong Kong, Dublin, London, Sweden and Taiwan. In 2023, he was awarded first prize at the Hualien Art Exhibition in Taiwan for his piece Chopsticks+.

Justin Wong, a prominent political cartoonist and former Assistant Professor of Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, has worked in the field for over ten years. Since 2006, he published a daily political cartoon column in the local newspaper Ming Pao, with his illustrations also featured regularly in the paper’s Sunday supplement.

After the enactment of the National Security Law, Wong’s political artwork satirising the police and officials has been challenged by Hong Kong authorities and their mouthpieces.

In December 2021, one year after the enactment of the National Security Law, Wong left Hong Kong for the UK. His departure followed a suspicious internal complaint made to university management concerning one of his Ming Pao articles, prompting him to leave in haste.

Chuen (pseudonym) was on the frontline reporting on the citywide protests against the extradition law amendment bill in 2019 and 2020. With his pen and his camera, he documented how the police used force against the protesters and besieged a university.

However, as the protests escalated and the National Security Law was enacted in June 2020, Chuen faced severe censorship and institutional pressure within his media organisation. Disheartened by the shrinking press freedom in Hong Kong and increasingly worried about the unpredictable legal risks, he finally quit journalism, giving up what he once dreamed to be his lifelong profession.

His story illustrates how the chilling effects of political “red lines” impact press freedom and the public's right to know.

Clara is an active member of the non-profit art group Project226, and the founder of C&G Artpartment. From 2007 to 2021, she curated and co-curated more than 80 art exhibitions at C&G Artpartment, which situated in a “tong-lau” building apartment in Hong Kong. These exhibitions often critically responded to local social and cultural issues, including problems in the local art ecology.

She was a member of Wan Chai District Council from Jan 2020 to July 2021, attempting to contribute to the local political scene in Hong Kong with her creative problem-solving skills. She is currently based in the UK, as one of the Hongkongers in exile who persist fighting for the liberation of Hong Kong.

Besides continuing her artistic and curatorial practise, she is also a PhD candidate in the History of Art department at University of York.

Since 2023, the Hong Kong government has put £100,000 bounties over the heads of 19 overseas activists. In 2024 a manager of the Hong Kong’s trade office in London and a former UK Border Officer were charged with unlawfully spying on Hong Kong activists.

These incidents show that the crackdown against Hong Kongers inside the UK is very real and puts their human rights at risk.

The UK is home to the largest Hong Kong diaspora community, and an important base of their activism. It's time to come together to demand the UK government act now to protect Hong Kongers in the UK.

Join the movement to protect freedom of expression of Hong Kongers and activists in the UK from repression.