Joshua Wong 黃之鋒  😷Verified account

It began ordinary enough, as any commencement ceremony at the beginning of a new academic year would: students stood in attention, as principal, form masters, and teachers ascend to the stage of the school hall.

Then everything changed come the time of singing the Chinese National Anthem. For instead of hearing the Maoist lyrics designed to fan patriotic fervor, all one could here now were the students’ voice of defiance, expressing their yearning for freedom by singing in unison:

“Do you hear the people sing？Singing a song of angry men. It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again！ When the beating of your heart, echoes the beating of the drums. There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes！”

Students sang the lyrics twice, just enough to cover the whole of the Chinese National Anthem playing time, then stopped just abruptly as it began. Then the ordinary routine appeared to take hold again, with singing of school song, the Principal’s report and speech, and so on.

After a full 8 minutes of an apparent “business as usual”, there came the moment when it finally dawned on everyone: Hong Kong will never be the same again.

It was the same calm, steady voice of the senior student who doubled as the master of ceremony for the occasion. But instead of just announcing the end of ceremony, she spoke as the voice on behalf of her generation: