[@1843mag Interview: Gaming with Joshua Wong]
"Oh, shit.” Joshua Wong, Hong Kong’s best-known democracy campaigner, is reeling. Tossed into the amber sky, he spins uncontrollably before landing, arms splayed, in a downtown car park......https://www.1843magazine.com/upfront/the-1843-interview/gaming-with-joshua-wong …
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1/ Regathering his strength, he hurls his katana sword at his assailant......For the past ten years Wong has been confronting Beijing as it tightens control over HK. Today he is locked in a different kind of struggle – a fight between the giant robots of “
@GundamVersus”.pic.twitter.com/Creb4inHM4
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2/ Gundam’s appeal is about more than the drama of battle. Wong appreciates the “more boring” storylines about interplanetary diplomacy. His current favourite iteration of Gundam “
#IronBloodedOrphans” begins on Mars, where a 300-year-old colony is seeking independence from Earth.pic.twitter.com/zNTihBRIWB
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3/ The corrupt adult leaders force children to fight. The youngsters are “soldiers born out of the Earth sphere’s oppressive rule,” explains the fictional leader of the Mars independence movement: “They embody the problems burdening each one of us.”pic.twitter.com/aKwcGIAVPu
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4/ For someone who appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of 17, Wong seems remarkably grounded. As he speaks he underlines his points with a gentle wave of the PS controller, the gestures of a pedagogue not a demagogue.pic.twitter.com/nmBQ6b9Yp2
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5/ Wong mentions visiting several protesters on remand who attacked police. After taking a swing at an enemy robot, Wong pauses the on-screen carnage to discuss the off-screen violence. He himself would never resort to such lengths.pic.twitter.com/UOIbrTp4Fs
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6/ “Of course, I can’t,” he says. But he won’t publicly denounce such acts either. “I understand the root cause,” he says. “It’s the desperation of the millennials who are even younger than me.”pic.twitter.com/eD7HLpAnU8
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7/
@demosisto may not be able to field any candidates because the government sees its call as an unconstitutional step The timing of the election in Sep is awkward anyway, jokes Wong, since campaigning will clash with the release of a new Gundam game.pic.twitter.com/Wl8FsiJaBP
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8/ Wong knows that his battles will persist – and that victory poses dangers too. He uses “Iron-Blooded Orphans” as an example to warn activist friends of the challenges they’ll face even if their cause eventually prevails.pic.twitter.com/pCBhi41Wf0
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9/ The youngsters on Mars win many battles but when they achieve power they struggle with how to administer their affairs: “There’s a lot of internal conflict.” Movement will face similar dilemmas if it ever achieves its aims.pic.twitter.com/5pMsOli6JJ
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10/ “A lot of people imagine that democratic reform...means ‘win back the system’ and that’s all.” But there is no guarantee HK would escape the tensions the Martians faced. Paradoxically, it’s in these notes of caution that belief in the movement comes through most clearly.pic.twitter.com/Wdz4Bx5Ly9
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11/ Full democracy seems a remote prospect. Only an implacable optimist – & a young one at that – could worry about what might follow. It takes a special faith to fret about the milk curdling in promised land. When you get knocked down in one game, you just have to start another.pic.twitter.com/BMfqU5c14c
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