A coffee shop dialogue on Hong Kong's history of freedom.

Date: 2019/07/08
Translator: Ying-Jen Lin

Ms. T said, "Something dawned on me when I read a post by Hsiaoying (小英: President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)'s nickname commonly used by Taiwanese) the other day.”

Ms. Q asked, "What was it?"

“That I didn’t realize Hong Kong used to be freer than Taiwan historically."

Q was confounded for a moment. “Well…yeah, you’re talking about the White Terror in Taiwan's history, aren’t you? You’re right. I never thought about that…”

"No matter how dark Hong Kong was, it still had freedom and food at least."

“Hsiaoying mentioned on her Facebook that when she was young, she would often use her stopovers in Hong Kong to check out books that she would not necessarily find in Taiwan," Miss T said. "During those times, in terms of the Chinese-speaking regions, Taiwan had yet to have complete freedom of the press and freedom of speech. And China had never enjoyed those freedoms, so Hong Kong was where Hsiaoying and many other people bought books."
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